Scottish islands feature in 2021 baby names list

The Scottish Islands of Arran, Uist and Tiree were all names given to babies born in Scotland in 2021.

Jack was the most popular name for baby boys in Scotland for the 14th year in a row.

The National Records for Scotland (NRS) data also shows Olivia overtook Isla to become the most popular name for baby girls.

About one in 10 of the babies born in 2021 were given a name that no other child registered last year already had.

Noah was the second most popular boy's name while Emily was in second place in the girl's name chart.

The influence of TV and music is shown across the registration data.

After years of single digit numbers, a total of 27 boys were called Connell last year.

One of the biggest TV shows in the 2020 Covid lockdown was BBC drama Normal People featuring the character Connell Waldron.

Elsewhere, another name continuing to climb the list was Ezra - this moniker has been on the rise since musician George Ezra came to prominence in 2014.

Traditional names such as Phillip, Karen and Alan continued to fall further down the list.

As well as the names of islands, the Scottish town of Irvine was also listed.

The NRS data shows Lyla went up 56 places in the top 100 girls' names registered last year to 74th overall, while Blake rose 46 places and Rowan 41.

Carson saw the largest increase in the top 100 boys' names in 2021, rising 42 places to 83rd, while Struan jumped 37 places and Myles went up by 35.

Olivia returned to the top as most popular girls' name of 2021, having previously been the top name between 2016 and 2019.

Jack has been ranked either first or second every single year from 1998 to 2021.

Across Scotland, there were 4,197 different first names given to girls and 3,458 different first names given to boys.

These statistics are based on the birth registrations of 23,241 girls and 24,541 boys.

Jill Mackie can claim to have her finger on the pulse when it comes to popular baby names with her daughters, Olivia and Emily, taking the top two slots in the 2021 girls names list.

"It feels good," explained Jill. "They are nice names - obviously common - but they are lovely names.

"My first daughter Olivia, I loved her name for years. She was named before she was born. We knew if we had a girl that she would be called Olivia.

"And Emily, we took a while to name her actually, but my partner had it on the list and we liked it."

Pete Whitehouse, director of statistical services at the NRS, said there was a trend towards the use of more unique names.

He said: "Beneath the headline figures the long-term trend is for more names to be used each year, including some names only given to one baby in 2021.

"Almost 12% of baby girls were given a name that no other girl was registered with in 2021. Almost 9% of boys had unique names for births last year.

"Together with the growing range of names being used this means it's far less common for children to share their name with their classmates than it was for their parents or grandparents."