Harry and Amelia Top Baby Names

Top Baby Names Revealed
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Believe it or not, but Harry and Amelia has been revealed as the top names for babies born in England and Wales last year, staying in the top spots from 2011.

They were such popular names for newborns that parents across all regions in the Office for National Statistics data chose Amelia as their first pick for their baby girls.

This covers the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East, London, South East, South West and Wales.

Harry was the top choice for a boy in all bar three of these areas. Muhammad was the top name for a new baby boy in London while North East parents opted for Jack and Welsh parents picked Jacob.

Among the boys' names, Riley replaced Joshua in the top 10 popularity charts created from the final annual births registrations, which include all live births in England and Wales in 2012.

Riley climbed five places from number 13 to number eight for baby boys.

Among the girls, Mia and Isla replaced Ruby and Grace in the top 10 by climbing six and seven places from numbers 13 and 15 respectively to fill the seventh and eighth slots.

In Wales, Jacob was the most popular name for baby boys, replacing Oliver, while Amelia replaced Lily as the most popular name for baby girls.

The success of some famous faces could be behind the popularity of some names, according to the ONS, which added that the religious, cultural and/or ethnic background of parents may also be key.

Family members, friends or fictional characters could be a factor behind the great diversity of baby names.

There were 729,674 live births in England and Wales in 2012, with more than 28,000 different boys' names and some 36,000 different girls' names registered. The top 10 only account for 13% of all names in 2012.

Hugo, Sonny, Seth, Elliott, Theodore, Rory and Ellis were the only new names for boys to appear in the top 100.

These replaced Joel, Hayden, John, Ashton, Jackson, Ben and Reece, which fell out of the top 100.

Hugo came in as a new entry at number 88, up from 139, while Sonny stands at number 90, up 18 places from 108.

Seth was a place behind, having jumped 10 spots in the popularity chart, while Elliott came in at number 95, up 12 places, and Theodore moved 27 places to number 97.

Rory was ranked at number 99, having risen by 11, and Ellis came in at 100, up three spots.

Bobby made the biggest jump in popularity, rising 19 places to become the 57th most popular boys' name.

Frankie, at equal 66, Arthur up 16 places to number 52, plus Jenson and Blake, both up 13 to 54 and equal 66

respectively, were also popular high climbers.

Among the top 100, Aiden, Finlay, Jamie and Rhys saw the largest slides in popularity.

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