Ava, Daisy, Jack and Freddie top choices for baby names

Just over 500 babies were registered at the Greffe in 2022, with a wide variety of names. This is slightly lower than last year, when 527 births were registered.

More traditional names were often picked as middle names.

Ava topped the most popular girls’ first name, being chosen for nine children. In three cases it was hyphenated with another name.

This was followed by Daisy, which was chosen as the first name for six children.

Neither names were among the top ones for girls last year. And in both cases no children were given them as middle names.

Next favourites were Evelyn, along with Isabella and Isabelle. The former was chosen for five children as first name and three as a middle name. The latter two names between them were chosen five times as a first name and three times for middle name.

Emilia has overtaken Amelia among parents, with four children being named the former and only one the latter.

Four children each were also named Phoebe, Orla, Ivy, Isla and Eden. Beatrice, and its variants, also saw four girls given the name.

Olivia has been a perennial favourite in recent years and topped last year’s Guernsey list, when it was chosen six times. It was also the UK’s most popular girl’s name in 2021. But this year it was only chosen for three babies.

Among other names given to three babies were Poppy, Emily, Edie, Luna, Imogen and Tilly, as well as Rae, with latter hyphenated in all three cases with other names.

For boys, Jack and Jackson topped the list, with five Jacks and four Jacksons.

The next popular was Freddie, with five babies getting it as a first name. But there were only a couple of Fredericks last year.

Four babies each were named James, Rory and Oscar. Four babies were also named Finley or a variant of it.

However James proved much more popular a middle name, being picked 14 times.

Abbreviated and short named proved popular with many parents.

Theodore was the top name for boys in Guernsey last year, being chosen six times. But this year no children had it as a first name and only three as a middle name. Instead Theo overtook it, with three babies getting that as a first name.

Similarly there were three Tommys or a variant spelling, but only one Thomas a first name.

There were three Harrys, but only one Henry.

Three children each were named Ethan, Alexander, Arlo, Alfie, Arthur, Leo, Noah, Rudy and Elijah.

Some of the most popular names for Guernsey children in 2021 plummeted in popularity last year.

Evie, Penelope and Charlotte were all chosen for four babies in 2021. While there were two Charlottes last year, there was only one Penelope and no Evies.

Among boys in 2021, Luca shared the top shot with Theodore with six children each, with Archie coming next with five. But last year there was only one Luca, and two Archies.

Guernsey’s most popular baby names, compared with England's 2021 rankings

Girls

1, Ava (4)

2, Daisy (16)

3 equal, Evelyn (21) and Isabelle/a (34/12)

4 equal, Beatrice/Beatrix/Beatrise (Beatrice is at 99), Eden (92), Emilia (31), Isla (3), Ivy (5), Phoebe (24) and Orla (66)

Boys

1 equal, Jack (13) and Freddie (12)

2 equal, Finley/ay (Finley is at 19), James (29), Oscar (8) and Rory (40)

3 equal, Alexander (27), Alfie (16), Arlo (20), Arthur (5), Elijah (35), Ethan (43), Harry (7), Jackson (97), Leo (6), Noah (1), Rudy (-), Theo (15) and Tommy/ie (Tommy is at 26)