Popular Baby Names 2019: This Is What Parents Are Choosing This Year So Far

Is Love Island actually influencing parents' choices? ๐Ÿ‘€
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The most popular names of 2019 so far have been revealed โ€“ and weโ€™re surprised at some of the trends popping up.

The team at BabyCentre analysed the baby name registrations of tens of thousands of new parents on their website this year โ€“ and found a rise in โ€œstrong and stable namesโ€, especially those with a 1980s twist.

Once-common names that had fallen out of favour like Michael, Jason, John and David are all rising in popularity for boys, while more girls are being named Penny, Emma, Hannah and Maxine than in recent years.

Environmental awareness is thought to be behind Davidโ€™s resurrection, in the form of affectionate nods to beloved Sir David Attenborough. Greta, as sported by teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg, is also on the rise, as are a lot of nature-influenced names โ€“ Willow, Ivy, Robyn, Raven and Sage.

The team at BabyCentre claims โ€œboxset cultureโ€ is responsible for the rising popularity of names like Jake, Amy, Rosa and Charles (all Brooklyn Nine-Nine characters); Otis, Evie and Maeve (as seen on Netflixโ€™s Sex Education) and Penny (from The Big Bang Theory).

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There might be something in BabyCentreโ€™s claim that Love Island is influencing names, too. Many former contestantsโ€™ names are on the rise: Kady, Scott, Nathan, Cara, Amber, Kem (and his full name Kemal), Camilla, Jamie, Chris (and Christopher), Marcel and Georgia. That seems like too many to ignore.

Here are top 20 boysโ€™ and girlsโ€™ names, in full, for the first half of 2019.

Top Girlsโ€™ Names:

  1. Olivia

  2. Sophia

  3. Lily

  4. Ava

  5. Mia

  6. Isla

  7. Amelia

  8. Freya

  9. Isabella

  10. Emily

  11. Aria

  12. Evie

  13. Grace

  14. Isabelle

  15. Ella

  16. Ivy

  17. Sophie

  18. Willow

  19. Charlotte

  20. Elsie

Top Boysโ€™ Names:

  1. Muhammad

  2. Noah

  3. George

  4. Oliver

  5. Charlie

  6. Harry

  7. Leo

  8. Arthur

  9. Jack

  10. Freddie

  11. Jaxon

  12. Ethan

  13. Jacob

  14. Theo

  15. Oscar

  16. Alfie

  17. Henry

  18. Archie

  19. Joshua

  20. Thomas

See the full list of 2019 baby names here.

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