Most popular baby names in England and Wales in 2018 revealed by ONS

Did your favourite name make the cut?

Sabrina Barr
Thursday 29 August 2019 14:20 BST
Comments
2018's most popular baby names revealed

The most popular baby names in England and Wales in 2018 have been revealed.

On Thursday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its annual baby name survey, disclosing the names which are currently the most favoured across the nation.

While some names are new entries for the top 100 list – Grayson, Ada and Margot to name a few – others have proven their consistent popularity over the past few years.

Oliver topped the boys' list for the sixth year in a row, while Olivia retained its number one spot on the girls' list for the third consecutive year.

According to Nick Stripe, from the Vital Statistics Outputs Branch at ONS, a certain television show may have influenced a surge in popularity of specific names in the last 12 months.

"Arthur surged into the top 10 boys' names for the first time since the 1920s, and Ada jumped into the girls' top 100 for the first time in a century too, both perhaps inspired by characters in the BBC TV drama Peaky Blinders," Stripe said.

Stripe added that the decrease in popularity of the moniker Alexa may have been impacted by the prevalence of Amazon's virtual assistant of the same name.

"On the flipside, the growth in the use of technology assistants in our homes may help to explain why the number of baby girls named Alexa has more than halved compared with 2017," the statistician stated.

"Communicating with young children can be hard enough at the best of times."

Here are the top 10 baby names for girls in England and Wales in 2018:

  1. Olivia
  2. Amelia
  3. Ava
  4. Isla
  5. Emily
  6. Mia
  7. Isabella
  8. Sophia
  9. Ella
  10. Grace

Here are the top 10 baby names for boys in England and Wales in 2018:

  1. Oliver
  2. George
  3. Harry
  4. Noah
  5. Jack
  6. Leo
  7. Arthur
  8. Muhammad
  9. Oscar
  10. Charlie
Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

The ONS survey found that less than half of babies born in 2018 were given a name featured in its top 100 lists.

Meanwhile, in 1996 more than two thirds of babies were granted names from the top 100 most popular names.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in