Telegraph birth announcements - top names 2022

[ShadowPuppets]

Saw this on Twitter (comments as you’d expect!) Top names from Telegraph birth announcements last year: twitter.com/brokenbottleboy/status/1609509063397675008?s=46&t=wEHSQond7IMlQUesPRxLYQ

Boys:

1. Frederick
2. Arthur, Henry and Rory
3. George, Hugo and Theodore
4. Oscar and Thomas

10. Alexander, Alfred, Hector, Jack, Max, Oliver, Wilfred and William

Girls:

1. Florence
2. Poppy
3. Amelia and Ottilie
4. Clementine, Eleanor and Ruby
5. Antonia, Edith, Evelyn, Freya, Isabella, Margot, Matilda, Ophelia, Rose, Sophia

Possibly the closest thing we have to ‘live’ MC/UC name trends? I am knee deep in friends/family/my own babies (in my early/mid 30s!) and I know babies with almost all these names, except Antonia, Clementine and Hector. And my 2022 boy is on the list, although my 2020 girl isn’t.

Antonia surprised me none of the others did. All pretty common names imo.

I do love Hector ..

Interesting to see such previously popular names like Grace, Chloe, Emma, Ella and Charlotte are no longer there.

All quite old fashioned posh names now

Antonia surprised me as it feels a little dated to me. I wish there were numbers along with the popularity ranks as I’m very nosy! Someone on another name forum I was on used to collate the Telegraph births into a spreadsheet with middle names and siblings too and I loved it. I might start collecting data myself.

That person isn't me, but is very like me... I have a spreadsheet for this that shows overall popularity of a name across the years and also within them. Every so often I blitz the announcements and do a load. I don't know why. I've just always been obsessed with names.

I feel less alone, now!

I’m surprised to see my 4mo baby boy name on there. I knew it’s an old man’s name, but didn’t regard it as UC/MC.

My 3yo boy also has a resurfaced old man name but absolutely no UC/MC connotations.

I’m now worried their names don’t ‘match’. ☹️ Did I doom DS1 by giving him a more common name?

Honestly none of the boys names scream upper class to me. Other than Hector and Wilfred they are all top hundred names, and Hector and Wilfred don’t feel socially charged to me in any way. None of the names are names like Horatio or Ptolemy or Tarquin. I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the names on that list fitting comfortably in any classroom up and down the country.

@toastofthetown see that was my thinking too, but then some of the replies on that twitter thread suggest they’re not as common as we’d be inclined to think. I guess the bubble effect may be at play?

@7Worfs I’m always told our names ‘match’ but DD’s name is v underused (classic but iirc only 18 babies named it in her year) whereas DS’s name is up there in the Telegraph list. So I wouldn’t assume theyre not balanced!

I guess the only, very slight, thing that might distinguish this list of names from a list from a lower social class would be the use of full name rather than shorter versions in all instances, particularly noticeable on the boys names e.g. Frederick not Freddie, Theodore not Theo, Alfred not Alfie...

Private Eye usually does a parody of this and, every year, one of the Top 10 names for boys is always 'Sir Peregrine Worsthorne'

See I love Peregrine because I think of peregrine falcons and Pippin from LotR, but I’d never name my boy it, it sounds too hippy/tree hugger.
Only the upperest of class can get away with it

I guessed that Ottilie would be on here. Every other Telegraph baby announcement seems to be about a new Ottilie, or a sibling for an Ottilie. I’m surprised Edward isn’t in the top ten, though.

I wanted to call DD (4) Antonia, but none of my family liked it. To be fair, DD herself says she doesn’t like it. But she would have been ahead of the curve.

None of these are a surprise really. MC/UC names tend to be classic, generic, and pretty timeless. Both my kids’ names are on this list, and while some people may think they’re too popular and boring, it means they will fit in anywhere, never have to explain or have a conversation about their name, and it will always be pronounced correctly. I have an unusual name and it’s a pain in the butt. A nice, normal, name is the best gift I could have given them.

I can’t see anything odd about those lists. They all seem like perfectly normal, nice names to me. None of them are obviously made-up or chavvy, either. 🤷🏻‍♀️

All the boys names are very old fashioned with the exception of Rory and Max. All the names have been around for years. Jack was the most popular boys name for years in the 1990s so I’m surprised people are still using that.
Poppy doesn’t scream uc/mc to me but it is quite generic.

Hector surprised me on the boys list. What famous Hector has influenced that choice?

On the girls list, Antonia and Clementine are the surprises to me.

Thought Teddy would be up there.

Three of my four children's names are on there...and they all had their births announced in the Telegraph, albeit some moons ago! We wanted classic, timeless names, so I guess we got it right....😉

Antonia was on my girl's name list. Glad to see it's coming back. Also hope Erica makes a comeback (though doubt it will appear in the Telegraph birth announcements).

I wonder what the least mentioned names were. There was a MNer years ago who used to post some of them on here.

I had no idea Antonia was so popular, or that Ruby was that popular these days

Bearing in mind that this is the Telegraph and they are a bit self-selecting, I'm pleasantly surprised by this lot.

Don't you have what's app?

They’re pretty much the same as the gov list of top names. They seem like generic popular names to me, if a little dull!

These are interesting! Slightly older style names, especially for the boys.

Surprised no Edward or perhaps James on the boys list and equally didn't expect Poppy, Ruby and maybe Freya to be so high on the girls - but otherwise it mostly looks like your typical MC baby name choices to me (a mix of the more timeless/classic and with a sprinkle of the super trendy).

But big surprise is Hector and Antonia making top 10 (always loved Antonia!) And perhaps that Frederick won over the seemingly more popular George/Henry/Arthur.

This reads like DS' class list haha

ds is on there after DGF