Noahs, Muhammads, Amelias and Olivias dominate the London baby scene.
The Office for National Statistics has released its annual data on new baby names across England and Wales, relating to birth registrations in 2019. Handily, it's broken down by local authority, including the London boroughs.
It's easy to see which names are most commonly given to newborn boys and girls across London. The results are plotted on the map above.
We did the same exercise for the 2018 and 2017 data, so we can also spot recent trends and changes.
The year in newborn girls has seen a continuation of popularity for Olivia (9), Amelia (8) and Sophia/Sofia (7). Mia has seen a minor gain (from two boroughs to four). Sienna makes her debut as the most popular girls' name in Lambeth.
For boys, 2019 seems to have brought an inundation of Noahs. Six London Boroughs have Noah as the most popular name for boys. Only Lewisham — ever ahead of the curve — could say that in the previous year. The tide of Noahs has swept away some of the Leos and Alexanders who peppered last year's map.
Muhammad/Mohammed still tops the most boroughs — the same eight as last year. Welcome to all the babies called Theodore in Hammersmith & Fulham, a name that appears for the first time this year.
Interesting though these stats are, they're also based on small data sets. Typically, a 'top' name was only registered a couple dozen times in the given borough, and the second-place name may have seen only a registration or two fewer. If we instead sum the data across all the London boroughs, then the stats stack up as follows:
Top Boys' Names in London 2019 (all boroughs)
60,550 boys were registered across the 33 London authorities in 2019.
1. Muhammad (692)
2. Noah (667)
3. Leo (537)
4. Alexander (524)
5. Oliver (506)
6. George (481)
7. Adam (447)
8. Arthur (465)
9. David (415)
10. Daniel (383)
Top Girls' Names in London 2019 (all boroughs)
57,347 girls were registered across the 33 London authorities in 2019.
1. Amelia (545)
2. Olivia (540)
3. Mia (447)
4. Sofia (440)
5. Maya (414)
6. Sophia (408)
7. Ava (366)
8. Isabella (362)
9. Sienna (301)
10. Lily (295)
