Most popular names for boys and girls announced

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Every baby needs a name.

According to the British Office for National Statistics, the most popular boy’s name in 2014 was Oliver, whilst Amelia became the most popular girl’s name for the fourth year in a row.

To some extent, there is an element of regional difference as Olivia was the most popular name in the south-east but was pipped into second place overall. Apart from regional variations, names can depend on celebrity status, with George moving up a number of places after the christening of the new prince, and Ava moving over 100 places following the birth of Reese Witherspoon´s daughter. Even the time of the season can have an effect, with Holly being popular around December but almost disappearing by the summer.

One name continues to gather pace and that is Muhammad, which in this spelling alone has moved to number 14 around the country but has become the most popular first name for babies born in London. Other variations of the spelling are also in the top 100 boys’ names.

The list of boys’ and girls’ names for 2014 is:

Year 2014 Boys Girls
 1  Oliver  Amelia
 2  Jack  Olivia
 3  Harry  Isla
 4  Jacob  Emily
 5  Charlie  Poppy
 6  Thomas  Ava
 7  George  Isabella
 8  Oscar  Jessica
 9   James  Lily
 10  William  Sophie

It appears that parents in Britain are a little more adventurous with girls’ names than boys’, many of the more popular ending in the letter A, similar to Spain.

In Spain, the National Statistics Institute has released details of the most popular names for 2013 and they appear to be more traditional and less likely to follow celebrity.

The list of boys’ and girls’ names is:

Year 2013 Boys Girls
 1  Hugo  Lucia
 2  Daniel  Maria
 3  Pablo  Paula
 4  Alejandro  Daniela
 5  Álvaro  Martina
 6  Adrián  Carla
 7  David   Sara
 8  Mario  Sofia
 9   Diego  Valeria
 10  Javier  Julia

There could be a lot of confusion between people in Spain as amazingly, over 40 per cent of the population, which is in the region of 20 million Spaniards, share just nine surnames: Fernández, Gómez, González, López, Martín, Martínez, Pérez, Rodríguez and Sánchez. Perhaps this helps to explain the prevalence of the number of double-barrelled surnames following marriage.

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