Jack and Sophie are Scotland’s Top Baby Names

Jack and Sophie were the most popular baby names in 2013, National Records of Scotland announced today. Jack was the top boys’ name for a sixth consecutive year, and Sophie was the most popular girls’ name for the ninth year in a row. 

However, while the leading names remain the same, there have been some perhaps surprising changes among those that follow them. 

James became the second most popular boys' name for the first time in this century. From 1999 to 2012, Jack and Lewis were the top two boys’ names, with Jack at number one (and Lewis second) in ten of those 14 years, and Lewis top (and Jack second) in the other four - but, this year, James is second, and Lewis drops to third. 

Oliver rose six places to fourth, and Daniel is up one at fifth. There are two new entrants to the boys' top ten: Lucas (up 12 places to eighth) and Charlie (up two places to tenth). Logan (sixth), Alexander (seventh) and Harry (ninth) make up the rest of the boys' top ten.

Two names drop out of the boys' top ten: Ethan (down five places to twelfth) and Riley (down nine places to thirteenth), with the latter's fall in sharp contrast to its jump into the top ten in 2012.

Harris, Jacob, Noah and Thomas have moved into the boys' top twenty, with Aaron, Adam, Liam, Ryan and Tyler dropping out (the "extra" drop out is because two names were joint twentieth in 2012).

Olivia climbed two places to become the second most popular girls' name in this year’s list, just nine behind Sophie in numbers. Emily fell from second to third, and Isla rose from sixth to fourth.  

There are two new entrants to the girls' top ten: Ella (up 16 places to eighth) and Millie (up one place to tenth). Lucy, Ava and Jessica are fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, Ava having fallen from third. Amelia remains ninth.

Lily (down four places to eleventh) and Mia (down seven to seventeenth) drop out of the girls' top ten. 

There are two new entrants to the girls' top twenty (Ella and Erin), with Hannah and Holly dropping out.

National Records of Scotland registered the births of around 26,700 boys and 25,200 girls in the first 11 months of 2013. The top fifty boys’ first names accounted for 42 per cent of all those registered and the top fifty girls’ first names accounted for 40 per cent of the registrations. Jack was the first name of just 2.1 per cent of the boys, and Sophie was the first name of only 1.9 per cent of the girls.

Parents chose over 7,400 different first forenames for their children and around 4,800 of these were unique (in the first 11 months of 2013).

Big climbers within the 2013 baby name top fifty charts include:

• Lucas (up 12 places to eighth)
• Noah (up 15 places to 14th)
• Harris (up 12 places to 16th)
• Jacob (up 15 places to 20th)
• Leo (up 16 places to 23rd)
• Kai (up 14 places to 30th)
• David (up 10 places to 35th)
• Ella (up 16 places to eighth)
• Poppy (up 10 places to joint 25th)
• Lexi (up 11 places to joint 29th)
• Lacey (up 12 places to joint 29th)
• Daisy (up 11 places to joint 38th)

The full publication, Babies' First Names 2013, is available on the NRS website.