The results are in: this year’s most popular baby names have been announced and they aren’t what you’d call run-of-the-mill.
BabyCentre has revealed that parents of baby girls are still big fans of the name Sophia, which tops the list for the sixth year in a row and loads and loads of newborn sons are being named Jackson, which polled top of the boys’ list for the third year running.
Some parents have taken the search for an unusual name for their child a step further, though, shunning normcore names like Emily and opting for Instagram-inspired names instead. Baby names that grew in popularity in 2015 included Lux (up 75% since 2014), Ludwig (up 42%) and Amaro (up 26%). For boys, Valencia was up 26% and Juno was up 30% for girls.
It seems parents are also bestowing their newborns with regal aspirations. The gender-neutral name Royalty increased in popularity by 90% in 2015. Duchess was up 75% from 2014, Reign up 54% and Sultan up 25%. We have a feeling these children might grow up to be slightly haughty - you try telling a Duchess to pick up her dirty socks.
We now live in fear of the day when parents start naming their children after the app via which they conceived their little bundle of joy… Baby Tinder on the cards for 2016? You heard it hear first.
Words by Francesca Donovan
