The annual list of popular baby names was released this week by the Office of National Statistics. Which names were top? Olivia and Oliver (for the second year running).

Others in the top 5 were Jack, Alfie, Harry and Charlie for boys and Sophie, Emily, Lily and Amelia for girls.

Ollie was the fastest rising name in the boys’ top 100 while Olly was 113th.

When looking at the figures just for Wales, Oliver and Ruby were the most popular boys’ and girls’ names.

In eight of the English regions, Oliver was the most popular name, however Jack came top in the North East.

Among baby girls, Olivia was the top name in seven English regions, Sophie was the most popular in the East and Lily in the South West. (Source: BBC News)

Names go through trends – when I was born ‘Michelle’ must have been very popular as 3 other girls in my high school form group were also called Michelle! I’m not sure why it’s become less popular, as the Hebrew meaning of the name is apparently “who is like God?” (not sure why there’s a question mark there either).

A few years ago a company did a survey on ‘traditional’ British names and found they were dying out. Perhaps instead of Olivia and Oliver, parents could consider Ethel or Gertrude and Percy or Clifford?