Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A STAR IS BORN 40m foreign tourists to UK
Space-age baby names set to eclipse others for 2018
A RECORD 39.9 million tourists will have visited the UK by the end of the year, undeterred by terrorism, figures show.
There was a rise of 7% in the first nine months of this year – up to 30.2 million – said Visitbritain.
Overseas visitors were not put off by the London and Manchester attacks, with tourism boosting the economy by £127billion.
Patricia Yates, of Visitbritain, said the UK “continues to offer great value for overseas visitors”. MORE than half of parents are giving babies out-of-this world names like Luna, Nova and Orion, a study shows.
Space-age names have rocketed into the top 200 most popular names for 2018, as parents are inspired by the success of the Star Wars and Harry Potter film franchises.
Also among the latest babynaming fads are “modern virtue names” like Faith, Hope and Saint, a poll by parenting forum Channelmum. com has found.
Crossover names are also popular, with more than a third of mums and dads choosing Teddy, Robin and Noel for girls, and Carol and Aubrey for boys.
Gangster-style names like Ronnie, Reggie and Harley are popular with a third of parents, while herbs like Bay, Basil and Sage are favoured by a quarter. Half of parents have fallen out over baby names, and one in 20 regretted giving their newborn a bizarre name. Double-barrelled names like Lacey-may and Tyler-joe have fallen out of favour, along with naming children after sports teams. And giving all your offspring names starting with the same letter – like Wayne and Coleen Rooney, whose boys are Kai, Kit and Klay – is now unpopular. Channelmum.com founder Siobhan Freegard said: “Space names are a good way to look to the heavens and remind us all that there is more to life than the events happening on earth.”