By Cara Sulieman
SCOTLAND’S most popular baby names have been revealed, with Jack topping the boys’ list for the seventh time in the last 11 years.
And for girls Sophie is still a firm favourite after five years at the top spot.
In second place for the boys is Lewis, which has been in the top two with Jack for the last 11 years – Lewis reaching number one for four of those.
James climbed two places to third, with Liam staying in fourth place and Logan going up three places to fifth.
The second most popular name with baby girls this year was Olivia, followed by Ava, Emily and Lucy.
And some names have seen an upshot in popularity, with Owen climbing 26 places to 32 and Miley shooting up a whopping 190 places to 95.
Denim and Vanilla
In total, 6972 different first names were registered in Scotland in 2009, with 2995 boys’ names and 3977 girls’ names.
The statistics show that parents are becoming more adventurous when naming their offspring, and are trying out more unusual names and spellings.
Among the more unusual on this year’s list are a little boy named Denim, and a girl called Vanilla.
The Registrar General for Scotland counts different spellings separately – if they put them together the results would be very different.
If combined, Callum and Calum would be in third place for boys, and Aimee/Amy would be second on the girls list.
As a result of the increase in unique names, the most popular are given to less of the newborns.
“Very interesting”
For example, in 1900 68 per cent of the baby boys born were given the most popular name, but this year just 15 per cent were names Jack.
Duncan Macniven, the Registrar General for Scotland, said: “As always, the list of Scotland’s favourite baby names is very interesting. Around 27,800 boys and 26,600 girls’ names have been registered in 2009.
“Almost 7,000 different names were chosen this year and around 1,900 boys and 2,600 girls were given unique names.
“Jack remains the most popular name for boys and there were two new entrants to the top 20 – Lucas and Nathan.
“Owen, Joseph, Tyler, Rory, Kai, Sam and Archie are new entrants in the top 50 this year.
“Some boys’ names have become less popular, with Kieran, Taylor, Brandon and Declan among those to have dropped down the list.
“For girls, Sophie is top for a fifth year and Olivia climbs one place to second place. Amy joins the top 10 and there are two new entrants in the top 20 – Lily and Mia.
“Rebecca, Caitlin, Iona, Robyn and Cerys were among those less popular than last year.”
Top 10
Boys
Jack
Lewis
James
Liam
Logan
Daniel
Aaron
Ryan
Cameron
Callum
Girls
Sophie
Olivia
Ava
Emily
Lucy
Chloe
Katie
Emma
Amy
Erin
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