Siobhan Thomas - Best Baby Names 2022

Siobhan Thomas is a copywriter and senior editor for the UKs largest baby names website, babynames.co.uk. She oversees the thousands of articles, new name suggestions and discussions in the sites popular community forums. As well as being interested in the history and meaning of names, Siobhan is particularly drawn to how names follow trends, different peoples associations with names and how divisive the subject can be! Enormous thanks to Rosanne Rivers, a freelance writer, novelist and leader of writing workshops for young people. Her work was invaluable in compiling and editing the thousands of names in this book. I would also like to thank James Macfarlane for giving me the opportunity to write this book and for his continuous encouragement and good humour from beginning to end. Thanks, also, to James Brighton, Alan Jones and Annabel Freer for their assistance and input.

Finally I must thank Helen OShea and Dan Holt for their reviews of the manuscript and for their honest opinions and feedback. My mum, Pat, and my husband, Owen, also did their share of rereading but more importantly I want to thank them, and Orla Goncalves, for all their help with the children, without which this book would never have been completed!
Babynames.co.uk is the UKs favourite baby names website. If you want to extend your search online there couldnt be a better place to start. With a strong community of over 30,000 members providing help and advice, as well as entertainment, you can be sure that any question you have will be answered. Babynames.co.uk also offers a baby names generator for inspiration and quizzes to keep you entertained while you decide on your babys name.

What makes a good name is hugely dependent on when and where.

We can look back over the last century and recognise some of the baby names that were popular 100 years ago; however, many of our modern names would be completely alien to parents of that time. The same is true about all of us who have grown up in different countries and different cultures around the world. Apart from our generation and where we live, our own very individual life experiences will affect our attitudes towards certain names. The names of friends, family, film stars, heroes, bullies, private relationships or public personalities are all going to affect how we view any particular name. Old-fashioned differences between our aspirations for girls and boys still influence our choice of names today. With girls names, many parents still say that they are seeking something feminine, or pretty.

For boys, parents often say they are looking for a strong name. Of course, that isnt to say that a girls name cant be pretty and strong, or a boys name cant be gentle without being weak. There are also plenty of names that are widely used for both genders, which may well support a recent trend for names that are gender neutral. In some cultures, such as Greek Orthodox, the name of a new baby is often determined by the fathers name; having a Junior in the family has long been associated with Americans too, but it has become much less popular there in recent years as parents seek out more unique names. Elsewhere names are determined by a whole host of factors: a baby girl, born at the end of the week to Ghanaian parents, might be called Afia, which means born on a Friday; many Native American names are drawn from nature (direct translations include Rainbow and Butterfly); and African cultures often draw on their aspirations for their children, using names such as Prosperity or Beautiful. In the UK we have been experimenting with new ideas for some time.

In 2011, there was a raging debate on the baby forums when the Beckhams named their daughter Harper Seven and when Beyonc and Jay-Z called their baby girl Blue Ivy Carter. Some people loved these unique and audacious choices for names, while others disagreed, saying that they were too self-consciously unusual. However, five years later when Jamie and Jools Oliver named their baby son River Rocket it hardly created a murmur. Indeed some public speculation was supportive along the lines that the names probably had relevance as the River Cafe is where Jamie Oliver had his big break into TV. Rocket was fine as it is either aspirational or a salad, appropriately for a chef. If you do not want anything too off the wall and want to be sure of a name that will be considered good and already in circulation for your babys generation, you can look at the Top 100 currently most popular baby names on .

The names parents are choosing are becoming ever more diverse. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 40% of girls and 50% of boys have a name in the top 100. This may be due to a number of factors including the desire for unique names, the influence of a more international popular culture and a growth in the number of babies born to international-born parents living in the UK. Many parents have said how they thought they had made an unusual choice only to find out later that it appeared surprisingly high on the popularity lists. In recent decades the UK has become more cosmopolitan and people today are no longer surprised by unfamiliar names. With names from many countries, cultures and languages with several spelling options, unusual and unique names themselves have become more acceptable and far less of a social risk than in Grannys time.

The emergence of the young royals into parenthood has created a renewed interest in the royal family and the names they choose for their babies. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge named their babies George, Charlotte and Louis while Meghan and Harry chose Archie and Lilibet, all popular choices in the UK. Celebrities in the music, TV and film worlds are often pioneers in naming creativity which has encouraged more parents to be bold in their choices. For example: Hart, True, Stormi and Chicago may soon start to appear as popular choices.

For those who have had their childrens names ready and waiting before their babies were even conceived, the pressure is off unless you change your mind, of course! In theory, there is no rush you have nine months to consider your babys name. Youd think that this would be long enough, but it isnt always! Lots of people find that their baby is in their arms before they have made up their mind.

In fact, there are many parents who have their name options finalised well ahead of babys arrival, only to find that they change their mind after meeting their newborn. There is no need to panic if you arent ready to name the baby straight away. It is perfectly acceptable to give yourselves a little time with your new arrival to consider what name you are going to give them. Dont feel under pressure from your friends and family who absolutely need to know what to write in the new baby card, or the grandparents who just have to have the name to tell their friends. This is your baby, and youll do it in your own good time! Cuddle them, talk to them, try out your shortlist (and any others that come to mind) and youll soon find a name that feels right for your baby. However, do keep in mind that in the UK parents are legally obliged to register their childs name before they are six weeks old.

But this should give you plenty of time to decide!