Babies’ first names, most common surnames and the ethnicity of people who died

National Records of Scotland (NRS) today published:

• the full list of first names given to babies whose births were registered in 2016
• the most common surnames in the Birth, Marriage and Death registers for 2016
• information about the ethnicity of people whose deaths were registered in Scotland.

The babies’ first names publication is the full list of first forenames registered in 2016 and supersedes the top 100 lists published on 20 December, which covered births registered up to 3 December 2016. The most popular names for girls and boys remain unchanged (Olivia and Jack), but the ranking of some names in the boys’ top ten has changed. 

The three top surnames in the Birth, Marriage and Death registers for 2016 were Smith, Brown and Wilson. These have been the most common surnames recorded in the registers for at least 40 years, based on five-yearly analysis going back to 1975.

NRS has also published material about its work to collect details of the ethnicity of people whose deaths are registered in Scotland. From 2012, this information has been collected on a voluntary basis. NRS’s report concludes that the data are not (at present) suitable for calculating reliable mortality rates for most ethnicities, and that NRS may be able to improve the quality in future.

Further information can be found in the following sections on this website:

• Babies' Names 2016 contains full lists of babies’ first names for 2016, in alphabetical order in Table 4 and in rank order in Table 5.
• An Interactive Data visualisation is also available for this publication on this website.
• Babies’ First Names - Full Lists for each year contains lists of babies' first names in rank order from 1974.
• How the top names have changed contains information over how the top names have changed from the first available data.
• Most Common Surnames in Birth, Marriage and Death registers contains information about the most common surnames back every fifth year back to 1975.
• Ethnicity of the deceased person contains information about work to collect details of the ethnicity of people who died, including a report on the quality of the data.