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Baby Center Australia, Biblical names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, name data, name popularity, name trends, nature names, nicknames, popular culture, popular names, royal names, unique names, unisex names
There have been several stories in the press about how babycenter.au has revealed the top names of 2011. What they don’t say is that this isn’t based on birth data from registries, but just on names chosen and made public by the members of the website.
Baby Center also combines spelling of names, which in some ways gives a more accurate impression of the most popular names; on the other hand, it won’t necessarily gel with what the official data says. So yes, take notice of these trends (especially as they are the closest thing we have to a national survey) but they are not the final word on the subject by any means.
Most Popular Girls’ Names
- Chloe
- Sophie
- Ruby
- Charlotte
- Olivia
- Lily
- Ava
- Ella
- Emily
- Mia
- Sienna
- Amelia
- Isabella
- Lucy
- Zoe
- Grace
- Isabelle
- Maddison
- Emma
- Charlie (tied with Hannah)
Most Popular Boys’ Names
- Oliver
- Noah
- William
- Lachlan
- Ethan
- Jack
- Lucas
- Charlie
- Joshua
- Thomas
- Max
- Riley
- Jacob
- Aiden
- Liam
- Jackson
- Cooper
- Alexander
- Xavier
- Benjamin
Trends in Boys Names
Jack declines in popularity, and loses his position at #1 to Oliver. Old Testament names for boys continue to increase in popularity; big risers include Jacob, Noah and Joshua. William went to #3, which they attribute to the Royal Wedding, although William has been extremely popular for many years.
Dropping from the list are James, Samuel and Ryan, to be replaced by Alexander, Xavier and Benjamin. If Ryan really does drop significantly it will be interesting, as it has remained stable for around two decades.
Trends in Girls Names
Chloe moves into the #1 spot, while Lily declines in popularity. Isabella falls further down the charts, which Baby Center assures us is due to the Twilight series coming to an end. I’m not sure how they make this tally with the fact that Isabella was popular in the 1990s, while the first Twilight novel wasn’t published until 2005. Nor does this explain the increasing popularity of Jacob, which is also a name from Twilight.
Baby Center places Charlie for girls in the Top 20, because they combine it with the spellings for Charli. Although I think Charlie will be in the Girls Top 100 for 2011, I don’t think it will be Top Twenty. Baby Center also assures us most girls named Charlotte (#4) will be called Charlie in everyday life. I’m not sure where they have gained this information from.
Matilda and Georgia have dropped off the list altogether.
Unique Names
So if these are the popular names, what about the names that were given to only one baby on the website?
Boys: Audi, Brisbane, Fonzie, Harlem, Hawk, Haze, Hendrix, Hercules, Matisse, Rocky, Rome, Spirit, Toohey, Voltaire, Westin
Girls: Breeze, Clover, Deep, Halo, Justice, Lake, Oceana, Rain, Rainbow, Sailor, Serenity, Spring, Star, Storm, Vanilla, Zen
I somehow think that more than one baby received at least some of these names this year, although I expect all of them will be rare.
Waltzing More Than Matilda 
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I just don’t know about Vanilla.
My cousin’s seven-year-old is named Lachlan. I love that here it’s an uncommon name, but if he lived in Australia he’d be one of so many!
It does have “adult” connotations – not a problem for a child surrounded by children (I hope!), but maybe more of an issue as she grows up. For all people saying kids can be cruel, I’ve found grown-ups to be far meaner in regard to people’s names. 😦
I’m sure I would absolutely love Lachlan if it hadn’t been popular for SOOOO long! I have to keep reminding myself it IS actually a really nice name.
Interesting the parallels between Australia and Britain, what’s the same and what’s different. The popularity of Oliver, for instance, but the fact Noah, Lachlan and Xavier are SO much more popular in Australia than the UK.
Have to say, I find the ‘unique’ collection much more interesting than the top 20 :).
I had a look at the UK list – we have pretty much the same names, but at different popularity levels! Well no surprise I guess about Lachlan …
I was also MUCH more interested in the unique names; they are not given on the US or UK sites, so maybe they have too many members for any name to only be chosen once.
Interested to see that three of the unique names were also chosen by celebrities (albeit one on the opposite gender).