Scottish Baby Names: What’s ‘in’ in Inverness?

Scottish Baby Names: What’s ‘in’ in Inverness?

Looking through the birth announcements in the Scottish newspapers of the last few months-a site which also sometimes include the regions just below the Scottish border and the Isle of Man–a couple of prominent trends jump out.

First of all it’s the nickname names, which right now seem to be even more prevalent in Scotland than in England, for both girls and boys, with a plethora of Ellies and Evies, Alfies and Archies.  Here is a list of  recent ones, with some of the middle names attached to them (separated by slashes):

girls

CHARLEE

CHARLI

ELLIE May

EMMIE

EVIE May/Rose/Elizabeth/Harriet

(Alexa) GEORGIE

GRACIE May

IZZY Henderson

JOSIE Mo

LIBBY May

LOTTIE Aoife (pron. EE-fa)

MAISIE Claire/Dolly/Elizabeth/Immogen

MILLIE Elizabeth/Grace/Louise/Mae

MINNIE Rose

boys

ALFIE Christopher/Daniel/Jack/James/Peter/Steven/Anthony/Thomas/William/Zane

ARCHIE David/James/Peter/Keith Oliver/Thomas

BILLY Jacob

BOBBY Francis/Martin

CHARLIE Lee

FREDDI James

FREDDIE Albert

LENNY

LEWIE Tyler

OLLIE

RED James

REGGIE Elliott

RODDY

SONNY Robert

THEO Etomi

VINNIE Marc David

Another noticeable trend is a return to the MaryJane-style hypenated name:

ARCHIEJAY Robert

DANIELJAMES

ELLIEMAY

EVASIENNA

ISLAMIN

KARLAELISE

LILLYJAE

LILYMAE

MILEYLEIGH

SOPHIEANNE Rose

TAHLIAROSE

TIEGANROSE

For girls, many of the current international favorites are equally popular in Scotland: the various forms of Isabel, including the Scottish Isobel, Chloe, Scarlett, Sophie/Sophia, Olivia, Ruby, Grace, Lucy (often spelled Lucie) and Lily, Emma and Emily, plus a generous sprinkling of girls named Bethany, Mia, Freya, Amelia, Alice, Daisy, Poppy, Isla, Imogen, and Summer.  Also widespread is the Gaelic Niamh (pron. neev) and its Anglicized variations: Neive, Nieve, Neve.  Most used as middles: Mae/May, Louise, Rose, Grace.

Here are some of the more unusual (outside Scotland anyway) baby girl choices found:

AALIN Elizabeth

AALISH

ANGEL Lily

ANYA Ebony Elizabeth

AYDA Elizabeth

AZARIA Jane

CHARLOTTE Bluebell

DAISEY Rose Virtue

EILIDH (pron. AY-lee) Catherine/Nicola/Sharon

FRANCE Lacey Anne

KALISE

KARIS

KEAVY Lucy

MIRREN

OTTILIE (Tillie) Upton

RENNAE

ROMAE Serenity

TAO Brown

Turning to the boys, classics rule, most particularly Jack, George, Harry and Samuel, plus the trendier Ethan, Jacob, Caleb, Lucas.  Also big are Callum/Calum, Cameron, Conor/Connor, Ellis (epidemic), Harvey, Harley, Finlay/Finley, and Lewis.

And among the more distinctive:

ASTON Mark

ARRAN James

BODEN Richard

CAVAN Patrick

DANYL Benjamin/Sean

DEXTER Michael

FENIX

JALCOLM Jack

KOEN

HAMISH Stanley

ILLIAM (Iggy) Gorry

JENSON Ray

KAELAN

KAIN, KANE, KAYNE

KENZIE Richard

LENNON Arthur

MIAN Bobby

OSHIN

PHERIC Ross Thomas

ROCCO Simon

STANLEY John Alwyne

STRUAN Finlay Peter/Scott

About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.