The Most Popular Baby Names in 2018 - Officially Revealed
The most popular baby names for 2018 - revealed!
The most popular baby names from 2018 have finally been officially revealed by the Office of National Statistics. Olivia and Oliver are up there again in the number one spot for both boys and girls. See the top five names for boys and girls below:
1. Oliver
2. George
3. Harry
4. Noah
5. Jack
1. Olivia
2. Amelia
3. Ava
4. Isla
5. Emily
Take a look at the Office of National Statistics website to see how popular your favourite baby names are.
How have the top baby names changed over the years?
Oliver has been the most popular name for six years now and Olivia has had the top slot for three. The top ten for both boys and girls remained fairly stable over the last few years. There was only one change this year for the boys with Arthur replacing Jacob and two changes for the girls, with Sophia and Grace replacing Poppy and Lily.
We seem to be getting more adventurous in our choice of names for new babies.
Less than half (45%) of babies born in the UK in 2018 were given names from the list of the top 100 most popular baby names, whereas in 1996 two thirds (67%) were given names within the top 100. This means we are becoming more diverse in our choice of names, moving from the traditional to a more individual choice. Younger mums were even more likely to chose less traditional names for their new babies, with mums under the age of 25 being more likely to pick names such as Hunter, Logan and Harper. These younger mums are also more likely to pick abbreviated versions of names and names that include a hyphen. Mums over the age of 35 are more likely to pick the full version of more traditional names such as Alexander and William and no hyphenated names appeared in the top 200 for this older group of mums.
What influences our choice of names for new babies?
There are many factors that can influence our choice of names. Often we will name our babies after a family member but we can also be influenced by fashion and celebrity culture. Names that were popular mid century such as Keith, Roger and Barry or Jean, Susan and Janet have fallen out of favour today and we seem to prefer turn of the century names such as Oliver, Jack, Ivy and Florence. Celebrities can also have an impact on the popularity of a name, David and Victoria Beckham's little girl Harper has inspired lots of other little Harpers and the name has risen 831 places to reach 27th place in 2018. The name Alexa has become significantly less popular, halving in popularity from 2017 - 2018. It's a tricky name to use now that calling for your child will activate your Amazon device!
