Connor and Zander, Eva and Lily most popular names in Shetland
Rosalind GriffithsThe most popular babies’ names in Shetland this year were Connor and Zander for boys and Eva and Lily for girls, according to the Register General for Scotland in data released this week.
Four registrations of each name were recorded. Other favourites for boys, with three registrations each, were Calum, Charlie, Ethan, Jacob, James, Magnus, Robbie, Ryan and Sonny.
For girls Olivia came in third with three registrations, but names that occurred less than three times were not recorded. A wide variety of girls’ names this year included Marni, Merran, Ella or Ellie, Evie, Annie, Mia, Callie and Grace. More unusual were Ocean, Carmen, Indi, Alesha and Willow. Unusual names for boys included Jaxon, Elijah and Xavier.
Around 250 babies are registered in Shetland annually – this figure includes country as well as Lerwick registrations and could include babies born outwith Shetland.
In Scotland as a whole Jack and Sophie were the most popular baby names in 2011. Jack remains the top boys’ name with Lewis in second place – both for a fourth consecutive year. Between them, these have been the top two boys’ names for the past 13 years.
James and Logan stay in third and fourth places respectively and Ethan climbs six places to fifth. Alexander and Harry are new entrants to the top 10 while Charlie, Riley, Dylan and Aiden join the top 20. Those going down include Ross, Alex and Craig.
Sophie is the most popular girls’ name for the seventh year in a row, with Lily climbing seven places to second. Ava stays in third place while Olivia falls two places to fourth and Emily falls one place to fifth.
Big climbers in the 2011 baby name charts include Riley and Mason for boys, and in girls’ names Jessica joins the top 10 with Milly, Sophia and Kayla new entrants in the top 20.
The top 50 names for both boys and girls accounted for nearly half of all registrations up to the end of November.
Registrar General for Scotland George MacKenzie said: “We registered the births of nearly 28,000 boys and over 26,000 girls in the period to late November 2011. Parents chose more than 7,000 different names for their children and over 4,000 of these were unique.”
In England and Wales Olivia for girls and Oliver for boys were the most popular.
Paul Moar
Dear Sir/Madam,
It was interesting to see the article yesterday(21/12/11) regarding the most popular baby names in Shetland over this past year. On this note I wondered if I could bring to peoples’ attention my small book that was printed by The Shetland Times back in 2007 entitled “Shetland’s Old Norse Personal Names”. It is a selection of personal names from the norse era which I gathered including their meanings. The book also has Norwegian and Faroese sections which brings the total number of names to approximately 300.
The book is still available from The Shetland Times bookshop priced at a very reasonable £4.99, or alternatively to loan from the Shetland Library. My hope is that any parents to-be looking for an old Shetland name or a name which is a little different will find it of interest.
Yours Sincerely,
Paul Moar