Trendy baby names

I’m fascinated by names so I’m always scouring the births column in the newspaper, and always interested in any news item about names given to babies, and trends in choice.

I know ‘trendy’ isn’t a much-used word any more, but I was looking at an article on trends in names for infants. The article was looking at the year before last, 2017 – I guess 2018 figures are still being analysed!

Most popular girls’ names:

Olivia
Amelia
Isla
Ava
Emily
Isabella
Mia
Poppy
Ella
Lily

Looking at these names and thinking back to when i was at school, in my infants class I had a little friend called Oliver, but apart from him, I can’t think of any other Olivers, or any of the other names on the list. Now a cousin has a son called Harry, and another cousin a grandson called Charlie, but none of those names feature in my immediate family.

With the girls names, none featured among anyone I was at school with, although there were a few Isobels in other classes, and I do have a cousin whose second name is Isobel.

Hunter and Aurora have joined the top 100 names for baby boys and girls in England and Wales, according to official statistics. Oliver and Olivia remain the most popular names, positions they have held since 2013 and 2016 respectively. New entries into the top 100 boys’ names in 2017 also included Ralph, while Aaron and Jasper fell out of the top 100. New entries for girls included Orla, Edith, Bonnie, Lyla and Hallie. These replaced Lexi, Zoe, Maddison, Sarah, Felicity and Lydia.

I wrote last year about the sad demise of the name Nigel, when in 2016, only one boy was named it; 2017 had eleven Nigels, maybe it’s slowly drifting back into fashion! In the article I was reading there was a way of looking at popular names in particular places… so places I’ve been associated with: