Most popular names in the nick get sent down popularity stakes

THEY are two names which have, over the centuries, been among England’s most popular for newborns – until a sharp collapse in recent decades. And it is perhaps little wonder, as figures show that people called Michael and Emma are the most likely to end up in prison.

Figures released by the Ministry of

Justice have revealed the first names of all the 82,000 men and women locked up in England and Wales.

Behind the doors of a male prison, you are most likely to run into an inmate called Michael, of which there are 1,777, the data show.

The name has historically been the third most popular in England, according to the genealogy database Forebears,

but was only the 74th most popular baby name in England and Wales in 2020.

Several of the country’s most notorious criminals are among the 1,777 Michaels in the prison estate, including Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, the men who murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks in London in 2013. Adebolajo is cur1.

rently serving a whole-life order, while Adebowale was sentenced to life with a minimum of 45 years.

Other inmates include Michael Stone, who was jailed in 1999 for the murders of Lin and Megan Russell. He has waged a high-profile campaign to prove his innocence.

The next most prevalent male names behind bars are David, of whom there are 1,744; Daniel, of whom there are 1,517; and John, of whom there are 1,437.

They include David Fuller, a double murderer who was found to have sexually abused more than 100 corpses in hospital mortuaries, and John Cooper, the so-called Bullseye Killer, who is currently serving a whole-life order for the

murders of four people in the 1980s. At women’s prisons, where more than 3,000 convicts are being held in England

and Wales, the most common name is Emma, of whom there are 57, equating to nearly 2 per cent of the female prison population.

After Emma, the most common names for females in prison are Kelly, of whom there are 55; Sarah, of whom there are 52; and Lisa, of whom there are 46.

Not one of the 10 most popular names for baby boys and girls in 2020 was in the top 10 names for prisoners.

Emma – historically the 11th most common name for women in England – was the 60th most popular girl’s name for newborns in 2020, with the top names, Olivia and Amelia, significantly less likely to be encountered in a prison exercise yard.