2021 England and Wales name data released

[toastofthetown]

Christmas for name nerds is here. Here are the main points from the bulletin.

Top 10 Boys
Noah
Oliver
George
Arthur
Muhammad
Leo
Harry
Oscar
Archie
Henry

Top 10 Girls
Olivia
Amelia
Isla
Ava
Ivy
Freya
Lily
FLorence
Mia
Willow

Main Points
Noah was the most popular boys' name in England and Wales in 2021, replacing Oliver from the previous year, while Olivia remained the top name for girls for the sixth year in a row.

Henry replaced Jack in the top 10 names for boys, while Freya, Florence and Willow replaced Isabella, Rosie, and Sophia for girls; this is the first time Jack has not been in the top 10 since our annual series began in 1996.

Mothers aged over 35 years continued to be more likely to have babies with more traditional names such as Thomas, while younger mothers' babies were more likely to have shortened versions, such as Tommy.

Muhammad was the most popular boys' name in four out of nine English regions, while Olivia was the top girls' name for every English region and Wales, except for the East Midlands where Amelia was the most popular girls name.

New entries this year to the top 100 include Lara, Beatrice and Sara for girls and Blake, Brody, Kai, Rupert, Tobias and Nathan for boys; this is the first time that Rupert and Brody have been in the top 100.

Baby names of Welsh origin featured among the most popular in Wales in 2021; Alys, Ffion, Seren and Eira were among the top 50 for girls and Arthur, Osian, Dylan and Elis were among the top 30 for boys.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation

I know soooo many babies named Theo (not surprised - it's a lovely name). If you add together the Theos and the Theodores, it comes to over 5,000 baby boys being given the name in 2021.

Strangely, I don't know a single baby Olivia.

Does anyone know when names.darkgreener will be updated?

It’s a side project by Anna Powell-Smith so not her day job. It’s usually updated within a few days.

@ZoyaTheDestroyer what an absolute legend Anna is. I hope she makes some money from her website

I'm not sure that she can. The data visualiser is inspired by the Name Voyager from the American site BabyNameWizard, which was sold a few years ago. The actual ONS data is crown copyright which can be reproduced freely under the Open Government Licence but only for non-commercial use, I think.

It would be interesting to know what the middle names are, and how many are known by their middle name.

I know quite a few who are known by their middle name, but the first name is usually a family name like John, David or William, or Margaret or Elizabeth

@KirstenBlest is that young children known by middle name? I know a fair few 40+ people who go by their middle name, but no-one younger than that so I presumed it was generational but maybe not.

I think it is regional too - I believe it is the norm in parts of Wales.

A fair few middle name users I know are Irish. I also know a number of Irish people who choose a name seemingly completely at random e.g. Mary Theresa known as Delia. But I presumed this was due to historic lack of variation in names so seeking alternatives to differentiate themselves from other Marys.

I know a few people in their early to mid 30s who go by their middle names. Some deliberately so i.e. it was always the parents intention to use the middle name as the known name e.g. Juliet Alys was the planned name but they thought Alys Juliet flowed better but Juliet is used day to day.

Others just preferred their middle name or their first name is Muhammad and their brothers, father, uncles, cousins etc. are also named Muhammad so they use their middle names to distinguish them.

We don't do middle names in my family (my parents think they're unnecessary) so I find middle names fascinating.

I'm more likely to know the full names of the people who I grew up with, and I would say about a third were known by their middle name.
e.g Eirlys Jones full name Siân Eirlys Jones, or Aled Jones full name John Aled Jones
or Mary Rhian Lloyd Roberts known as Rhian Roberts, or David Bryn Penry Davies known as Bryn Davies.
Famous example: comedian Elis James is really Owain Elis James

It was also very popular to be known by the two first names - often Welsh celebrities are known by their first two names only (Dafydd Iwan, Bryn Terfel, Sioned Mair, Angharad Mair etc)

When people announce their baby's name, they usually say something like Tomos Arthur - Arthur
or Marged Alys - Alys

I think a lot of it is to do with the flow of the names. John Paul flows better than Paul John, Emma Jane flows better than Jane Emma etc

I can think of families where all the kids were known by their middle names, or half were.

**Other than the famous people, I've just made name combinations up.
I am not Irish or English.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to realise they'd released this.

I’m a little disappointed my daughters name has entered the top 100 after some years lurking just away from it!

If you add the Lotties and Charlottes together, that would be 3rd most popular for girls.

Emilia/Amelia/Amelie wins by a landslide though!

My baby’s name is outside the top 20 but one of the firm top 5 favourites amongst my mothering age group.

My DD (11 months) has a Welsh name and it's not on this list or the Welsh one! Happy with that