Most popular UK baby names for 2008

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I was just reading an article on the Guardian web site about the most popular baby names in the UK for 2008.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/08/baby-names-popular-...

Jack was again the most popular boy's name and Olivia was the most popular girls name. I wonder how many parents would have picked Olivia after reading Sue Brown's Changes?

Not knowing any families with young children, I was surprised by some of the up and coming names in the list.

The name Riley for a boy, and the girl's name Lexi were the fastest rising among the top 100.
Other notable rises in the girl's top 100 were Ava, Isla and Esme; each rising over 20 places each. For the boys Theo, Gabriel and Blake all surged up the top 100 names table.

The following section was also interesting, but perhaps its says more about the teachers than the pupils

According to a survey, more than one in three teachers expect children with certain names to be badly behaved before even meeting them, with the top three naughtiest boy's names ranking as Callum, Connor and Jack, while the unruliest girl's titles were found to be Chelsea, Courtney and Chardonnay.

(a very rare)
Pleione

Comments

Olivia - Nah

RAMI

There are too many very nice names in the stories that appear here fro boys, girls, parents who have boys but wanted daughters, etc. for anyone to pick Olivia. After all you want to name your children after positive role models.

RAMI

RAMI

I cringe when I hear some of the names

with which people insist on saddling their offspring - male or female. There must be a way of allowing a child to choose a name when it grows to maturity.

For example; good, strong, male names may be OK if your male offspring turns out to be a strong male. When I told my brother that my name is Susan, he asked, "why didn't you go with a female version of your male name?"

Simple reason; I always hated the name I was given at birth.

Susie

Do you suppose

laika's picture

there's more tolerance for "odd" names nowadays? I mean who even knows what's an odd name anymore.
I don't...

~~~hugs, Laika

.
"Government will only recognize 2 genders, male + female,
as assigned at birth-" (In his own words:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1lugbpMKDU

Bu but

Bu but I'm a good girl mew ;_; *ish named Chelsea*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Bisexual, transsexual, gamer girl, princess, furry that writes horror stories and proud ^^

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D

Name indicating personality

All the Marthas I know are a bit nuts, and it seems like it would be the name of a no nonsense, well grounded person.

Mr. Ram

You mean like?

it seems like it would be the name of a no nonsense, well grounded person.

Like Martha Stewart? ;-)

Damaged people are dangerous
They know they can survive

Yes!

Exactly! See what I mean?

Mr. Ram

I'll Drink To That

joannebarbarella's picture

What sane parent would name their child Chardonnay?

Imagine the following situations:

"Chardonnay?"
"Yes, please. One more glass."

"Chardonnay?"
"Anything but Chardonnay."

I'm sure you can paint your own pictures,
Joanne

You think you had it bad?

Well, let me elighten you a little about Soviet Union. Exaltated communist parents have called their children:

Vladilen - after 'Vladimir Lenin'
Dazdraperma - after a phrase 'Da Zdravstvuet Pervoe Maya!' (roughly translated as 'Hooray! The 1st of May!')
Marxen - after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

And that is only a sample. Lucky me, I got stuck with a fairly common name I like. Oh well, it seems I will have to cope... ^_~

Faraway

Faraway


On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

I have always...

...thought that Russians, especially from the Soviet era had some of the funniest names I'd ever heard. Especially with surnames like Pajukov (spider), Zmejev (snake), and Tarakanov (cockroach).

Or at least I did until I heard that a woman had named her daughter Formica Dinette. Evidently she read the name in a circular ad, failed utterly to deduce the meaning from the picture next to the text, and liked the sound.

And then there were the Ure (pronounced like "you're") family. They named their son "Destry". Destry Ure. I couldn't help myself, years later when we met and he introduced himself, and I nearly choked to death laughing. ^^; It was even more funny when he didn't understand the reason for my rudeness when I explained. (On more mature consideration, I really shouldn't have laughed, but it really struck me at that moment. Oh well.)

-Liz

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"

And then there is the

And then there is the moderately wealthy and politically well connected Pigg family of Texas. The two daughters were named Ima Pigg, and Ura Pigg, and were well known for the parties they threw.

In Hackett, Arkansas in the days of the old crank handle phones, an older family friend named Carlisle (last name) had a habit of calling for a connection by giving their number as in "One hundred and 9" + their last name. One day one of the operators (a relative of mine) got a call from him, and he simply stated "Three hundred and sixty six Piggs please." My great Aunt was young then, and a bit silly, so she said, "Ok Mr. Carlisle. I'm starting with them now, so open the gate." Mr. Carlisle was very incensed and had his phone removed -- for awhile. :)

CaroL

CaroL

They were Hoggs

and were more than moderately wealthy, especially in the pre-oil days. Big Jim was one of the most popular governors Texas ever had (still incumbents only claims to be "the best since Jim Hogg"). Ima (whom I met once - well was introduced to.), who never married and so stay Ima Hogg her whole life, became the grand dame of Texas and lived well into her nineties, collecting antiques and giving them away museums and the White House mostly. Ura is purely fictitious; who would name their child that?

1 of my favorite frank zappa stories

laika's picture

relates perfectly to this topic. I believe I've told it here at BCTS before in some other context:

Frank's daughter MOON UNIT came up to him at age 9 or 10 or so, complaining, "Dad! Why did you give us kids these terrible names! I'm so embarrassed!"

Ever the libertarian, Zappa said, "If you don't want to be named Moon Unit we can go have it changed. What name did you have in mind?"

She told him, "BEAUTYHEART!"

.
It's a story Zappa told in an interview when asked how his kids were coping with their odd names...
~~~LOL and hugs, Laika

.
"Government will only recognize 2 genders, male + female,
as assigned at birth-" (In his own words:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1lugbpMKDU

I think that if I had the name Chardonnay

I'd reckon that my parents were certainly on something; it's not a name that I would choose.

Mind you, given than I sort-of chose my own name (I was Susan at about age 12), that would have been rather silly. I'd never even heard of Chardonnay (the drink) at age 12. Not only that, but it would definitely not have been a suitable girl's name in 1958.

Susie