Be on trend with Nellie and Parker
While there’s negligible change at the top of the latest official list of girls and boys baby names, we’ve looked a little deeper and found the new trend setters. The real winners this year are Nellie and Parker, two names that have made a spectacular rise up the chart in the last ten years.
Take Nellie our star performer. She was way down at number 1269 back in 2011 and in 2019 she was knocking at the door of the top 100 at number 114. That’s a rise of 1155 places in eight years.
Nellie Melba
We can think of Dame Nellie Melba the Australian soprano who had the peach melba dessert named in her honour in the 1890s. Then there’s the song Nellie Dean from the music hall era but otherwise the door’s wide open for a new generation of Nellies to make their mark – probably around 2040!
Parker has shot up more than 900 places in the boys list from 1055 in 2010 to 121 last year. We don’t know any famous Parkers although there’s a smattering of American sportsmen and politicians from the middle of the last century.
Meanwhile the tops of the tables have Olivia and Oliver still secure with a few minor moves in the top ten for boys and girls. A little lower come the names that have been moving steadily upwards in the past decade. Both Theodore and Teddy are still rising along with Grayson, Ralph, Chester and Hudson. Louis was dropping until royals William and Kate gave the name to their younger son and now he’s up 16 to number 53. Gospel writers Matthew and Luke cling on at 99 and 100.
Big risers among the girls include Luna with a gain of almost 500 places in ten years to 36. Ada is also up 500 during the decade to 47 while Margot shot up from 786 ten years ago to 94 in 2019.
For the record, these are the top tens with Freya up eight places into the top ten for the first time
and no newcomers in the boys’ list
1 Olivia Oliver
2 Amelia George
3 Isla Noah
4 Ava Arthur
5 Mia Harry
6 Isabella Leo
7 Sophia Muhammad
8 Grace Jack
9 Lily Charlie
10 Freya Oscar
All data from the Office for National Statistics