Olivia and Jack are Scotland's top baby names

Olivia and Jack were the most popular first forenames for babies whose births were registered in 2016, National Records of Scotland (NRS) announced today. Olivia replaced Emily to become the top girls’ name for the first time ever (in these figures, which go back to 1974). Jack was the most popular boys’ name for the ninth consecutive year.

Olivia just made it as the top girls’ name: 492 baby girls were named Olivia, with Emily coming a close second at 490. Olivia rose from third in 2015 to first in 2016, and Sophie was down from second to third (having been the top name from 2005 to 2013). Isla remained fourth, Ava rose one place to fifth, and Amelia was up one place to sixth. Jessica fell two places to seventh, Ella and Lucy remained eighth and ninth, and Charlotte jumped eleven places to tenth.

Charlotte was the only entrant to the girls’ Top Ten; Lily (down two places to joint twelfth) was the only name to drop out.

Sophia (up three places to sixteenth) was the fastest climber within the girls’ Top Twenty. There were three entrants to the girls’ Top Twenty: Charlotte, Aria (up fourteen places to eleventh) and Evie (up eight places to eighteenth).

Jack remained the most popular boys’ name. James rose from third in 2015 to second in 2016, and Oliver was down from second to third. Lewis remained in fourth place. Logan rose three places to fifth, Harry climbed ten places to sixth, Noah jumped eight places to seventh, Leo rose five places to eighth, Charlie was down three places at ninth and Alexander fell from fifth to tenth.

Harry, Noah and Leo were the only entrants to the boys' Top Ten; Lucas (down four places to joint eleventh), Harris (down four places to thirteenth) and Daniel (down eight places to eighteenth) dropped out.

The fastest climbers within the boys’ Top Twenty were Harry, Noah and Leo. Ethan was the only entrant to the Top Twenty, up six places to seventeenth.

Other big climbers within the 2016 Top Fifties included:

• Isabella (up nine places to 33rd)
• Robyn (up nine places to 37th)
• Jaxon (up nine places to joint 38th)
• Sofia (up eight places to joint 41st)

National Records of Scotland registered the births of 26,408 boys and 24,489 girls in the period covered by these figures. Parents chose 3,132 different first forenames for boys and 4,137 different first forenames for girls. In total, 2,072 boys and 2,671 girls were given first forenames that were unique (in the period covered by these figures). The numbers of different names, and of unique names, were well above the levels of 10, 20 or 40 years ago.

The top fifty boys’ first names accounted for 40% of all those registered and the top fifty girls’ first names accounted for 38% of registrations. Jack was the first name of only 1.8% of boys, and Olivia was the first name of just 2.0% of girls.

Notes To Editors

1. ‘Babies’ First Names 2016’ is available via: http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/names/babies-first-names .

2. The publication includes lists of the top 100 first forenames for each sex for Scotland as a whole, and the top ten for each sex for each council area.

3. The statistics are based on data for births that had been registered up to and including Saturday December 3rd, 2016. A full list of all the first forenames that were given to babies in 2016 (including those whose births will not be registered until later this month) will be published on 14 March 2017.

Media enquiries should be directed to:

Frank Dixon, 0131 314 4229

e-mail: frank.dixon@nrscotland.gov.uk