The class of 2040: meet Isla, Ava, Amelia, Muhammad, Jack and Oliver

Parents in Greater Manchester have largely bucked the trend for the most popular new baby names in the country. 

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that Olivia and Muhammad are the leading names for newborns in England and Wales, with 2,761 and 5,721 instances, respectively. 

However, if added together, Sofia (1,626 registered births) and Sophia (1,610) would be by far the most common name for baby girls in 2024. 

Although Muhammad leads the way with 150 new arrivals among boys in Manchester, Amelia (41) tops the charts for baby girls in the city. 

In Stockport, Jack leads the way with 39 baby boys, while the same number of girls were given the name Isla. 

Ava (29) is the favourite girls’ name among parents in Tameside, while there will be more Olivers (38) starting school in the borough’s schools in five years’ time than any other moniker. 

There is also a notable trend among mothers aged under 25 for giving their children names that barely register in older age groups. 

Delilah is the most popular name for girls among that cohort, yet it does not appear inside the top 25 for mothers in other age brackets.  

Perhaps pointing to a future dip in its use, Olivia is outside the top 10 with younger parents, while a slew of newer geographic names could be on the rise: along with Sofia, Vienna and Harlow are both inside the top 100 for under-25s. 

Grand European capitals and new towns in Essex don’t feature as prominently in the boys’ list, where Muhammad sweeps the board across all age categories. 

This is due in part to it often being used as a symbolic name among Muslims where many boys will instead be known by their middle name.