In August 2019 we reported on the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data on baby name popularity, including an interactive lookup.
We combined the data for the past two years with the historical data from 1996 to 2016 to show the trends in certain names, including those with the sharpest increases and decreases in the past 10 years. Arthur has seen the biggest upward curve, which the ONS puts down to the popularity of Peaky Blinders.
The story saw the first use of a sparkline chart by the data team, generated using R's ggplot package.
- ONS: Baby names in England and Wales: 2018 and All data related to Baby names in England and Wales: 2018
- XLSX: 2017 boys' names
- XLSX: 2017 girls' names
- XLSX: 2018 boys' names
- XLSX: 2018 girls' names
- XLSX: All babies' names 1996-2016
- Nick Stripe, Statistician, ONS
- Bar chart: Top baby names in England and Wales - girls and boys
- Sparkline chart: Baby names with the biggest rise in popularity (1996-2018)
- Sparkline chart: Baby names with the biggest fall in popularity (1996-2018)
This is the 4th year that the data unit has reported on the ONS figures. Previous reports include:
- 2016: Amelia and Muhammad are the most popular baby names in the West Midlands
- 2017: Baby names: Olivia top as William makes way for Muhammad
- 2018: Baby names: Hunter and Aurora join top 100