How popular is the baby name Alfie in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Alfie.

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Popularity of the baby name Alfie


Posts that mention the name Alfie

Popular baby names in Scotland (UK), 2012

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

The most popular baby names in Scotland were announced last week.

According to the General Register Office, the preliminary winners were Jack for boys and Sophie for girls. Jack has been #1 for five years in a row, and Sophie for eight years in a row.

Here are Scotland’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of January-November, 2012:

Baby Girl NamesBaby Boy Names
1. Sophie
2. Emily
3. Olivia
4. Ava
5. Lucy
6. Isla
7. Lily
8. Jessica
9. Amelia
10. Mia
11. Millie
12. Eva
13. Ellie
14. Chloe
15. Freya
16. Sophia
17. Grace
18. Emma
19. Hannah
20. Holly		1. Jack
2. Lewis
3. Riley
4. James
5. Logan
6. Daniel
7. Ethan
8. Harry
9. Alexander
10. Oliver
11. Max
12. Tyler
13. Aaron & Charlie [tie]
15. Adam
16. Finlay
17. Alfie
18. Mason
19. Ryan
20. Liam & Lucas [tie]

Some of the names that increased in popularity from 2011 to 2012:

Lola (up 24 places to #63)
Mollie (up 24 places to #68)
Amelia (up 20 places to #9)
Orla (up 19 places to #36)
Hollie (up 18 places to #39)
Georgia (up 13 places to #58)
Lexi (up 12 places to #38)
Lacey (up 12 places to #41)
Poppy (up 11 places to #34)		Harris (up 20 places to #29)
Harrison (up 20 places to #53)
Tyler (up 20 places to #12)
Brodie (up 17 places to #54)
Max (up 15 places to #11)
Mason (up 13 places to #18)
Finn (up 13 places to #66)
Riley (up 11 places to #3)

New to the top 100 are Bella, Darcy, Emelia, Lois, Scarlett and Willow (for girls) and Alex, Blake, Calvin, George, Olly, Sebastian, Shay and Zac (for boys).

Among the names moving downward are Abigail, Chloe, Jasmine and Phoebe (for girls) and Aiden, Jayden and Mohammed for boys. (Aiden is down 16 places to #36; Jayden down 10 places to #40.)

To compare, here’s last year’s post on the top baby names in Scotland.

Scotland’s official rankings will be out after the year ends.

Sources: Jack and Sophie are Scotland’s top baby names, Jack and Sophie top Scots baby names list in 2012, Scotland’s favourite baby names revealed

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

Popular baby names in Northern Ireland (UK), 2012

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

The most popular baby names in Northern Ireland were announced a little while ago.

According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, the #1 names were Jack for boys and Sophie for girls.

Here are Northern Ireland’s provisional top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2012:

Baby Girl NamesBaby Boy Names
1. Sophie
2. Emily
3. Grace
4. Amelia
5. Jessica
6. Lucy
7. Sophia
8. Katie
9. Eva
10. Aoife
11. Chloe
12. Lily
13. Ella
14. Mia
15. Ellie
16. Anna [tie]
16. Emma [tie]
16. Olivia [tie]
19. Erin
20. Sarah		1. Jack
2. James
3. Daniel
4. Harry
5. Charlie
6. Ethan
7. Matthew
8. Ryan
9. Riley
10. Noah
11. Adam
12. Joshua
13. Jacob
14. Thomas
15. Conor
16. Jake [tie]
16. Oliver [tie]
18. Dylan
19. Alfie
20. Mason

The highest climbers within the top 20 lists were Aoife (15th to 10th) and Riley (18th to 9th).

Other high climbers were Bobby (124th to 59th), Blake (111th to 71st) and Olly (131st to 93rd) for boy names, and Miley (135th to 79th) and Layla (135th to 83rd) for girl names.

[Very curious about Bobby! Can anybody explain that one?]

Names that decreased in popularity include Calum (down 93 spots), Padraig (-49) and Conan (-28) on the boys’ list, and Ciara (-53), Victoria (-49) and Julia (-48) on the girls’ list.

Finally, here are some of the more unusual names registered in 2012:

Girl NamesBoy Names
Aibhailia, Anna-bell, Blathnait, Cait-erin, Caollaidhe, Clodagh-rose, Clover-leoni, Connemara, Haianabragadiska, Iretenevesho, Napsugar, Poppyanna, Scarlett-imogen, Shammahwisdom, TuleighzaBoen-rua, Caelum, Conghaile, Connlaodh, Everley-eric, Gavin-og, Iarfhlaith, Iggi, Kekeli, Kyzler, McCoist, Naoise, Rolex, Sean-og, Setanta, Shea-pearse, Somhairle, Steven-og, Uate, Ugnius

Those “og” endings on some of the boy names are the Irish word Óg, which means “young” or “junior.” It can be used after girl names, too.

Here are Northern Ireland’s top baby names of 2007, if you’d like to compare.

Source: NISRA

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

Are UK babies named Derek anymore?

The BBC is in search of UK babies named Derek.

Alfie, Ruby, Archie, Jack, Evie, Florence, and Ava are all in fashion and conjure up nostalgic thoughts of working-class Britain between the wars.

But there are some names that seem immune to rehabilitation.

Derek is one of those names.

Derek, originally a short form of Theodoric, was brought to Britain during the Middle Ages by settlers from the Low Countries. Theodoric comes from a Germanic name meaning “ruler of the people.” (It’s not related to Theodore, despite the resemblance.)

The name Derek remained rare in Britain until the very end of the 1800s. Even as late as 1881, Great Britain only had 6 males named Derek and 15 named Derrick.

Yet in 1934 Derek was the 14th most popular baby name in England and Wales. In 1944 it had fallen to 27th in the list. In subsequent decades it fell from 37 to 43 before reaching 100 in 1974. It has not reappeared since.

In 2011, only 22 baby boys in England and Wales were named Derek. Even fewer were named Derrick (6) and Derick (3).

So far, the BBC has heard from just one UK parent — Lee Woollard of Luton, who welcomed a son named Derek in July. (Baby Derek is named after his great-grandfather Derrick.) Lee says:

We have had ‘interesting’ reactions to his name, some people like it while others look and say “are you serious?” or mistake it for Eric. The anaesthetist at our hospital said she had been working there 10 years and it’s the first one she had seen delivered.

If you know any other UK babies named Derek, forward this post (or the original article) to their parents!

Source: Redmonds, George. Christian Names in Local and Family History. Toronto: Dundurn, 2004.

Popular baby names in England and Wales (UK), 2011

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

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:

Girl Names

  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

Boy 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

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?

Source: Baby names in England and Wales: 2011

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)