The Office for National Statistics has released its official baby names data for 2024, covering every birth registered in England and Wales last year.
The headlines are familiar at the top. But further down the list, things get genuinely interesting — old names returning, new names arriving, and a few surprises at the very bottom.
The Number Ones
Girls: Olivia. 2,761 babies. Top of the list for almost ten years now. In the top three since 2006. At this point it is not a trend, it is a permanent fixture.
Boys: Muhammad. 5,721 babies — the second consecutive year at number one. When you add Mohammed at rank 21 with 1,760 babies, and Mohammad at rank 53 with 986, the name in all its spellings represents a significant portion of every boy born in England and Wales in 2024.
The Top 10: Girls
- Olivia
- Amelia
- Lily — pushed Isla out of third place
- Isla
- Ivy
- Florence
- Freya
- Poppy
- Ava
- Elsie
The Top 10: Boys
- Muhammad
- Noah
- Oliver
- George
- Arthur
- Luca — new to the top 10
- Henry — new to the top 10
- Charlie
- Theo — dropped out of last year’s top 10
- Freddie — also dropped out
Luca and Henry both entered the top 10 this year while Theo and Freddie made way. Not a dramatic reshuffle but enough movement to notice.
What Moved
Floral names dominated the girls’ chart. Fifteen of the top 100 girl names are floral or botanical. Three are in the top ten alone — Lily, Ivy, and Poppy. Google searches for floral baby names were up 400 percent in the final quarter of 2024 according to trend data, which suggests this is not going away any time soon.
A handful of names entered the top 100 for the first time in 2024:
Girls: Hazel, Autumn, Nevaeh, Raya, Lilah
Boys: Jax, Enzo, Bodhi
Aurora sits at 49 for girls, continuing its steady climb. The gothic and fantasy genre boom is showing up clearly — searches for gothic baby names were up 140 percent at the end of 2024, and names like Aurora and names with similar atmosphere are rising alongside it.
The Names Nobody Chose
The ONS also publishes names used fewer than five times across the entire country.
At the bottom for boys: Cuthbert, Crispin, Awesome, and Beckham.
At the bottom for girls: Orchid, Poem, Sicily, and Everest.
Crispin is genuinely beautiful and deserves better. Awesome is exactly what it sounds like.
Wales vs England
The naming patterns diverge meaningfully once you cross the border.
In Wales the top three girls’ names were Isla, Olivia and Freya. In England it was Olivia, Amelia and Lily. Muhammad ranked 63rd in Wales, where it was the top name in four out of nine English regions.
It is a useful reminder that the national headline numbers mask real regional and cultural variation beneath them.
What 2025 Might Look Like
Pop culture drives naming in ways the data consistently confirms.
Moana 2 released in 2024 and is expected to push Polynesian and nature-inspired names higher in next year’s data. The Brat Summer moment around Charli XCX is predicted to lift Charlie. And the ongoing boom in gothic fiction — A Court of Thorns and Roses alone has sold over 13 million copies — means the fantasy and fairytale names that have been creeping up the charts are likely to accelerate.
Floral names are not going anywhere. The trend has been building for years and shows no sign of peaking.