How popular is your name?

Compare how popular baby names were in different parts of the UK in 2025.
Author

Nicola Rennie

Published

July 9, 2026

Olivia was the most popular name girls’ name overall. It was top in England & Wales, and third in both Northern Ireland and Scotland. A total of 2,738 Olivia’s were born in 2025. Just under one Olivia every 3 hours!

Muhammad was the most popular boys’ name overall. It came top in England & Wales and fourth in Scotland, though only 103rd in Northern Ireland. A total of 6,271 Muhammad’s were born in 2025.

Did your name make the top 50?

There were 26 names that appeared in the top 50 names for boys in all three regions. There were 26 names that appear in the top 50 names for girls in all three regions. Although Muhammad was the top name for boys in England and Wales, it was not in the top 50 boys names’ in Northern Ireland. It was fourth in Scotland.

Figure 1

Data

Baby name statistics are compiled from first names recorded when live births are registered. The way that baby names are counted varies slightly across the three regions. These figures do not include any names that were given to babies who were stillborn, as there is no public register of stillborn children.

The data includes babies born to women whose usual residence is outside the respective region. Additional data for sub-regions of England and Wales do not include births to non-residents.

Different spellings

  • In all three regions, similar names with different spellings are counted separately. For example, Rachael and Rachel are considered two different names.
  • In Northern Ireland and Scotland, names containing accents have been recorded without those accents. For example, Seán and Sean are recorded as the same name.

Confidentiality

  • In Northern Ireland, names with a count of 3 or fewer have been redacted in order to protect the confidentiality of individuals.
  • In Scotland, and England & Wales names with a count of 2 or fewer have been redacted for the same reason.

Changing popularity over time

Most of the names at the top of the ranking have been popular for decades. However, Noah has had a more steady rise to the top in both Scotland and Northern Ireland, climbing up from 358th in 1997 in Scotland.

Figure 2

Data

Not all changes in name popularity are slow and steady. From 2024 to 2025, the girls’ name Keonna dropped a dramatic 4,436 places in the ranking from 1,491th place to 5,927st. In Scotland, the popularity of the name Helena recovered after a big drop in popularity last year.

Figure 3

Data

Named after Normal People

Trends in baby names can often be linked to popular culture, with names chosen from films, TV shows, and current events. Sally Rooney’s 2018 book Normal People, which follows the relationship of Connell and Marianne, gained popularity when it was turned into a TV series released in 2020. The name Connell also increased in popularity the following year. The name Marianne saw a much more modest increase with popularity generally decreasing over time.

Figure 4

Data

Gender neutral names

Though baby name rankings are counted separately for boys and girls, there were many names used for both baby boys and girls in 2025. In Scotland, there were 53 names given to both baby boys and girls in 2025. The most gender neutral names (closest to 50:50 split) in Scotland were Morgan and Rowen with 50% of names given to girls.

In Northern Ireland, there were 16 names given to both baby boys and girls in 2025. The most gender neutral names in Northern Ireland were Blair and River.

In England and Wales, there were 703 names given to both baby boys and girls in 2025. There were 51 names where half of the babies were boys and half girls.

Table 1

Data

The names Alex, Avery, Blair, Charlie, Frankie, Harley, Quinn, Remi, Remy, Riley, River, Robin, and Rowan were given to both girls and boys in all three regions.

Cite this work

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Rennie, Nicola. 2026. “How popular is your name? (2025)” July 09, 2026. nrennie.rbind.io/data-stories/baby-names.

BibTeX citation:

@online{rennie2026,
  author = {Rennie, Nicola},
  title = {How popular is your name? (2025)},
  date = {2026-07-09},
  url = {https://nrennie.rbind.io/data-stories/baby-names/},
  langid = {en}
}