This was originally posted on August 17, 2012
In the past week the Office of National Statistics (ONS) have released the stats for most popular baby names in 2011. This yearly update provides us with a great insight into the world of baby names and how name popularity changes from year to year. Obviously there are the old favourites that remain in the top 100 every year; we’ll look at them, plus the surprises movers and shakers for boys and girls!
For the boys, Harry has surged to the top of the table, displacing Oliver as the top baby name. Undoubtedly this is to do with the rising popularity of One Direction and their lead singer Harry Styles. The only new name that made its way into the top 10 for boys was Jacob – we can all draw our own conclusions as to why, but we know how popular theTwilight films and books are, and we think this may just have played a part! Looking through the rest of the top 100 we can see a few surprises, Sebastian has really taken off (now in 47th position) but one of the biggest moves was Tommy (up to 65th from 156th). We weren’t sure why Tommy rose so sharply, perhaps you could tell us? Other notable movers were Jenson and Jackson , now in 67th and 99th respectively.
The girls also had some big movers. As with the boys the number one name has changed, and this time it was Amelia rising from 5th to 1st and displacing Olivia at the top of the table. Many people have argued that this was due to the success of Amelia Lily in last years “X Factor,” but we think it’s a great name nonetheless! Chloe and Evie both dropped out of the top 10, to be replaced by Isabella and Ava. Through the rest of the top 100, Sofia has seen a huge rise in popularity (moving from 62nd to 47th). Some of the biggest movers in the girls list are Eliza (rising from 93rd to 61st), Bella, again due to the popularity of the Twilight films that has risen from 104th to 69th. Finally Lydia broke into the top 100 after recently falling out of the top 100, but there is no doubt that this name has risen in popularity due to TV reality show “The Only Way is Essex.”
There have been some huge changes in the last year, and we love some of the names that have broken in to the top 100 for both boys and girls. We can’t wait to find out the statistics for this year, and we’re betting that the Olympics are going to play a huge part in naming trends! What are your favourite names from 2011?
