Alexa, why is your name so unpopular?
Top 100 names for boys and girls see influences range from royalty to television programmes
The name Alexa has fallen out of favour with parents, possibly because they would rather their daughter did not share a name with Amazon’s virtual assistant. The number of baby girls being named Alexa more than halved in 2018 compared with 2017, the Office for National Statistics revealed. Experts said its fall in popularity coincided with the surge in sales of Amazon Echo devices. The annual study found that Oliver and Olivia remained the most popular baby names in 2018, although there were signs that Oliver’s six-year reign as the number one name for boys was coming under threat.
IT IS a tale typical of the absurdity of modern life: Alexa is in decline as a baby name as parents do not want their child to share a name with Amazon’s technology assistant.
Researchers have found that the number of baby girls being named Alexa more than halved in 2018 compared with 2017, quite possibly because Amazon’s Echo devices are voice-operated by calling “Alexa”.
Last year, 118 Alexas were recorded, ranking the name as the 380th most popular in the UK. But in 2017, there were far more baby Alexas – 301 were recorded, making it 181st on the list.
Experts said its fall in popularity coincided with the surge in Alexa gadgets in the home.
Nick Stripe, of the Office for National Statistics which yesterday released its annual data for the most popular boys’ and girls’ names in England and Wales, 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.
“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.”
Mr Stripe added: “We’ve seen a similar pattern in the American baby names data, so something must be going on. It has dropped by more than 50 per cent, so I think there is probably evidence of a link.”
Amazon’s Echo speaker came into widespread use in 2017, working by responding to the name “Alexa” to conduct tasks such as setting alarms, playing music or reading news stories.
In 2016, 332 girls were named Alexa, while there were 314 and 292 instances respectively in 2015 and 2014.
Similar names – such as Alexis and Alexia – have also seen a drop-off, although this trend pre-dates the product’s launch.
In 2018, there were 657,076 live births in England and Wales and 62,729 different names were chosen and registered.
The influence of the popular BBC drama Peaky Blinders seems to have become apparent in the latest baby name data. “Arthur surged into the top 10 boys’ names for the first time since the Twenties, and Ada jumped
into the girls’ top 100 for the first time in a century, both perhaps inspired by characters in the BBC TV drama,” Mr Stripe said.
Arthur, the name of the character played by Paul Anderson in the show, was the only new entry in the top 10 names for boys in 2018, replacing Jacob. There were 3,644 baby Arthurs in 2018, compared with 2,795 in 2017.
For baby girls, Sophia and Grace replaced Poppy and Lily in the top 10 names. However, Ada made a re-entry into the top 100 baby names for the first time since 1924. There were 811 baby Adas in 2018 compared with just 470 in 2017. The character of Ada Shelby is played by the actress Sophie Rundle in the show.
The names Ada, Delilah, Ayla, Zoe, Margot and Felicity entered the top 100 names for girls in 2018. Delilah, Ayla and Margot have made their first ever appearances in the rankings.
The royal names George, William, Edward and Elizabeth consistently feature in the top 100. But Meghan saw the largest rise in popularity, with the Duchess of Sussex’s name rising 366 places in one year, to 431st.
Next year it will be seen whether the Duchess and Prince Harry naming their son Archie has an impact on the baby names list. Last year there were 2,950 baby Archies, the highest number since 2014.
Names popular in the Forties and Fifties tend to feature lower in the 2018 rankings, while some names that ranked highly in the early 1900s are starting to increase in popularity again.
However, while some names for girls are returning, others that were popular at the start of the 1900s are considerably less popular.
In 2018, there were hardly any girls named Gladys or Marjorie – names that used to be in the top 20 in the early decades of last century.
Newly shortened names for boys, such as Alfie and Freddie, featured in the top 10 for mothers under the age of 25, but were less popular with mothers aged over 35.
The full spellings of names such as Alfred and Frederick were more popular among older mothers.
The influence of the popular BBC drama Peaky Blinders seems to have become apparent