Oliver, Olivia most popular names in UK

After a 14-year reign, Jack has lost its stranglehold on the title of England and Wales’ top name for newborn boys, replaced by Oliver.

Olivia was the most popular name for newborn girls for the second year in a row, according to figures published by the Office of National Statistics, on first names given to babies born in 2009.

Jack remained a trendy name for boys, ranking second, while Harry came in third.

Ruby and Chloe were the second and third most popular names chosen for girls.

There were no new entries in the top 10 for either boys’ or girls’ names compared with 2008, although there were regional variations with popularity of names.

Oliver was the most popular name for boys in six English regions, for example, but Jack was still the top name in Wales, and in the northeast and northwest of England. Mohammed ranked 16th nationally for boys, but was the most popular name in the West Midlands.

Compared to names chosen for babies 10 years earlier, there was a resurgence in the popularity of names which were possibly once associated with people of the inter-war generation, or earlier.

Evie was the tenth most popular name given to baby girls in 2009, for example, moving up 157 places since 1999.

Ruby, the second most popular name for girls last year, was ranked 91 places lower 10 years ago.

Boys names such as Alfie and Charlie have followed a similar trend.

Six names in the boys top 10 last year were also there in 1999 – Jack, Joshua, Thomas, James, Daniel and William.

Five girls’ names featured in both lists – Olivia, Chloe, Emily, Sophie and Jessica.

There were 706,248 live births in England and Wales last year.

The lists of the top 10 baby names for boys and girls in 2009 are:

Boys: 1. Oliver, 2. Jack, 3. Harry, 4. Alfie, 5. Joshua, 6. Thomas, 7. Charlie, 8. William, 9. James and 10. Daniel.

Girls: 1. Olivia, 2. Ruby, 3. Chloe, 4. Emily, 5. Sophie, 6. Jessica, 7. Grace, 8. Lily, 9. Amelia and 10. Evie.