Charlie O'Brien blog: Most popular baby names of the year

by Charlie O'Brien

When we went to register our son Noah’s birth – the lady doing the paperwork really rained on our newborn parade by saying "Ooooh I’ve registered loads of Noah’s recently – he’ll be in a class full of them!"

To this day I really think she should have kept her mouth firmly shut. Registering your child’s name is a special occasion for any parent, and for someone to basically tell you that the name you’ve just chosen is extremely common is just a bit unkind.

But – she was right.

Noah has now entered the Top 10 baby names for the first time, meaning that it is very common, or as I prefer to say – popular!

Oliver and Amelia will be among the most popular - but there will be some unusual additions too.

A few people have mentioned it to me over the past few days with a look of alarm on their faces – but I’m honestly fine with the fact that my son has a popular name. It means people like it! (Or they’re all copying me?)

Funnily enough when I was pregnant, I was determined to have a name that wasn’t popular. We didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl and I came up with all sorts of weird and wonderful names – all of which were vetoed by my partner Jay.

A name though that we both loved was Noah. There was no particular reason behind it, we just loved the simplicity of it and the way it sounds. I’ve always been drawn to biblical names.

We had about three or four boys names on a list when we went into hospital to give birth but they obviously meant very little to me because I can’t even remember what they were now!

In 2005, just 18 girls in England and Wales were given the name Aria, but in terms of popularity the name has increased by 3,000% in 10 years, with 562 girls given the name in 2015

After a difficult delivery I simply looked at Jay and whispered 'Noah?' he nodded, and that was it. It just felt right.

My advice for picking names is go with something you LOVE.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the No.1 most popular name (currently Oliver and Amelia by the way) or something that no one has ever heard of! What’s important is that you’re happy to give your child that name for the rest of their lives.

Fashions and trends change. In 2000 Noah was only at 134 in the name charts and now it’s No.7. Who knows, in a few years people will probably stop using it again.

Every year I love reading about the trends and the more unusual names people have chosen. Some of my favourite highlights from the figures that have just been released for last year are: