Baby Names in 2018
Now that 2018 has drawn to a close it's time to look back at the top baby names from last year. The National Records of Scotland don't reveal the most popular names in Scotland for 2018 until March time but here are some interesting findings that I've discovered from personalising hundreds of Baby's 1st Christmas and new born baby gifts.
As I predicted last year, gender neutral names have proved popular. Names such as Charlie, Robin, Skylar and River to name a few have received personalised gifts from CalEli Gifts!
Aria/Arya from Game of Thrones and Pretty Little Liars, Elsa from Frozen, Peter and Jemima from Peter Rabbit and Chase from Paw Patrol have all influenced parents when naming their baby.
It appears that the most popular names in the UK from 2017 such as Olivia, Sophia, Emily, Muhammad, Oliver and Noah will still be in the Top 10 Names of 2018. Indeed I have seen these names mentioned repeatedly on personalisation requests.
Some parents are so keen to find a unique name for their baby that they turned to inspiration from colours, places, animals even the weather! Blue, Storm, London, Buddy Bear, Fox and Hawk have all been welcomed into the world last year. Thankfully the New Zealand government stepped in and banned one couple who wanted to call their newborn "sex fruit!"
So what will 2019 bring? It is thought that animal inspired baby names will continue to boom so watch out for "wolf", "lion" or "tiger" arriving shortly. I noticed some traditional names last year reappearing - my mother in law was delighted when I told her I had personalised several gifts for baby Evelyns! It is believed that we will continue to see a growth of older names coming back in. Names such as Patricia (my Mum will be pleased!) and other names from the 1970s will make a return. Indeed Brian became popular again last year. Agnes was the third most common girls names for hundreds of years but practically disappeared over the last few decades but it might make a return too. Perhaps the cute little girl in Despicable Me has helped with this?
Just watch this space to see what happens this year!