Charlotte still queen of the playground, 10 years on: A decade of baby name analysis is released
Charlotte and Oliver continue their eight-year reign as the most popular baby names. But a decade of data shows some other names on the way up.
Lifestyle
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It’s official, Charlotte continues to reign supreme as the name of choice for the nation’s little princesses with Oliver her undisputed prince.
National research firm McCrindle has today released its 2021 Baby Names Report which analyses trends over the past decade.
For the eighth time in 10 years, the name Charlotte has taken out the top sport for girls with Oliver also consistently emerging as number one for boys.
“Analysing baby names at any point in history paints a fascinating picture of that era,” social researcher Ashley Fell.
“The year 2010 marked the beginning of not only a new decade but of a new generation – ‘Generation Alpha’, the most digital, global and visual generation on the planet.”
Ms Fell said for girls, Charlotte had been the most popular girls name since 2015, the year Princess Charlotte was born.
“The British Royal Family – and particularly the younger generation – continue to capture the hearts of Australians with their influence extending beyond fashion and hairstyle choices to baby names,” she said.
“In the seven years since Prince George was born, George’s rank in the baby name (top 100) list has jumped 29 places to 31 … while Archie (the name of Meghan and Harry’s young son) has increased 17 positions to a strong 16th today.”
While in a slightly different order, the Top 10 girls’ names have remained mostly unchanged in the past year, except for Matilda replacing the name Harper and Amelia eclipsing Olivia as the second most popular name.
Oliver has enjoyed an uninterrupted eight years at the top spot since overtaking Jack as the number one boys’ name in 2013.
In the last year, Elijah has made an entrance to the Top 10 boys’ names, at the expense of the name James which dropped from 10th to 15th.
Ms Fell said despite the consistency, parents were selecting from a greater range of names, particularly when it came to choosing names for their daughters.
“Some girls’ names worth noting include Mila which debuted in the Top 100 in 2017 and is now ranked 22nd … Luna, Freya and Millie have also seen significant growth in popularity since debuting in 2017.
“(While) Sadie, which debuted in the Top 100 last year, at 65th has increased its rank to 58th.”
Remi, Harlow, Hallie, Maeve, Adeline, Molly, Maggie, Delilah, Eliza and Isabel have entered the Top 100 girls list with Heidi, Madeline, Riley, Alexis, Victoria, Madison, Lilly, Chelsea, Indiana, and Thea dropping out.
Several boys’ names have spiked in popularity, including Arthur which has risen from 83 in 2017 to be the 40th most popular baby boy name today.
Also for boys, Leonardo, River, Luka, Lewis and Lennox have entered to Top 100 at the expense of Tyler, Jake, Christian, Nate and Aaron.
Ms Fell said another emerging trend was parents opting for shorter or nicknames as first names – as well as adding an “ie” to the end of a name – so Rose to Rosie.
“(So) Jack (4th) outranks Jackson (42nd), Leo (5th) outranks Leonardo (80th) and Archie (16th) outranks Archer (23rd),” she said.
“And the use of gentle, softer-sounding names for girls and firmer sounding names for boys is an ongoing trend with baby names in Australia,” she said.
This week five-month-old Charlotte Evelyn Reinbrecht was introduced to Oliver Dean Centofanti, seven months old.
Georgia Satterthwaite, said she and husband Dylan had both liked the name Charlotte and given it was also his great-great grandmother’s name, the sense of history was appealing in naming their first child – Evelyn is the name of Georgia’s mum.
A nice touch, their precious girl was delivered by Ashford Hospital obstetrician Dr Charlotte Paull.
“We decided on the name Charlotte when we found out at 20 weeks we were having a girl but didn’t share it until after she was born … it was really special and lovely,” Ms Satterthwaite said.
As for little Oliver?
“Oliver Dean just came so naturally – we knew then it was just perfect. Dean was after my husband Daniel’s father Dino,” first-time mum Celeste said.
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