Harry & Amelia: Top Baby Names in England, 2011

According to the Office for National Statistics, the new top baby names in England and Wales are Harry and Amelia.

They beat out 2010’s top names Oliver and Olivia.

Here are the current top 25 names for both boys and girls:

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Harry
2. Oliver
3. Jack
4. Alfie
5. Charlie
6. Thomas
7. Jacob
8. James
9. Joshua
10. William
11. Ethan
12. George
13. Riley
14. Daniel
15. Samuel
16. Noah
17. Oscar
18. Joseph
19. Mohammed
20. Max
21. Dylan
22. Muhammad
23. Alexander
24. Archie
25. Benjamin		1. Amelia
2. Olivia
3. Lily
4. Jessica
5. Emily
6. Sophie
7. Ruby
8. Grace
9. Ava
10. Isabella
11. Evie
12. Chloe
13. Mia
14. Poppy
15. Isla
16. Ella
17. Isabelle
18. Sophia
19. Freya
20. Daisy
21. Charlotte
22. Maisie
23. Lucy
24. Phoebe
25. Scarlett

In Wales specifically, the top names were Oliver and Lily. In London, Daniel and Isabella.

A few other things I noticed…

Usage of Pippa increased in 2011, thanks to the royal wedding:

  • 2011: 250 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 204th)
  • 2010: 124 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 365th)
  • 2009: 125 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 351st)

Usage of another quirky P-name, Pixie, is also on the up thanks to English pop star Pixie Lott:

  • 2011: 99 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 432nd)
    • +6 named Pixie-Lou
    • +5 named Pixie-Leigh
  • 2010: 83 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 485th)
    • +3 named Pixie-Lou
    • +3 named Pixie-Rose
  • 2009: 33 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 982nd)

I also spotted 5 baby girls named Renesmee, 4 named Coraline and 4 named Io.

The most insightful article I’ve seen about this batch of names so far is Ed West’s “Britain’s divided nation is revealed in our baby names.” Some snippets:

  • “…the annually-published list does show that, for the first time in nine centuries, English people are easily identifiable by class solely by their name, since most names in the 2011 list have strong class biases either way.”
  • “Social mobility will be achieved only when we all give our children the same names.”

Have you spotted anything interesting or surprising on the England and Wales 2011 list?

3 thoughts on “Harry & Amelia: Top Baby Names in England, 2011”

  1. The government declared that Harry was the most popular boy’s name, but if you add up the five most popular different spellings of Mohammed, that name comes top.

    Mohammed is also the most popular boy’s name of the past five years for England and Wales, ahead of Oliver and Jack. It came first or second every year since 2007, the only name to do so.

    And it could become even more popular in 2012, given the adulation around long-distance runner Mo Farah, who won two gold medals for Britain at the Olympics.

    Source: Mohammed retakes top spot in English baby names

  2. High climbers for boys:

    Within the top 100 names, Kayden (up 1,041 to number 94), Ollie (up 409 to number 73), Ashton (up 346 to number 87) and Dexter (up 338 to number 78) were the highest climbers between 2001 and 2011.

    High climbers for girls:

    Within the top 100 names, Lexi (up 1,475 to number 45), Lexie (up 1,285 to number 74), Amelie (up 711 to number 54), Bella (up 641 to 69), Elsie (up 540 to number 87), Sienna (up 413 to number 36) and Lacey (up 359 to number 40) were the highest climbers between 2001 and 2011.

    Source: Most popular baby names in 2011 are Harry and Amelia

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