New British Popularity List: Harry and Amelia still reign
Our top UK correspondent, Eleanor Nickerson, has the following lead story on today’s release of the new popularity data from the UK Office for National Statistics on her blog British Baby Names. Check there for a lot more fascinating statistics on top names by region and month and those most popular in England and in Wales, plus how the Top 100 have changed in rank since 2011. Here are the new Top 10:
Girls
Boys
Proving their staying-power, both Amelia and Harry have retained their grip of the #1 spot. Amelia was so popular, she even managed to knock Lily off the top spot in Wales. Jacob, on the other hand, proved the most popular Welsh choice.
Having been rising for years, Riley has made it to the Top 10 (not surprisingly), as well as Mia and Isla for girls.
New to the Top 100 are Hugo, Sonny, Seth and Theodore for boys, and Ivy, Darcey and Violet for girls. Tilly, Sara, Mollie, Elliott, Roryand Ellis are back in the Top 100 after a brief spell out of it.
These replaced Joel (101), Hayden (102), John (104), Ashton (111),Jackson (113), Ben (118) and Reece (122) for boys and Lexie (102), Lauren (103), Rebecca (108), Tia (116), Nicole (119) and Kayla (135) for girls, which have fallen out of the Top 100 since 2011.
Bobby, Frankie, Arthur, Jenson and Blake made the most gains the within the Top 100 for boys, while Elsie, Hollie, Maryam and Bella were the highest climbers for girls.
When asked for some comment on the Anglo-American divide, here’s what Elea had to say:
Overall, the Top 100 in England and Wales isn’t a world away from that of the US. They both have the stalwart classics such as Jacob, William, Joseph, Alexander, Isabella, Amelia, Charlotte, Lydia; the surnames-turned-first names Tyler, Mason, Madison, and the vintage revivals. But, where there are differences, they are often very polarized. Alfie, Archie, Finlay, Jenson, Ollie, Poppy, Freya, Maisie, Florence, Imogen, Rosie, Harriet, Niamh and Darcey didn’t make the US Top 1000, yet are all high rankers in England and Wales. On the flip-side Landon, Angel, Colton, Bryson, Easton, Avery, Aubrey, Riley (for girls), Genesis, Mackenzie (for girls), Gianna, Kennedy, Kimberly and Jocelyn all rank outside the top 800 over here.
But, with Cooper, Hunter, Parker, Hudson and Carter among the fastest risers of 2012, it looks like we Brits are looking across the Atlantic more for inspiration, slowly incorporating them amongst our beloved vintage florals, cheeky-chap diminutives and Celtic gems.
Eleanor Nickerson, better known to nameberry message board visitors as Elea, is a primary school teacher living in Coventry, England and author of the excellent, highly recommended blog British Baby Names