What’s in a name?
One of the things I like about this time of years is all the lists that come out about the year just ending. We’ve just had the information from National Statistics on the most popular baby names for 2007.
This has enabled me to up-date my very comprehensive web site essay on naming practices around the world which you can read here. The bit on new names in England & Wales is here.
What do the latest lists tell us?
First of all, 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 (first for the 13th year running), Harry instead of Harold, Charlie instead of Charles.
In the case of boys, three of the top nine names begin with the letter ‘J’. In the case of girls, five of the top ten names end with the sound ‘ee’ and 11 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 babies born in 2004 and has stayed out. Incidentally, a reflection of the changing ethnicity of the English population is that the 17th most popular name is Mohammed and the 38th is Muhammad.