Top baby names for 2018 revealed - by order of the Peaky Blinders?

In 2018, the most popular names for new babies in England and Wales were Olivia and Oliver.

Prince Harry may have had an influence on names in our region

Oliver has been top of the charts for six years now but the trend was bucked in our region, where 269 Harrys were named, compared to 264 Olivers.

The North-East is on trend for girls, however, with Olivia being the most popular name here too.

Across England and Wales, Arthur was the only new entry into the top ten for boys, replacing Jacob.

Sophia and Grace bumped Poppy and Lily out of the top ten names for girls, while Peaky Blinders is suspected of being responsible for Ada appearing in the top 100 for the first time in a century and Arthur making it into the top ten.

Character Ada Shelby in the hit show Peaky Blinders played by Sophie Rundle. Picture: Robert Viglasky / Caryn Mandabach and Tiger Aspect Production

According to the Office for National Statistics, mothers aged over 35 were more likely to choose traditional names, with mothers under 25 often keen to use shortened or hyphenated names for their babies.

Nick Stripe from the ONS said: “Oliver and Olivia remained the most popular baby names in 2018, although there are the first signs that Oliver’s six-year reign as the number one name for boys is under threat. Arthur surged into the top 10 boys’ names for the first time since the 1920s, and Ada jumped into the girls’ top 100 for the first time in a century too, both perhaps inspired by characters in the BBC TV drama Peaky Blinders.

On the flipside, the growth in the use of technology assistants in our homes may help to explain why the number of baby girls named Alexa has more than halved compared with 2017. Communicating with young children can be hard enough at the best of times.”

• What did you name your children? Let us know in the comments