Names like John, James, Elizabeth, and Mary once dominated the UK’s classrooms and playgrounds.
But scientists now say these traditional favourites could be dying out.
A new study shows that parents are increasingly looking for the most unique names for their children as they turn their backs on traditional favourites.
And it isn’t just British babies whose names are getting more unusual, as researchers found that parents around the world are following the same trend.
If you want to see whether your name is at risk of dying out, you can use our interactive tool below to find out.
First select your gender, then enter your name and select it from the drop–down menu.
The chart will tell you how many babies of your sex and name were born in 2024, how popular it is, how it has changed from its heyday, and when your name reached peak position in the charts.
You can then compare your name against up to five more names of any gender.
Previous studies have suggested that there is a growing trend of parents deliberately choosing names that are perceived as uncommon or unique.
However, these studies only looked at an individual country through a very specific scientific lens.
Instead, Professor Yuji Ogihara, of Aoyama Gakuin University, compared historical naming data from several countries.
This revealed that unique names have become more frequent in Germany, the US, France, Japan, China, and Indonesia.
Exactly how this quest for uniqueness appears varies from country to country, and changes based on naming conventions.
For instance, Professor Ogihara says that people in Japan pay more attention to how a name is read, while people in China are more concerned about how the name is written.
However, the overall trend is the same – fewer people are sharing common popular names, while more people are given unique or very rare names.
Professor Ogihara told the Daily Mail: ‘One of the main reasons is that people seek for more uniqueness and distinction from others.’
The researcher adds that he expects the trend to ‘continue for a while’ into the foreseeable future.
In the UK, one of the most obvious consequences of this is the steady disappearance of names that had been extremely common.
For example, Jack had previously topped the popularity list for babies every year between 1996 and 2008.
However, in 2024, ONS data shows that the name ranked just 22nd, with only 1,711 babies being given the name.
That is a decrease of more than 70 per cent compared with 10 years ago, marking the biggest fall from grace of any of the 6,000–plus boy names.
Likewise, the number of babies named Harry fell by 3,600, a decrease of 67 per cent from the last decade, and now sits 20th, with a continuing downward trajectory.
The story is the same for girls, with babies named Emily falling from 3,991 to 1,170 and girls called Jessica declining from 2,995 to just 483.
At the same time, a popular name rising the charts is Arlo, an Old English word for ‘fortified hill’ which saw a rise from 397 in 2014 to 2,220 in 2024 for a total change of 1,823 (459 per cent).
Scientists say that once–popular baby names are dying out as parents favour unique variations and unusual spellings over traditional favourites (stock image)
This has been accompanied by a significant increase in the popularity of culturally and religiously specific names, such as Mohammed, Nabeel, and Iqra.
However, research shows that the UK’s cultural diversity is not the main driver of this trend.
A study published in 2018 by researchers from the University of Oxford found that changes in ethnic diversity alone could not explain the explosion in unique names.
In the ONS dataset, around 65 per cent of names were registered to fewer than 10 babies in a given year, while four per cent of names are recorded only once in 20 years.
The researchers found that parents typically followed short–lived baby naming trends, picking a unique–sounding name until it became common enough to fall out of fashion.
Frequently, this involved adding a unique ending or alternative spelling to a previously popular name or ‘old–fashioned’ name that has fallen out of fashion.
For example, the researchers found a spike in babies named Abagael in 1999, Abygayle in 2000, Abaigael in 2004, and Abbygael in 2013.
In 2016, names with alternative endings, such as Hollee, Holley, Holli, Hollie and Holly, made up 9.1 per cent of all unique names.
