Jack and Jessica top name lists

Jack and Jessica were the most popular names for babies born in 1995, according to a report yesterday.

Both names rose from third place in 1994 to claim top spots in the boys' and girls' lists as last year's favourites, Thomas and Rebecca, slipped back to third place.

This year has also been a surge of support for Shannon, rising 22 places to 11th, and three names made the top 50 for the first time - Ellie, Abbie and Kayleigh.

Daniel was the second most popular boy's name, while James slipped from second to fourth.

Among the girls, Lauren remained in second place, with Sophie fourth, followed by Charlotte and Hannah.

At present out of favour are the boys' names Andrew and Jonathan - they both dropped seven places to 27th and 36th respectively. Meanwhile, Anna, Louise, Richard, Stephen and Mark have all fallen out of the top 50.

Up and coming names in the lists released by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys are Cameron, in 46th place, Reece (48) and Charlie (49).

They did not feature in the lists of the top 100 most popular first names 10 years ago.

The name game, page 15

Top 50 boys' and girls' names for 1995

Last year's place in brackets

GIRLS

1. Jessica (3)

2. Lauren (2)

3. Rebecca (1)

4. Sophie (6)

5. Charlotte (4)

6. Hannah (5)

7. Amy (7)

8. Emily (8)

9. Chloe (11)

10. Emma (10)

11. Shannon (33)

12. Laura (9)

13. Bethany (15)

14. Megan (17)

15. Katie (14)

16. Lucy (13)

17. Sarah (12)

18. Alice (18)

19. Jade (16)

20. Danielle (21)

21. Abigail (23)

22. Olivia (24)

23. Rachael (19)

24. Eleanor (32)

25. Samantha (20)

26. Elizabeth (26)

27. Georgia (29)

28. Victoria ( 27)

29. Holly (22)

30. Zoe (30)

31. Natasha (28)

32. Paige (34)

33. Nicole (37)

34. Georgina (35)

35. Chelsea (38)

36. Stephanie (25)

37. Alexandra (40)

38. Natalie (31)

39. Jodie (46)

40. Ellie (new entry)

41. Grace (47)

42. Gemma (48)

43. Kirsty (39)

44. Abbie (new entry)

45. Amber (50)

46. Katherine (45)

47. Molly (49)

48. Melissa (41)

49. Kayleigh (new entry)

50. Jennifer (42)

BOYS

1. Jack (3)

2. Daniel (4)

3. Thomas (1)

4. James (2)

5. Joshua (7)

6. Matthew (5)

7. Ryan (6)

8. Luke (8)

9. Samuel (9)

10. Jordan (10)

11. Joseph (16)

12. Liam (17)

13. Alexander (13)

14. Benjamin (15)

15. Michael (12)

16. Adam (11)

17. Connor (28)

18. William (19)

19. Jake (20)

20. Christopher (14)

21. George (21)

22. Harry (30)

23. Callum (31)

24. Lewis (22)

25. Oliver (23)

26. Kieran (36)

27. Andrew (20)

28. Robert (25)

29. Nathan (27)

30. David (24)

31. Jamie (26)

32. Aaron (32)

33. Bradley (34)

34. Ashley (33)

35. Jacob (35)

36. Jonathan (29)

37. Mohammed (41)

38. Kyle (43)

39. John (39)

40. Sam (38)

41. Ben (40)

42. Scott (37)

43. Charles (44)

44. Sean (46)

45. Edward (47)

46. Cameron (new entry)

47. Nicholas (42)

48. Reece (new entry)

49. Charlie (new entry)

50. Dominic (new entry)