England & Wales Baby Names
Baby name trends in England & Wales since 1996
How to use: Type names in the box below, then move your mouse over the graph to see annual rankings. Or see some naming trends.
Naming trends 1996-2010
Note on the data: I calculated absolute rises and falls by subtracting the number of births in the name's least popular year from the number of births in the name's most popular year. I calculated proportional rises and falls by dividing the number of births (corrected for the annual birthrate) in the name's most popular year by the number of births (corrected for the annual birthrate) in the name's least popular year. If you would like to do your own analysis of the data, you may wish to see the ONS's raw data and the script I used to calculate these trends. Please do get in touch with feedback.
- What is this?
- The chart shows names chosen by parents in England & Wales each year from 1996 to 2010, based on data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). See the blog post for more information.
- How should I use it?
- Type names that interest you in the box on the left-hand side, then watch the graph change. Move your mouse over the graph to see year-on-year numbers and rankings. To find interesting and unusual names, try typing one letter at a time, then explore the graph and the grid - e.g. see all names beginning with I.
- Does it show every single name registered in England & Wales? I know a Gandalf who isn't listed here.
- Almost - for privacy reasons, the ONS doesn't record names that are given to only one or two babies in a year (so no Gandalfs).
- Can I search for names containing, or ending in, a particular letter?
- Yes, you can use regular expressions, which sounds complicated but isn't really. Here are some examples:
- All names beginning with Al and ending with x: search for Al.*x$. Again, the .* part stands for "any character" and the x$ means "ends with x".
- All names ending in a: search for .*a$. The .* part stands for "any character" and the a$ means "ends with a".
- All names beginning with m, containing an m, and ending with d or t: search for M.*m.*[dt]$. The .* part stands for "any character", and the [dt]$ means "ends with d or t".
- Haven't I seen something like this before?
- Yes - it's inspired by the US version, the NameVoyager. This is a version using English data, built with modern web technology.
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ONS data is Crown Copyright, reproduced under the Open Government Licence. Site created in cooperation with BabyNameWizard, inspired by their NameVoyager project. For more information on the NameVoyager, please contact BabyNameWizard.