How to Tell a British Baby from an American: Differences in Naming Trends

The U.K. Office of National Statistics announced the most popular names given to babies born in England and Wales in 2011. (Scotland keeps its own statistics on names.) A lot of the names that Americans might recognize as trendy stateside also do well in England/Wales: Olivia, Isabella, Noah, and Ethan, for instance. (Even the much-maligned Jayden gets a fair amount of use.) But given that the U.S. and the U.K. are, famously, “two nations divided by a common language,” it shouldn’t be surprising that there are a few general differences between the lists for the U.S. and those for England/Wales.

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Here are a few that I found:

1. Diminutive names

One glance at the top 100 lists for England/Wales reveals that they’re littered with diminutive names such as Charlie (#5 for boys), Evie (#11, girls), and Katie (#57, girls). These are names that Americans usually regard as nicknames: perfectly fine to use in most circumstances but not on the birth certificate, where we favor Charles, Evelyn (or Eva), and Katherine. (The highest diminutive I can find on the American lists is Ellie, at #97 for girls.) The popularity of diminutives across the pond might be surprising to some Americans who like to imagine that the U.K., in contrast to the youthful casualness of the former colonies, is full of prim and proper Victorians. After all, last year’s royal wedding taught us that even Kate Middleton is really a Catherine.

Perhaps the difference has to do with class. Americans may shy away from bestowing diminutives upon their children because they suspect that such “cutesy” names will prevent their children from climbing the ranks and becoming CEOs. In the more-rigid class system of the U.K., on the other hand, some parents might believe that that sort of advancement is so unlikely that it’s not worth letting it affect their choice of a name. So Charlie it is. (Interestingly, the U.S. wasn’t always so attached to formal names; a century ago, names like Willie and Annie ranked near the top, though usually still behind their more-formal equivalents.)

2. Gendered and unisex names

There’s a long tradition in the U.S. of names commonly identified with boys that gradually become more popular for girls. Two of the most obvious examples, probably, are Leslie and Ashley. In 2011 this was true for nearly a dozen girls’ names in the U.S. top 100. A few of them, names such as Avery and Morgan, continue to linger in the top 1,000 for boys, lending them a unisex quality that some find appealing. Other names, such as Peyton and Mackenzie, first reached the U.S. top 1,000 as girls’ names, but—perhaps because they don’t immediately read as feminine—they’re now often given to boys as well.

This sort of mobility and inclusivity, however, appears to be not nearly as common in England and Wales. Of the top 100 names for girls, a list laden with diminutives and floral names (Poppy, Daisy, Holly), none were given to any more than six (that’s right, six) boys. In general, unisex names appear to be more popular in the U.S., where they’re as likely to skew female as male*. Tellingly, perhaps, three such names (Riley, Bailey, and Taylor) appeared in the U.S. top 100 for girls as well as the England/Wales top 100 for boys. And an Ashley in Leeds, it turns out, is still more likely be called “sir” than “ma’am.”

(*Data-crunching time! Let’s define a Popular Unisex Name [PUN] as one that appears in the top 100 for at least one sex and in the top 500 for both sexes, with neither sex accounting for more than 90% of the total usage. By that rubric, the U.S. data boasts 10 PUNs, 6 of which currently skew female, while the England/Wales data contains only 2, both skewing male.)

3. Other cultural idiosyncrasies

Two of the most popular boys’ names in England/Wales are Harry (#1) and Alfie (#4). Both are relatively rare in the United States, but I’d wager it’s not just because of Americans’ prejudice against diminutives. They also carry greater cultural resonance in the U.K., in part because of the laddish prince and the 1966 Michael Caine film set in swinging London, respectively. (Harry Potter doesn’t hurt, either.)

Certainly, the varied constellation of celebrities and public figures in each country means that different names are “in the air.” Some have attributed the rise of Amelia in England/Wales (#1, girls) to Amelia Lily, a contestant in last year’s edition of the British reality show The X Factor. Likewise, the distinctly British popularity of Jenson (#67, boys)—given to 966 boys in England/Wales versus only 82 in the U.S.—likely owes something to the popularity of British Formula One driver Jenson Button, whose sport is overshadowed by NASCAR in America.

Other names are simply more rooted in local culture and values. In England/Wales, the traditional Scottish name Finlay (#66, boys) and the Welsh name Seren (#127, girls), neither of which have ever appeared in the U.S. top 1,000, are good examples. So, too, is Imogen (#32, girls), a name traceable to Shakespeare’s Cymbeline that, despite a notable exception, never quite found favor in the States. (Then again, Jessica—another name supposedly coined by the Bard, in The Merchant of Venice—certainly did.) On the other hand, American parents show a much greater interest than their British counterparts in boys’ names like Landon (#34), Wyatt (#48), and Colton (#74), perhaps because they resonate with the American romanticization of cowboys and the frontier. (Think, for instance, of television-western star Michael Landon, Wild West icon Wyatt Earp, and gunsmith Samuel Colt.)

Lastly, the distinct immigrant populations in each country have a pronounced influence on naming trends. For the last several years, it’s been argued that Mohammed (#19) is in fact the most-popular boys’ name in England/Wales—if all of its variant spellings, such as Muhammad (#22) and Mohammad (#63), are combined. With far fewer Muslims per capita in the U.S. than in the U.K., the most-popular version of the name (Mohamed) can’t even crack the top 400. By contrast, the American lists are full of names reflecting the country’s growing Latino community, while most of them—e.g., Camila (#48, girls) and Jose (#65, boys)—barely register in Blighty.

For more thoughts on the differences between British and American baby names (some of which I’ve drawn from), I recommend these posts by Laura Wattenberg at her stellar Baby Name Wizard blog.


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