The Top 100 Analysis

The Rising Names

 

New Entrants to the Top 10

There was only one new entrant to the Top 10 for the girls  this year, with Poppy racing up 6 places to #7, replacing the once-darling of the flower world: Lily, who falls to #12.

As for the boys, Oscar races into the Top 10 to sit at #7, whilst George sneaks back in at #10. They replace Alfie and Riley.

New Entrants to the Top 100

On the boys side there was the most amount of movement into and out of the Top 100. In all, 6 names are new on the boys side:

• Teddy (now #86, up from #141, that’s a massive leap of 55 places)
• Ibrahim (now #89, up from #107)
• Ronnie (now #90, up from #105)
• Felix (now #91, up from #114)
• Austin (now #94, up from 108)
• Albert (now #99, up from #109, which has made me very happy)

As for the girls, there were only 3 new entrants:

• Victoria (now #88, up from #106)
• Darcy (now #93, up from #107)
• Beatrice (now #95, up from #114)

Big Jumps in the Top 100

With Teddy doing so well this year, it may not surprise you to hear that Theodore also made big leaps within the Top 100 after his first entrance last year at #97, jumping up about 20 places to #78. Other big rises for the boys are: Hugo; Reuben; Elijah; Oscar; and Blake, who all rose at least 10 places.

As for the girls, the highest rising name within the Top 100 was Elsie (for the second year rising) who rose about 20 places, also, to break the 50 mark at #47. Elsie first joined the Top 100 in 2011. Nature names fared well in the Top 100, with Willow (15 places), Violet, and Ivy (both 22 places, respectively) also being high risers.

The Falling Names

 

Exiters of the Top 100

And the names they’ve replaced are:

• Rhys (#101)
• Ellis (#103)
• Kayden (#104)
• Bailey (#113)
• Taylor (#118)
• Kyle (#120)

For the girls, this year Sara and Lydia shared the Top 100 spot, thus only two names fell out:

• Caitlin (#114)
• Keira (#110)

Big Falls in the Top 100

It may not surprise the British public to hear Cameron was one of the biggest fallers in 2013, falling 16 places to #93; at this rate, he may drop out altogether for the 2014 list. Other names falling far within the Top 100 are Callum, Liam, Tyler and Riley, all falling at least 10 places each.

For the girls, the big fallers were: Hollie (down 21 places to #75); Paige (down 18 places to #98); Madison (down 17 places to #92); and Amy (down 14 places to #76).

5 Alternatives to Poppy

from bbc.co.uk

Last week we talked about alternatives for Archie, and this week we’re back to talk about another Top 100 name: Poppy.

It’s a good time to talk about Poppy, because the annual Poppy Appeal by the Royal British Legion kicks off in late October time and until mid-November you really can’t look left nor right without seeing someone sporting a familiar red flower.

Aside from the appeal, it’s really not hard to see why we here in England love the name Poppy, she has the cutesy feel that everyone seems to love these days, but unlike many other popular names isn’t strictly a nickname.

I don’t really see the perceived cuteness as a bad thing, since Poppy has been fairly popular for a few years now (hey, she was at #92 back in 1996), so much so that I know several Poppys my age and above.

Can I imagine a name like Poppy on someone over the age of 30?

Why yes, yes I can.

Of course, one of the big issues with finding alternatives to Poppy is that everyone has already thought of all the obvious choices; names like Lily, Maisie, Ruby and Rosie are all in the England&Wales Top 100, so are automatically disqualified from the list.

However, I persevered and finally managed to come up with a list of 5 names, with several other names narrowly missing the cut. The names picked out were mostly chosen for having a similar feel to Poppy, which is of course highly subjective so feel free to disagree with me if you so choose.

1. Petal

Chef Jamie Oliver has four children, called Poppy, Daisy, Petal and Buddy. The name Petal sticks with the almost-cutesy floral feel of Poppy, and again she isn’t strictly a nickname.

Unlike Poppy however, Petal is a borderline rarity at #5785, with only 3 girls given the name in England&Wales in 2011.

2. Posy

Posy is an interesting name because she can be a short form of Josephine, but at the same time the word posy relates to a bunch of flowers, thus we get back to the floral but not [quite] a nickname brief. There are also the alternative spellings of Posey and Poesy, but only Posy ranks, at #4764 with 4 girls being given the name.

3. Penny

Penny is in the same bag as Posy, as she is undoubtedly a popular nickname for Penelope. Like Posy, however, there does also exist a word penny, which is slang for 1 pence pieces here in the UK.

Penny is one of the more popular names on the list at #398, with a total of 115 girls given the name in 2011.

4. Perry

And now time for something different, as Perry has a slight unisex vibe which leaves her with a little less in the cuteness stakes. Here in the UK, we do have a famous female with the name: Perri Shakes-Drayton, a hurdler for Team GB during London 2012. If you’re still rockin’ the Olympics vibe, she’s a lovely option to consider. Especially if you’re looking for a name that does not rank.

5. Peggy

So old she’s fresh? Potentially, and it’s that potential that helped Peggy claim the final spot on this list. I can remember back to when I was little and the show to watch was Playdays, which featured a puppet called Peggy. The name ranked at #1043 in 2011, with 33 girls given the name.

To end, a few honourable mentions go out to: Sosie; Sunny; Darcey; Bonnie; Kitty; Sunday; Connie and Lottie.

Homestyle Names

Nothing is more homely than a good brew, snapped by me in Covent Garden.

Not content with having a gazillion different blogs to read new posts on a regular basis, I’ve recently taken a delve into vlogs as well.

One video that really caught my eye was by littlelunaful, who is a northern lass a few years younger than me. She talked about what she described as homestyle names, defining them as being comforting, familiar, informal and simple. I must say I found myself really liking some of the names she placed in this category. The names she selected for her list included:

Girls:

Bonnie

Celia

Cora

Effie

Kitty

Lottie

Nina

Tilly

Vera

Willa

Boys:

Cal

Clay

Cy

Cyrus

Eli

Grady/Gradie

Leo

Admittedly, I found the male names a more eclectic list than the female one, but it’s a good collection of names nevertheless. Of course, I couldn’t resist coming up with my own ideas of names which one could consider homestyle:

Alice

Connie

Hattie

Molly

Petal

Poppy

Susie

Freddie

George

James/Jamie – Jimmy?

Jools/Jules

Rupert

Sid

Anyone care to suggest others?

Slightly More Usual Names

from flickr.com

I mention not-so-usual names quite a bit – I originally intended on covering a name given to only 20 boys in England&Wales in 2010 today, but put it on hold for another day. Instead, we’re talking about some Top 100 names I’m glad to see popular, and if I’m really honest with myself, I would happily use any of these names in a heartbeat.

Harry

Deep down, I know I’d love to use the name Harry. He does get a bit of a bad rap in some areas – usually by those who pronounce the same the same as the word hairy. Here in the UK, they’re completely different and that’s probably why he’s so much more successful here. You’d think the Harry Potter series would’ve promoted the British pronunciation elsewhere, but it seems to have made little impact. Either way, I find myself rathering Harry to Henry. I’m honestly unsure of why, certainly in the UK, you would use Henry and then use the nickname Harry – except for family/personal reasons. I guess I could understand it in the States where Henry is just so much more popular than Harry.

Of course, some of you will predictably want to only use him as a nickname, so here’s a quick list of potential ideas for full names of Harry:

Harper; Harrier (previously mentioned); Harold; Harvey; Horatio; Harding; Hardy; Amishar; Berhard/Bernard; Charbonnet; Charles; Charleston/Charlton; Harlow; Harrison; Harrod; Hartley; Harvard; Lothar; Harrison; Richard; Sacha; Zachariah/Zachary; Christopher.

Harry was at #3 in England&Wales in 2010 and he means home ruler. That is, if you’re deriving him from Henry.

Archie

I guess my heart did sink a little when I heard Rebecca Woolf proclaim that she doesn’t like the name Archie, and fights against her son Archer becoming one. These days it does seem more likely that parents wanting a long form of Archie would opt for Archer over Archibald. I like the idea of Archer, in that I happen to call the same part of the world home as Robin Hood once did – one of the most famed archers of legend. Back in Medieval times, you’d have been hard pressed to find an English man who could not wield a bow and arrow, as men were trained from the age of 7 by their father. The name Archibald somewhat reflects the characteristics of an archer with his meanings: Genuine; bold; brave.

One could call Archie the British Emma – like Emma with Emily, he has benefitted hugely from the popularity of the name Alfie. I know of plenty of people opting to use Archie over Alfie due to his position as being the lesser popular of the two – although these days the gap is relatively small. In 2010, Archie ranked at #24, whilst Alfie ranked at #4.

Stanley

I think I love him because he is just so hopelessly uncool in the eyes of many. That’s probably why I’m currently reconsidering my position on Percy. Surprisingly popular in this fair isle – slightly more so in Wales (#70) than England (#100) on rankings – there could be a variety of reasons why. The main character in popular sitcom Porridge was called Norman Stanley Fletcher ‘Fletch’, and is widely regarded as a great comic creation. We also have the explorer Sir Henry Morten Stanley – and of course there’s also Stan Shunpike and Stanley Yelnats from the fictional world. Of course, Stanley has also hugely benefited from the sudden interest in ‘old people names’. The name Stanley means stone clearing.

As much as I try to be open to the world of unisex names, the fact that Nameberry list Stanley as a female name unsettles me somewhat, more than the fact he’s listed on their Names No Boy May Be Cool Enough For list.

Jenson/Sonny

If you’re thinking, huh, I didn’t realise Sonny was in the top 100, you’d be half right. Sonny ranks at #100 in Wales alone (#113 in England, and combined at #111). It’s a slight cheat, yes, but if it seems apt to mention him with Jenson. The latter name is popular because of the F1 driver, and part of me is beyond thrilled because I did wonder whether parents would be put off by the ‘Jen‘ part of the name (especially with Jennifer lingering around). I guess the driver is well-known enough for parents to be prepared to use him.

As for Sonny, I’m slightly surprised by the uptake of the name, but know I shouldn’t really be. Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Richard Jones welcomed their own Sonny way back in 2004. Brother Kit Valentine followed in 2009, and they’ve recently announced that they’re expecting another bundle of joy later on this year.

Maisie

Most of you will know that I’m a fan of Maisie. She’s a nickname for Mairead, the Scottish form of Margaret. Her Scottish origins go some way to explaining her fierce popularity in this part of the world, despite Anglo-Scottish relations never being particularly close – and potentially to grow further apart if Alex Salmond gets his way. It’s also worth noting that whilst Maisie ranks at #14 in 2010 in England&Wales, the #15 spot is taken my sound sister Daisy.

Poppy

Thinking about it, I hardly ever see this name discussed along the likes of Rose, Clementine and Lily and that could be because she’s nowhere to be seen in the States. I checked, too, and she hasn’t been in the Top 1000 at all in the past 100 years, although she was given to 118 girls in 2010. I’m also quite surprised I’ve never really looked in depth at Poppy, because she is a personal favourite of mine – alongside plenty of other P- names including, but not exclusive to fellow floral names Primrose and Peony.

As a possibly source of her success, I’ve had plenty of friends and acquaintances tell me that should they have a daughter in November, they’d name her Poppy, as a reference to the annual Poppy Appeal which runs from October-time to Remembrance day; It’s run by The Royal British Legion. My local bus service has started adorning their fleet with poppies in the last year or two. I know last year that there was a stand-off between Fifa and the England squad when their plan to wear a new-design shirt featuring the poppy in their match against Spain was met with a ban from Fifa. In the end a compromise of an armband featuring a poppy was reached. It did, however, cause widespread outrage which just shows how highly the imagery of the poppy is held.

Imogen

I first came across this name about 6 years ago on a six year old, and it was said aloud before I heard it said. My first thought was wow, her parents named her imagine, that’s really sweet. It’s a simple mistake, and her creation came from one: Shakespeare intended on calling his character in Cymbeline, Innogen, not Imogen until a mistake in the printing occured – altering her name to Imogen and as thus she remained unchanged back to her intended form. It’s likely that the name means maiden and she ranked at #26 in England&Wales in 2010.

Isla

I do like how this name sounds, although some are troubled by her usual spelling – wanting to sound the s when she should remain silent. One can only hope that the high profile of actress Isla Fisher will lead to increased awareness of how to saw her name, not that this worked with Harry Potter. The name Isla derives from the name of a Scottish island – Islay, which is pronounced the same as Isla. An interesting tidbit is that Behind the Name considers Islay a male name. That makes Isla, in theory, part of a growing band of place names you never realised you were using. She therefore joins the ranks of Sofia and Stanley. Isla also happens to be the Spanish word for island and she ranked at #22 in England&Wales in 2010.

Eliza

I’m not a particular fan of Beth – despite having two lovely workmates with the name; both are just Beth. It therefore figures that I should have a slight preference for Eliza over Elizabeth, but I find myself non-the-bothered. Going back to the previous name, I recently over heard a lady considering the idea of naming her soon-to-be-born daughter Elizabeth – but then using the nickname Isla. Looking at the letters of Elizabeth, it definitely works and thus the pool of Elizabeth diminutives grows. Speaking of them, there’s a great little Name Challenge over at Upswing Baby Names this week concerning offshoots of Elizabeth. The name Elizabeth means my God is an oath and Eliza ranked at #93 in England&Wales in 2010 (Elizabeth at #49).

Landed

Father filled in the name badge, just so ya know

I landed back at Gatwick this morning, bleary eyed and in desperate need of a sugar boost. I was also brimming with name news, so much that it deserves it’s own post. This is kind of like a Name Spot post, in fact, it really is.

I spent most of my time exploring the various areas Disneyland Orlando and comparing them with their Paris counterpart which I hold so dear in my heart. Ebba and I are agreed that we much prefer the It’s A Small World in Paris. Some interesting tidbits from that part of my holiday were:

• I met my first Asher at Magic Kingdom.
• My Christmas dinner waiter was named Kim. Not particularly exciting until you know that Kim was a hulking Norwegian dude.
• There’s a ride in the Norway section of Epcot called Maelstrom, which continually reminded me of the name Maelle.
• I noticed in amongst the scenery for Splash Mountain a three-tier letterbox outside one of the ‘houses’ of what I presumed to be sisters, who were named Pansy, Poppy and Petunia.
• On my birthday I watched the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular show-thingy at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where the main female stunt lady was called Devin. Or maybe Devon. One of the ‘extras’ sourced from the crowd was also celebrating a birthday. Her name? Cady. She was probably my age-ish.
• I also drew Pascal from Tangled at the drawing class. The lady taking the class said he was named after a real-life chameleon some lady owned who had some relations with production. She gave more details, but I was too busy having a crisis with his eyes.

And from other areas of our Florida epic:

• On the flight back I cracked and watched Come Fly With Me for the first time. Whilst most of the names were picked for their double meanings, there were some interesting names used: Melody, Omar, Moses, Fearghal (in the episode I watched he mentioned brother Finnbar), Judith, Buster, Hetty and Precious.
• Something I also watched during the flight back was the hugely popular sitcom Outnumbered. The youngest child of the family is called Karen, and is played by a girl named Ramona. Two things: I once had someone tell me that Karen was one of the ultimate baby-boomer names, yet this is a girl born circa mid-noughties; the last Ramona I met was a similar age and was frequently referred to as Manon.
• Whilst sat at the departures gate, I took a bash at a crossword. I’m more of a suduko girl than crossword one, mostly because I pick the Metro up most days and they only have sudokus in it. Either way, one of the clues was simply Reverie (5).
• Predictably, Bear Blu has made it onto most of the Worst Celeb Baby Names list going. I never mentioned this at the time, but it seems apt given whats on the plate next to me: Billy Bear is a type of reformed ham for kids which is extremely popular in my household. It’s always my first thought when I hear Bear Blu.
• Something that always surprises me when I go abroad is the lack of crisp flavours available. Thanks to Walkers, we have such flavours as Worcestershire Sauce, Smokey Bacon and Builder’s Breakfast on offer here in the UK. When you get abroad, Walkers is almost invariably known as Lays and only appears to offer the standard Ready Salted variety. Why am I babbling on about crisps? There’s another brand of crisps here in the UK called Phileas Fogg – a possible alternative to Phineas, should you want one? He’s also a character in Jules Verne’s Around The World In Eighty Days.
• I opened the majority of my Christmas/Birthday presents a few hours ago, and it prompted a thought in me. What about Meccano? It’s a construction toy invented by Frank Hornby (the train dude) that I’ve always wanted but never given.
• I showed the Fenton video to an American. It’s easily my most favourite viral name of the year. Currently we’re called my brother Fenton.

It seems ages ago now that I posted the Lies Non-Name Nerds Tell Me post, but I now have yet another interesting occurence to add to the list:

• My Fatyher showed an American the infamous Carling Black Label advert whilst at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. You know, that one which heavily references the war, in line with a very British sense of humour. The man in question was not particularly impressed, to say the least – but he later asked why Carling was such a popular name. Perhaps there was something lost in accent translation, but I think he may have meant to say either Charlie, Carly or maybe even Carter. That said, Carling is an interesting option if you don’t mind the alcohol reference. Stella hasn’t done too bad, and plenty of Rebeccas are known as Becks without issue. Let’s not even get onto the subject of ladies named things such as Shandy, Brandy and Meade.

When Penelope Gets Popular

Paloma Faith may inspire you, from metro.co.uk

When I originally penned the Clementine post, I never imagined doing a sequel post or even turning it into a series, but the fact of the matter is that the name Penelope is getting popular, and I’ve started to wonder about what alternatives are out there. This post started off as me pondering about what other names I could get Penny from (the final three being Typhena, Peony and Euphemia), but the original draft of such a post seemed like more should be said. An elaboration was in order, and a sequel was born. So, what other names could we use when Penelope gets too popular for our liking? Just to illustrate the fact that she has grown in popularity, here’s how she’s fared in the past few years:

	2003	2004	2005	2006
Rank	583	565	562	678
Births	50	55	59	46
	2007	2008	2009	2010
Rank	515	427	328	272
Births	72	99	135	181

A ranking of #272 is something to take note of, since she’s shot up from #678 in 2006 to where she is today. To start off with, it seems best to first approach this topic by asking what exactly are the kinds of names people are pairing the name Penelope with, either as sibling or middle names? A trip to the London Telegraph Birth Announcements was in order to find just that out, and it was an eclectic bunch of names to say the least; here is a cut-down version:

• Annabel
• Aurelia
• Bróna
• Clementine
• Esther
• Evelyn
• Dorothea
• Felicity
• Florence
• Georgina
• Harriet
• Hettie
• Horatia
• Jemima
• Lucinda
• Marissa
• Muriel
• Nancy
• Orla
• Scarlett
• Serena
• Willa

The names Clementine and Florence came up severeal times, whilst Lucinda also came up at least twice. There are some conflicting styles in the names, from the seldom heard Horatia, to the very Irish name Bróna. Since Florence is a clear favourite, it seems apt to kick off a list of suggestions with the younger Nightingale sister’s name: Parthenope. Like her sister before her, Parthenope was named after an Italian city, and like Penelope, she’s four-syllables. If long names are your preference, another four-syllable P name is Philomena, which shares Penelope’s Greek roots. Dorothea from the above list also shares this trait. Other four-syllable Greek names include:

• Angeliki
• Calliope
• Cassiopeia (technically five-syllables)
• Elisavet
• Eugenia (modern Greek form: Evgenia)
• Konstantina
• Louiza
• Ophelia
• Paraskeve (Pah-rah-ske-vee)
• Persephone
• Theodora
• Timothea
• Zenovia/Zenobia

But you may have no Greek heritage, which means the above list may means nothing at all to you. Fear not, for there are other, more English-based, options out there. The current leader of the pack for me is Peony. She’s floral, like Lily, and could also shorten to Penny if your heart so desires. I’m astonisahed that only 9 of them were born in England&Wales in 2010, because she is such a pretty name. I first came upon her, myself, when reading a book which I can’t for the life of me remember. But what I can remember was that Peony wore trousers with different coloured legs. She was an eccentric child, to say the least. Another seldom used name in England&Wales in Tolulope, given to just 4 girls in 2010, whilst Temitope was given to 10 girls.

Another P name that I reckon will be rising fast here in the UK in the next few years is Paloma. We’ve already had pop act Florence&The Machine attributed to the rise of Florence, and there’s another similar artist in the UK right now called Paloma Faith. She was the goth girl, Andrea, in the first of the rebooted St.Trinians films, but has since embraced colour to the max. Her name is Spanish for dove. Another British pop act, Mika, has three sisters named Yasmina, Paloma and Zuleika.

Going back to 2000, Penelope was given to 35 girls that year, as was Henrietta. Other names ranking similarly to her, and also containing four syllables (within 45-25 births) in 2000, with their 2010 ranking/birth number in brackets after are:

• Angelica (#531, 75 births)
• Henrietta (#730, 50 births)
• Ophelia (#559, 71 births)
• Valentina (#521, 77 births)
• Veronica (#452, 92 births)

As you can see, non of them have broken the Top 300 as Penelope has done, but they have all risen since 2000 and could rise further but maybe not as quickly as dear Penny. That leads us onto another point, one could simply use a nickname of Penelope instead. Aside from Poppy, which resides firmly in the Top 100, the nicknames are generally not as popular as their long form:

• Nell – #390
• Nelly – #747
• Penny – #396
• Petal – #3156
• Piper – #719
• Polly – #300
• Posy – #4688

I would also suggest Pippa as a nickname for Penelope, but she’s also on the express train to popularity at the moment. I guess one could argue that Philippa is another great alternative choice, who has actually been going backwards in the past few years. Other vintage-sounding P names include Patience, Prudence and Pearl, and Pomeline is a name with Royal heritage.

To conclude, Penelope is a great name with some great alternatives should her popularity put you off. My line on popularity is the same as always, though: if your heart says go for it, just go for it regardless of how popular the name may be.