Scotland’s most popular baby names for 2020 have been revealed, with Jack topping the list again but Isla overtaking Olivia.
The full list of names has been published by National Records of Scotland (NRS), showing Isla in top spot for baby girls, followed by Olivia in second and Emily in third.
Jack remains the most popular boy’s name, holding on to the top spot for the 13th consecutive year.
Noah is now the second most popular boy’s name, having jumped from seventh place last year, while James remains in third.
Further down the list, Maeve made a leap of 130 places from last year, up to 86th place, and Ayda, the second highest climber in the girls’ top 100 list, rose 63 places to the 91st spot.
The biggest increases in the top 100 boys’ list were Roman, which jumped up 68 places to 33rd, and Finley, which rose 48 places to 88th.
The 2020 list sees the highest ever number of different names, which has been a rising trend for a number of years.
Of the 23,968 girls registered in Scotland last year, there were 4,347 different names, and of the 22,387 boys registered, there were only 3,375 different names.
Julie Ramsay, NRS Vital Events Statistician, said: “We can see from the 2020 names lists that different generations of parents have different preferences for naming their babies.
“Isla, the most popular name for girls in 2020, was the most popular name with mothers aged 35 and over, but it only ranked 7th with mothers aged under 25. However, Olivia, the most popular girls name of 2019, was ranked 1st by younger mothers and 6th by older mothers.
“Jack, the most popular name for boys in 2020, was the 2nd most popular name with mothers aged 35 and above, and only 17th with mothers aged under 25. James was the most popular name for boys with older mothers while Noah was ranked 1st for younger mothers.”
Stars of the music and TV world have been a big influence on the names people are giving their children.
Julie added: “Popular culture often affects how people name their babies. The name Billie rose in popularity by 79% in the past two years with 34 baby girls being given this name in 2020. In the same time, Google searches in the UK for “Billie” and “Billie Eilish” spiked, with the singer having her first number one single in the UK in early 2020.
“Tommy, a name occurring in the popular TV shows Peaky Blinders and Love Island, has doubled in popularity in the last two years, with 148 boys being given this name. Our data shows it is more popular with younger mothers than with older mothers.”
You can explore the popularity of first names in Scotland over the years with NRS’s interactive app here.
Also published today by NRS was a list of the most common surnames in the Birth, Marriage and Death registers for 2020.
Smith, Brown, and Wilson have been the three most popular surnames since the first list, which is for 1975, and remained the top three in 2020.
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