When you're choosing a name for your baby it makes sense to find out what the current most popular names are, whether you want to avoid giving your baby a name that's quite common or to pick up on the latest naming trends.
The current favourites for girls are something of a mix of styles. There are the perennial classics such as Emily, Charlotte, Emma, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Sarah; the more modern, like Jessica, Poppy, Phoebe and Jasmine; the new-comers such as Alisha, Lola, Paige, Brooke and Madison; and even names that were not so long-ago considered terribly old-fashioned, such as Grace, Mathilda and Madeleine.
The celebrity influence is still a marked trend, perhaps accounting for the sudden appearance in the most popular ranks of names like Sienna (after actress Sienna Miller), Keira (actress Keira Knightley), Leona (after X-Factor winner Leona Lewis) and Ava (the name Myleene Klass chose for daughter born in 2006). It may well also be that the revival of the current number one, Grace, owes something to Kate Moss's naming of her daughter, Lila Grace, in 2002. Also still going strong is the penchant for using shortened names, or diminuitive versions of traditional names as full names, so you have Lucy (Lucilla, Lucille), Evie (Eve), Katie (Katherine), Libby (Elizabeth).
So here they are, the top 100 names for 2006 and 2007 as chosen by parents in England and Wales. To put a little perspective on things, the second most popular girls' name, Ruby, was given to 4,355 or the girls born in 2007. Check this link for the most popular boys' names.
