National Records of Scotland released the annual provisional names list (pdf) on 19 December
Jack remained the most popular first forename for baby boys, for a tenth consecutive year, the first forename for 1.8 per cent of the boys. Oliver rose from third to second place, James was down from second to third, and Lewis remained in fourth place.
The rest of the boys’ Top Ten were Noah and Logan (who remained fifth and sixth, respectively), Harris (up six places to seventh), Alexander and Leo (who remained eighth and ninth, respectively), and Harry (down three places to tenth). Harris was the only entrant to the boys’ Top Ten; Charlie (down four places to fourteenth) dropped out of it.
The fastest climbers within the boys’ Top Twenty were Harris, Alfie (up four places to eleventh) and Aaron (up four places to fifteenth). There were three entrants to the boys’ Top Twenty: Thomas (up six places to joint seventeenth), Archie (up two places to nineteenth), and Rory (up five places to twentieth).
Olivia was the top girls’ name for a second year, the first forename of 2.0 per cent of the girls. Emily remained second, Isla rose one place to third, and Sophie fell from third to fourth.
The rest of the girls’ Top Ten were Jessica (up two places to fifth), Amelia (remained sixth), Ava (down two places to seventh), Ella (remained eighth), Charlotte (up one place to ninth) and Aria (up two places to tenth). Aria was the only entrant to the girls’ Top Ten; Lucy (down two places to joint eleventh) dropped out of it.
No name climbed more than two places within the girls’ Top Twenty. There were two entrants to the girls’ Top Twenty: Harper (up twelve places to eighteenth) and Hannah (up five places to nineteenth).
Other big climbers within the 2017 baby name Top Fifty charts included (for boys) Theo (up 18 places to joint 27th), Muhammad (up 11 places to 36th) and Jude (up 12 places to 37th), and (for girls) Poppy (up 13 places to 30th). Particularly fast rising entrants to the Top Fifties were (for boys) Freddie (up 26 places to 46th), and (for girls) Sienna (up 36 places to joint 32nd), Willow (up 17 places to 45th) and Mila (up 20 places to joint 50th).
National Records of Scotland registered the births of 25,384 boys and 23,935 girls in the period covered by these figures. In total, 3,314 different boys’ first forenames and 4,221 different girls’ first forenames were registered; 2,063 boys and 2,767 girls were given names that were unique (within the period). The numbers of different names, and of unique names, were well above the levels of 10, 20 and 40 years ago. For example, the number of boys with unique first forenames was greater this year (2,063 in the period covered by these figures) than in the whole of 2007 (1,797), 1997 (1,126) or 1977 (761).
The top 50 boys’ names accounted for 39 per cent of all boys’ first forenames registered, and the top 50 girls' names accounted for 38 per cent of the girls' registrations.
This list surprised me. At the risk of being called racist, let me say that I am very aware of the very rich mix of ethnic varieties in say, London. I recall spending 5 weeks in a flat in Bayswater in 2010, and not hearing English spoken by passers by until I arrived at the Queensway Tube Station most mornings, a block and a half away from my flat.
ReplyDeleteSo I had a sniff around, and was not surprised to locate quite easily a list of top UK baby names and saw that the top boys name in the UK was Muhammad. See here if this works:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5028630/baby-names-most-popular-top-100/
The ethnic mix in Scotland is rather different from that in Bayswater.
ReplyDeleteThe Sun sourced its list from https://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby-names-2017 which unfortunately lacks information on how the list was obtained.
Previous official lists I've seen have shown Muhammad and variants together ranking highly.