Last year, the English county of Oxfordshire welcomed 7,745 babies.
What were the most popular names among these babies? Olivia and Oliver, according to data released recently by the Oxfordshire County Council’s Registration Service.
Here are Oxfordshire’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2018:
Girl names
- Olivia
- Isabella
- Amelia
- Florence
- Lily
- Evelyn
- Isla
- Emilia
- Sophie
- Ava
Boy names
- Oliver
- George
- Oscar
- Jacob
- William
- Jack
- Benjamin
- Joshua
- Charlie
- Henry
In the girls’ top 10, Evelyn, Emilia, and Sophie replaced Poppy, Emily, and Evie.
In the boys’ top 10, William, Joshua, and Charlie replaced Arthur, Alfie, and Muhammed.
The registrar also made note of the rise in hyphenated first names (for the second year in a row, actually).
In 2017, the top names in the county were Lily and Oliver.
Update, Nov. 2019: The top baby names in England and Wales in 2018 were also Olivia and Oliver.
Source: Clayton, Indya. “Oxfordshire’s most popular baby names revealed.” Oxford Mail 1 Feb. 2019.
Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)
Yay, my home turf :) I don’t think I actually know any babies born here last year…but I can believe that those would be their names!
Any idea where the popularity of Florence is coming from? I don’t recall ever knowing, or even meeting, anyone named Florence.
Offhand the only famous Florence I can think of is Florence Henderson and I can’t imagine Mrs Brady is currently influencing baby names in Oxfordshire.
@Ellyn – I’m sure there are various factors at play, but my first thought on a specific influence would be Florence + The Machine.