How popular is your name?

Compare how popular baby names are in different parts of the UK
Author

Nicola Rennie

Published

June 11, 2026

Olivia was the most popular name girls’ name overall. It was top in England & Wales and Scotland, and second in Northern Ireland. A total of 3,136 Olivia’s were born in 2024. More one Olivia every 3 hours!

Muhammad was the most popular boys’ name overall. It came top in England & Wales and second in Scotland, though only 154th in Northern Ireland. A total of 6,028 Muhammad’s were born in 2024.

Did your name make the top 50?

There were 28 names that appeared in the top 50 names for boys in all three regions. There were 29 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 second 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 Scotland, climbing up from 358th in 1997.

Figure 2

Data

Not all changes in name popularity are slow and steady. From 2023 to 2024, the girls’ name Nitara climbed a dramatic 4,490 places in the ranking from 5,688th place to 1,198th. In Northern Ireland, Rebecca had a notable drop, having previously been in the top 100 girls’ names.

Figure 3

Data

Royally inspired names

Trends in baby names can often be linked to popular culture, with names chosen from films and current events. When a new royal baby is born, a spike in popularity of the name given often happens in the following year. Particularly for the name Charlotte, which saw a spike in popularity in all three regions.

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 2024. In Scotland, there were 57 names given to both baby boys and girls in 2024. The most gender neutral name (closest to 50:50 split) in Scotland was Bailey with 53.1% of names given to girls.

In Northern Ireland, there were 18 names given to both baby boys and girls in 2024. The most gender neutral name in Northern Ireland was Brooklyn with 50% of names given to girls.

In England and Wales, there were 706 names given to both baby boys and girls in 2024. There were 30 names where half of the babies were boys and half girls.

Table 1

Data

The names Avery, Blake, Casey, Charlie, Eden, Ellis, Frankie, Harley, Marley, Oakley, Quinn, Remi, Riley, River, 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?” June 11, 2026. nrennie.rbind.io/data-stories/baby-names.

BibTeX citation:

@online{rennie2026,
  author = {Rennie, Nicola},
  title = {How popular is your name?},
  date = {2026-06-11},
  url = {https://nrennie.rbind.io/data-stories/baby-names/},
  langid = {en}
}