How the top names have changed

These pages provide information about the changes in the top babies’ first forenames since the first year for which the lists are available. They are updated in mid-March, when the full lists of names for the previous year are published.

The top names: year by year

The Top Ten names: every fifth year from 1975

A data visualisation showing Baby names trends in Scotland since 1974 is available on the Infographics and Visualisations page of this website.

The page which follows provides advice on how to get more information about the rises and/or falls in popularity of any of the top names (such as those that are referred to in the pages which are available above) that are of particular interest to you:

Further information about the rises/falls of top names

The lists and tables which are available from other sections of the web site show what were the top names in each of a number of individual years. However, it may not be easy to find out, from such information, what were the top names for a particular period (such as 1990 to 1999), especially if several different names 'topped the charts' at different times in that period (e.g. David, Andrew, Ryan and Jack were, in turn, the top boys’ name in one or more of the years in the 1990s). Therefore, some further tables (which are available via the page below) list the 'Top 100' names for certain periods, based on the total number of babies which were given each first forename in each period.

The top names: by decade

The popularity of names could be assessed in ways other than by using the total number of babies who were given each forename in the period of interest. Examples of other ways are given in the page which is available here:

Other possible ways to identify the top names in a period