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Certain Baby Names Are In Danger Of Dying Out This Year

Certain Baby Names Are In Danger Of Dying Out This Year

Oh dear.

Mark McGowan

Mark McGowan

A parenting website called BabyCentre have conducted some research which has led them to believe certain baby names are at risk of die out during 2016.

I don't think it'll ever be possible for a name to 'die out' (my dad's name is Keith, why hasn't that name vanished?), but the diminishing popularity of names is evident.

BabyCentre analysed the baby names that were registered during 2016, and compared them to the names registered in 2015. Through the data they could see what names were used last year, but are becoming much less popular this year.

They then compared these names to previous decades and found the names that are 'at risk' of dying out this year.

Here are the girl names that are yet to have registrations this year:

  • Angela
  • Beverley
  • Carol
  • Debra
  • Diane
  • Donna
  • Doris
  • Elaine
  • Joanne
  • Maureen
  • Paula
  • Sally
  • Sandra
  • Sharon
  • Sheila
  • Tracey
  • Wendy
  • Yvonne

Some of those names may be surprising, as you're likely to still meet people who are called some of them. However, some of the boy names that are dying out aren't so surprising - when was the last time you bumped into a Bertram?

  • Bertram
  • Cecil
  • Clarence
  • Clive
  • Cyril
  • Dean
  • Dennis
  • Derek
  • Duncan
  • Ernest
  • Geoffrey
  • Horace
  • Leonard
  • Malcolm
  • Neville
  • Nigel
  • Roy
  • Wayne

Sarah Redshaw, Managing Editor of BabyCentre, said that it's always inevitable that certain names will fall out of favour, it's just a question of whether or not they'll disappear completely.

"The question is will they die out completely, or experience a revival in the future? It may not seem the obvious option, but if new parents want to make sure their baby has a name that stands out from the crowd this year, they should look to names like Paula, Debra and Elaine that were popular in the 60s, 70s and 80s for girls. For boys, names that peaked in popular as early as the turn of the last century - like Cyril, Horace and Bertram could be unique choices," she wrote.

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Topics: Baby, Baby Names