Jack’s Back at Number One with Sophie

17 December 2008

Jack and Sophie head up the lists of popular baby names for 2008, published today by the Registrar General.

Jack has returned to the top spot, pushing last year’s winner, Lewis, into second place. Daniel and Liam both climb four places to third and fourth respectively whilst James falls one place to fifth. Between them, Jack and Lewis have been the top two boys’ names for the past ten consecutive years. Jack has been number one (with Lewis second) in six of those years and Lewis has been top (with Jack second) for the other four.

For the fourth year in a row, Sophie is the most popular girls’ name with Emily climbing five places to second. Olivia (third) and Chloe (fourth) climbed 5 and 7 places respectively while Emma fell three places to fifth.

The biggest climbers in the 2008 baby name charts were Kayden for boys and Nieve for girls.

The top 50 boys’ names accounted for 47 per cent of all boys’ names registered and the top 50 girls' names accounted for 43 per cent of the registrations.

The list of top 20 Boys' and Girls' names and detailed tables (including the top 100 names and top 10 for each Council area) can be found in the full publication Popular Forenames – Babies' First Names 2008 on this website.

Duncan Macniven, Registrar General for Scotland, said:

“As always, the list of Scotland’s favourite baby names is very interesting. Around 28,100 boys' and 27,200 girls' names have been registered. Almost 7,000 different names were chosen this year and around 1,800 boys and 2,600 girls were given unique (for 2008) names.

“There is a change at the top for boys, Jack replacing Lewis, and one new entrant to the top 20 – Aaron. Jayden, Max and Lucas are new entrants in the top 50.

“Some boys’ names have become less popular, with John, Kieran, Ross and Fraser among those to have dropped down the list.

“For girls, Sophie is top for a fourth year and Emily climbs five places to second place. Ava and Hannah join the top 10 and there are three new entrants in the top 20 - Leah, Freya and Holly.

“Megan, Eilidh, Jennifer, Carly, Jenna and Kayleigh were among those less popular than last year.”