Top 20 most popular baby name predictions for 2018 revealed '“ with a royal influence

Harry was cited as the number one choice for baby boys, thanks to the double influence of J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard and the name of the prince who is fifth in line to the throne, and set to marry fiancee Meghan Markle next year.

Olivia has proved to be a firm favourite with parents for the last few years - presumably thanks to popular actress Olivia Colman - and has hit the number one spot again as the most popular name for baby girls in 2018.

Other names ranking in the top three most popular for 2018 included, Noah and Oliver (for boys) and Isla and Lily (for girls).

Showing signs of more current royal influences, George and Charlotte also made the top 20 names for 2018 with other royal favourites for boys such as James, Henry and Arthur also making the grade.

For girls, there are notable influences from popular TV shows such as Game of Thrones with Aria ranking 18th most popular name for girls in 2018.

Names names such as Max and Ruby (a popular animated show for young children) also made the top 20.

For girls in particular, names ending with the letter ‘a’ show a strong trend for 2018 (with almost 50 per cent of the names chosen, ending with the letter ‘a’) including, Olivia, Isla, Ava, Amelia, Sophia, Freya, Matilda, Aria and Ella – all cited in the top 20 girls names for next year.

Faye Mingo, Marketing Director at Emma’s Diary, which carried out the research, said: "We can see a real ‘royal’ influence in the names selected for 2018 - interestingly, George and Charlotte were both ranked in the top 20 most popular names.

“Olivia and Oliver continue to remain popular amongst parents to be as do traditional and biblical inspired names such as Jacob and Noah.”

Boys names

Harry

Noah

Oliver

George

Jack

Arthur

Freddie

Jacob

Charlie

Teddy

Theo

Henry

James

Alfie

Leo

Oscar

Archie

Max

Logan

Joshua

Girls names

Olivia

Isla

Lily

Ava

Elsie

Emily

Poppy

Amelia

Sophia

Freya

Evelyn

Grace

Charlotte

Willow

Alice

Matilda

Ruby

Aria

Florence

Ella