England’s Most Popular Baby Names: Meanings and Origins Explained
by The Top Ten baby boys’ names and baby girls’ names registered in England and Wales in 2008, together with an explanation of the names’ meanings and how they originated.
The UK Office for National Statistics publishes a list of the most popular baby names registered each year in England and Wales. The latest available data shows the top baby boy names and top baby girl names for the year 2008. Here are the Top Ten boys’ and girls’ names (starting with ‘1’ as the most popular) along with their origins and meanings.
Boys’ names
1. Jack = God is gracious or supplanter, usurper
Once upon a time ‘Jack’ was regarded as a diminutive for the name ‘John’, but it has been the most popular first name for boys, in its own right, for many years now. The jury is still out on its origin. It could be:
- an early English creation from a variation of the Hebrew name John, with the addition of the diminutive suffix ‘kin’ – something like ‘Jankin’, later becoming ‘Jakk’ then ‘Jack’, or
- a direct import of the French name ‘Jacques’, derived from the Hebrew name ‘Jacob’
So, depending on which origin you favour, ‘Jack’ means either ‘God is gracious’ (via the Hebrew ‘John’) or ‘supplanter, usurper’ (via the Hebrew ‘Jacob’, literally the ‘heel holder’ or supplanter of his older twin brother Esau in the biblical story).
There is no shortage of famous Jacks in real life (Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, ‘Jack’ Kennedy), fiction (Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Hawkins in Treasure Island), and children’s stories and rhymes (Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack and Jill, Jack Spratt, Jack Be Nimble, Little Jack Horner).
2. Oliver = olive tree or ancestor
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Post CommentFrances Lawrence
On October 11, 2009 at 7:59 am
Very helpful. When choosing a name be sure it will not be a burden for the child. My daughter had a boy in her class (in England) called Aladdin, not surprisingly the poor lad had problems.
blackrockrose
On October 11, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Oh my goodness, poor kid!
At the other end of the scale, when I was at school, there were 8 Susans in my class. They all ended up with nicknames based on their surname.
Nikita K
On October 14, 2009 at 9:57 am
I love this article! I have a particularly unusual/not very common name (I can confirm my real name is NOT Atikin) and the moment people hear it they can make different links to it because it is just that sort of name. Personally I love the names Oliver and Ruby. This is actually quite good how you’ve delved further into the past of these names are quite “in”. Nice read!Makes me think of what kind of history my name might have!