Harry new top name for baby boys, statistics show

AMELIA and Harry are the most popular names for babies, official new statistics show.

The upmarket monikers knocked previous favourites Oliver and Olivia into second place.

Harry, which means “home ruler’ has climbed five places in popularity since 2001, while Amelia, which means “work and effort’ leaped 31 places.

Baby experts said the trend for naming tots Harry was popular as the posh name is now “classless’, with famous Harry’s including Prince Harry, One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles and boy wizard Harry Potter.

Famous Amelias include X Factor star Amelia Lily, actress Amelia Bullmore and aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. Similar name Amelie - a French version of the name - was number 54 in the top 100.

Boy’s name Jack which topped the list for 14 years to 2008 slid to third place, according to 2011 figures for England and Wales from the Office of National Statistics.The third favourite name for girls was Lily.

But there were regional variations with mums in Wales still preferring Oliver for boys and Lily for girls.

In the top ten girls names Ava and Isabella both climbed two places to replaced Evie and Chloe while Jacob replaced George in the top 10 for boys. But there were three different spellings for Mohammed in the top 100, which if added together would make it the third most popular boy’s name.

In total there were just six new girls names and five new boy’s names in the top 100, including Elijah, Tommy, Frankie, and Blake for boys and Bella, Elsie, Willow, Kayla, Francesca and Lydia for girls.

The fastest climbing name for girls was Eliza, which rose 31 places to 62 while Jenson gained 29 places to reach number 67 for boys.

But boy’s names Ben, Kyle and Cameron shows the biggest falls in popularity along with Caitlin, Katie and Keira for girls.

The Office of National Statistics said: “There is a great diversity of baby names.”

Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard said: “Both Harry and Amelia are posh names which have been embraced by the public. From Prince Harry to Harry Potter and Harry Styles, every mum has a favourite Harry. The name has become classless and suggests cheeky fun, so it’s perfectly suited to bouncing baby boys.

“Amelia, and Amelie which rose to number 54, are pretty, feminine names which have been climbing in popularity for some time. While Amelie was first popularised ten years ago by the French film of the same name. X Factor star Amelia Lily helped make the English version more widely known.

“Both are lovely choices and it’s interesting to see them overtake some of the more unusual celebrity-driven monikers. It seems mums are turning away from the unusual and back to the more traditional names, but with a twist.”

TOP FOR BOYS

1 HARRY

2 OLIVER

3 JACK

4 ALFIE

5 CHARLIE

6 THOMAS

7 JACOB

8 JAMES

9 JOSHUA

10 WILLIAM

TOP FOR GIRLS

1 AMELIA

2 OLIVIA

3 LILY

4 JESSICA

5 EMILY

6 SOPHIE

7 RUBY

8 GRACE

9 AVA

10 ISABELLA