Jack and Sophie Stay at Number One

22 December 2009

Jack and Sophie head up the lists of most popular baby names for 2009, the Registrar General announced today.

Jack remains the top boys’ name, with Lewis in second place. James climbs two places to third whilst Liam stays in fourth place and Logan climbs three places to fifth. Between them, Jack and Lewis have been the top two boys’ names for the past eleven consecutive years. Jack has been number one (with Lewis second) in seven of those years and Lewis has been top (with Jack second) for the other four.

For the fifth year in a row, Sophie is the most popular girls’ name with Olivia climbing one place to second. Ava climbed four places to third and whilst Emily fell two places to fourth and Lucy climbed one place to fifth.

The biggest climbers in the 2009 baby name charts were Owen (up 26 places to 32nd) for boys and Miley (up 190 places to 95th) 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.

Detailed tables (including the top 100 names and top 10 for each Council area) are available as part of the full publication, Babies' First Names 2009, on this website.

Duncan Macniven, 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 (for 2009) 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.”