Baby names are tricky business. Should you name your offspring after your great-great grandma? Do you let your partner name them after their favourite ’80s rockstar? Do you go for something really rogue or opt for one that is tried and tested (and far less likely to get them bullied on the school playground)?
After delving into birth registration data, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has revealed the 100 most popular baby names in England and Wales in 2023. So whether you want to follow the crowd or be a bit more unique, keep reading.
Leading the pack as the top three most popular girls’ names in 2023 (for the second year in a row) were Olivia, Amelia and Isla. When it comes to boys’ names, Muhammed overtook Noah to become this year’s most favoured name. Noah was second and Oliver was third. In Wales alone, the top three girls' names in order were Isla, Olivia and Freya and for boys it was Noah, Oliver and Luca.
This year also saw some new entries into the top 100. They included Hazel, Lilah, Autumn, Nevaeh and Raya for girls and Jax, Enzo and Bodhi for boys.
On top of those, the ONS spotted a bunch of trending baby names inspired by celebs such as Billie Eilish, Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar (who all when on tour in 2023) Elton John (who headlined Glastonbury) and (thanks to the Barbenheimer hype) Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy.
Digging even deeper, the stats show that different names trend according to the time of year. The ONS noted that Christmas-inspired names like Holly, Robyn and Joseph were more popular in December while names like Summer and Autumn were popular in their respective seasons.
These are the top 10 names for each gender in England and Wales last year
The 10 most popular boys names in 2023
- Muhammad
- Noah
- Oliver
- George
- Leo
- Arthur
- Luca
- Theodore
- Oscar
- Henry
The 10 most popular girls names in 2023
- Olivia
- Amelia
- Isla
- Lily
- Freya
- Ava
- Ivy
- Florence
- Willow
- Isabella
You can take a closer look at which names proved most popular in each London borough here and see a full breakdown of the nation’s favourite names by region on the ONS website.
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