Olivia and Jack are Scotland’s top baby names

National Records of Scotland reveals most popular names in 2016

Olivia and Jack were the most popular first forenames for babies whose births were registered in 2016, National Records of Scotland (NRS) announced today. Olivia replaced Emily to become the top girls’ name for the first time ever (in these figures, which go back to 1974). Jack was the most popular boys’ name for the ninth consecutive year.

Olivia just made it as the top girls’ name: 492 baby girls were named Olivia, with Emily coming a close second at 490. Olivia rose from third in 2015 to first in 2016, and Sophie was down from second to third (having been the top name from 2005 to 2013). Isla remained fourth, Ava rose one place to fifth, and Amelia was up one place to sixth. Jessica fell two places to seventh, Ella and Lucy remained eighth and ninth, and Charlotte jumped eleven places to tenth.

Charlotte was the only entrant to the girls’ Top Ten; Lily (down two places to joint twelfth) was the only name to drop out.

Sophia (up three places to sixteenth) was the fastest climber within the girls’ Top Twenty. There were three entrants to the girls’ Top Twenty: Charlotte, Aria (up fourteen places to eleventh) and Evie (up eight places to eighteenth).

Jack remained the most popular boys’ name. James rose from third in 2015 to second in 2016, and Oliver was down from second to third. Lewis remained in fourth place. Logan rose three places to fifth, Harry climbed ten places to sixth, Noah jumped eight places to seventh, Leo rose five places to eighth, Charlie was down three places at ninth and Alexander fell from fifth to tenth.

Harry, Noah and Leo were the only entrants to the boys' Top Ten; Lucas (down four places to joint eleventh), Harris (down four places to thirteenth) and Daniel (down eight places to eighteenth) dropped out.

The fastest climbers within the boys’ Top Twenty were Harry, Noah and Leo. Ethan was the only entrant to the Top Twenty, up six places to seventeenth.

Other big climbers within the 2016 Top Fifties included:

• Isabella (up nine places to 33rd)
• Robyn (up nine places to 37th)
• Jaxon (up nine places to joint 38th)
• Sofia (up eight places to joint 41st) 

National Records of Scotland registered the births of 26,408 boys and 24,489 girls in the period covered by these figures. Parents chose 3,132 different first forenames for boys and 4,137 different first forenames for girls. In total, 2,072 boys and 2,671 girls were given first forenames that were unique (in the period covered by these figures). The numbers of different names, and of unique names, were well above the levels of 10, 20 or 40 years ago.

The top fifty boys’ first names accounted for 40 per cent of all those registered and the top fifty girls’ first names accounted for 38 per cent of registrations. Jack was the first name of only 1.8 per cent of boys, and Olivia was the first name of just 2.0 per cent of girls.

The full publication Babies' Names 2016 is available on this website.

An Infographic is also available for this publication on this website.