Top Names in Scotland: Jack and Sophie rule on

Top Names in Scotland: Jack and Sophie rule on

The Scottish Registry General’s Office has released the country’s most popular names for 2009, showing very little change at the top.  Jack and Sophie remained in first place, and the girls’ list wasn’t so dissimilar to ours, with Olivia, Ava, Emily, Chloe and Emma all in the top ten, along with Lucy, Katie, Amy and Erin.  For the boys, there were long-term Scottish favorites heading the list: Lewis, James, Liam, Logan, Ryan, Cameron and Callum (which would have been higher if merged with the Calum spelling) coming up behind Jack, plus the biblical Daniel and Aaron.

It gets more interesting as you look at some of the names that are rising choices for Scots parents.  One of the biggest leaps was taken by Miley (tailed by Mylea, Mylee, Mylie and Myley), which jumped 190 places, showing Hannah Montana‘s tremendous international clout.  The biggest climber for the boys was Owen, which is also moving up in the US.

Some of the other noteworthy names on the rise in Scotland–showing a persistent preference for nickname names:

EVIE

GRACIE

LAYLA

LUCIE

MAISIE

MAYA/MYA

MILLIE

POPPY

ROSIE

ALFIE

ARCHIE

FINLAY

HAMISH

HARRIS

HARRY

HARVEY

KENZIE

LEO

LUCAS (thought to be influenced by the lead character in the BBC drama Spooks)

RORY

ROSS

It’s when we look further down the list that we come upon some choices less known or used in this country.  These include:

GIRLS

AYLA

BROGAN

CAOIMHE (KWEE-va or KEE-va)

CARYS, CERYS, KARIS

ELLIS

IONA

MAJA

MIRREN

MORVEN

MURRAN

ORLA

TILLY

ZUZANNA

BOYS

AARAN

CAIRN

EOGHAN (OHN or as Owen)

FILIP

GREGOR

HAMISH

IAIN

INNES

JAI

KEIR

KERR

LEIGHTON

NAIRN

STRUAN

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.