ONS 2022 PREDICTIONS THREAD

I think Olivia has had it's moment and will drop.

I think Elsie, Etta and Ava will continue to climb

I doubt it. Firstly, Muhammad is already the fifth most popular name and it’s unlikely that either the names above Muhammad would each decrease significantly enough for Muhammad to rank top, or Muhammad is led would have a significant uptick in use.

Also, if the ONS reverted to the pre-Covid release schedule then the list would have been published in August last year, far from this year’s general election. Even if they kept the Covid delay, that would have been October, where the stats would have been forgotten by election season.

I wonder if it's because the top boys name is now Mohammed and they are wondering when to release it because of the general election coming up.

Thanks for sharing @toastofthetown. It's all getting rather tedious, it will be so out of date by the time they release it.

On the ONS website again and it seems it will be April at the earliest, as the name data is now bundled in with the Birth Characteristics data. Also, reading the FOI requests about the 2022 name data concerns me a bit that the data this year won't as comprehensive as previous years.

The next publication of our Births Characteristics bulletin will include an additional table of names of babies born in 2022 in England and Wales. This is planned for publication in April 2024.

Hopefully I'm reading into this too much, but usually there's multiple tabs of data (top 100 for E&W, top hundred for England, top hundred for Wales, top 10 by region, top 10 by month, full dataset of names given more than three time, top name in each region, and top hundred by maternal age). I really don't want this condensed into one tab, and that if it is one tab, we get the data with every name given over three times not just the top hundred.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/birthcharacteristicsinenglandandwales2022

Can't believe the data has STILL not been released It's ridiculous.

I was just looking for this again and found the thread. Can't believe they've moved it further back, they told me December a couple of months ago when I emailed them but clearly that's not the case anymore.

Surely releasing that data so late on renders it semi useless? How disappointing.

It is ridiculous, how long can it take for a spreadsheet to crunch some name data?

My DH doesn't get it at all but I like to know the stats. My real name is ranked around 900 which feels like a comfy half way point between 'popular' and 'out there'.

Then again, that was in 2021 and it could have dropped out of the top 1000 or have shot up to the top 500 by now and I wouldn't know.

Funnily enough I came across this the other day too as it's one of the first things that comes up now when you Google when will the ONS 2022 baby names be released? I was too busy at the time to post about it on here and then totally forgot about it so thanks for updating the thread!

I kind of took it with a pinch of salt at first as it seems strange they would answer one specific FOI request with a date, yet stil not update the baby names page or release calendar. However, since it's nearly the end of 2023 now and we're still no nearer to a date being officially announced I can quite believe now that it will be that late. It's getting beyond a joke.

Be prepared for the biggest leaps in popularity since records began in the 2023 and 2024 data (which will probably be released in 2026 and 2030 respectively) as people genuinely have no idea how popular their top choices currently are anymore. Given that it's quite common for people to seek something outside the top 100, I have a feeling many will be disappointed when they see their 2 year old's name has actually leapt into the top 50 the year they were born.

Some 2022 babies will be 2 years 2 months by March 2024 for God's sake!

Balonz?

I hope it isn't delayed beyond March - I'm due in June!

Absolutely love that someone did an FOI request. Maybe more of us should!

Maybe they're triple checking the data because a name hovering towards the end of the top 1000 vas suddenly broken into the top 10 😂

How hard is it to make this list that it takes this long?! Surely all the names basically immediately go into a database when the children are born? I didn't think they did that much extra data analysis like combining Mohammed and Muhammad

Might be. I predict parents looking at darkgreener's latest figures and naming their 2024 baby a name they think is unusual, only to find that the name has shot up since 2021.

Q: Elizabeth or Margot?
A: Margot because it's so underused and Elizabeth will be overused because of the late Queen.
2028: Little Margot sits in a class of 8 Margots and a Lizzie and a Bette (2 Elizabeths)

I truly don’t understand the delay. Two months after England and Wales release their 2022 name data, the USA will release their 2023 data.

How strange

I tried to check if the data had been released and instead I found this FOI request: https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/2022babynamesrankings

Sounds like the 2022 names will be released March 2024.

People are totally going to assume they are the 2023 stats when they finally come out aren't they? Given that the year is practically over.

I hope the stats come out soon. How long can it take - we're only about 7 weeks away from 2024!

This is ridiculous now we're in bloody November!

God that dosent sound promising does it!

Thanks @ZoyaTheDestroyer how strange!