What are the most popular first names in Britain?
Of course, names change in popularity. According to the data compiled annually by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the most popular names for children born in England & Wales during 2010 were as follows:
| Position | Boys | Girls |
| 1 | Oliver | Olivia |
| 2 | Jack | Sophie |
| 3 | Harry | Emily |
| 4 | Alfie | Lily |
| 5 | Charlie | Amelia |
| 6 | Thomas | Jessica |
| 7 | William | Ruby |
| 8 | Joshua | Chloe |
| 9 | George | Grace |
| 10 | James | Evie |
| 11 | Daniel | Ava |
| 12 | Jacob | Isabella |
| 13 | Ethan | Mia |
| 14 | Samuel | Maisie |
| 15 | Joseph | Daisy |
| 16 | Dylan | Poppy |
| 17 | Mohammed | Isabelle |
| 18 | Noah | Ella |
| 19 | Lucas | Holly |
| 20 | Oscar | Charlotte |
There are some patterns here.
First of all, astonishingly the top boys’ name and the top girls’ name are essentially the same – what is technically known as cognates – and this has been so for the last two years. Is this the case in any other nation?
Second, it is striking how traditional most of the names are for both boys and girls, although for the boys it is interesting that the familiar form of names rather than the original version is often preferred – Jack instead of John, Harry instead of Harold, Alfie instead of Alfred, Charlie instead of Charles.
Third, in the case of boys, five of the top 20 names begin with the letter ‘J’ while, in the case of girls, six of the top ten names end with the sound ‘ee’ and nine of the top 20 names contain one or more of the letter ‘l’.
On the other hand, the name David – which is the second most common name in Britain – slipped out of the top 50 of names chosen for baby boys born in 2004 and has stayed out (it is currently 64th). Similarly Margaret – the most common female name in the population as a whole – does not even appear in the top 100 names chosen for girls these days.
These observations underline how much fashion shapes the popularity of different names.
It should be noted that the Office of National Statistics (ONS) produces its ranking of the popularity of names using the exact spelling of the name given at birth registration.
If one combines the numbers for names with very similar spellings, a different picture is revealed. For boys, combining the occurrence of Mohammed, Muhammad and Mohammad would put the name in fourth place – a reflection of the changing ethnicity of the British population. Similarly, if one combines the occurrence of Isabella, Isabelle, Isabel and Isobel, one would find the name top by far of the girls’ list.
For more information on British names, click here and, for my study of naming practices around the world, go here.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:47 am
Ruby was the most popular name in Wales but was only 7th in England.
Seren was the 5th most popular name in Wales but ranked only 228th in England!
August 25th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
The ONS give a regional breakdown for England as well. Clearly there are geographical variations but, within England, class is probably a stronger determinant of the popularity of many names.
May 22nd, 2013 at 9:09 am
I am interested as to where the name leonard comes in the all time list of popular first names?
May 22nd, 2013 at 12:35 pm
Hi, Len.
I’m not sure what you mean by the all-time list but you can see the US data for the past century or so here:
http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/boy/leonard
Roger