Naming your baby after geographical locations has been a trend for a while, but in recent years we have seen a spike of popularity in names inspired by cities.
New research, conducted by GiftsOnline4U, set out to find out which capital city baby names were the most popular, and some of the answers are surprising.
The online retailer dived into the Office for National Statistics’ data, showing England and Wales baby names used between 1996 and 2018, and looked into those that match capital cities’ names.
The research showed that out of the 195 capital cities, 19 were used as a baby name.
Some of the most popular include:
- Sofia – the capital of Bulgaria
- Victoria – the capital of British Columbia in Canada, and the capital of the Seychelles
- Paris – the capital of France
- Santiago – the capital of Chile
At one point, these beautiful city names were seen as unusual choices for a little one, but now they boast between 1,000 and 20,000 namesakes in the UK alone.
The research also found out which capital cities were new to the baby name world, and looked at whether they could spot any clues as to why certain names were more popular in specific years.
The research showed that the 10 most popular were:
- Vienna – girls
- Cairo – gender neutral
- Rome – gender neutral
- Havana – girls
- Kingston – boys
- London – gender neutral
- Riyadh – boys
- Amman – boys
- Asmara – girls
- Lima – girls
From the above names, a few could be pinned to specific world events. One of the main capital city names the figures showed a spike for, was the name London.
Back in 2012-2013, ‘London’ saw a rise in popularity among new parents – thanks to the London 2012 Olympics.
It was deemed a unisex name, with both boys and girls being gifted with the title. In those two years, the name ‘London’ was used a total of 59 times, with 41 of those being given to baby girls.
‘Our research shows that when it comes to capital cities, there are almost 46,000 people named after them,’ says Asgar Dungarwalla from GiftsOnile4U.
‘Naming your baby after a city has its advantages. Not only does it give them a unique and interesting name, but you can also use it for nostalgic reasons or even to mark a place that is special to you.’
Do you have a story to share? We want to hear from you.
Get in touch: metrolifestyleteam@metro.co.uk.
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