2026 Baby Girl Names in England and Wales: Trending Names and Their Meanings

If you are looking for a name for a girl due in 2026 in England or Wales — perhaps in a Turkish or Muslim family living there — start with one fact: there is no official list of "the most popular girl names of 2026". The Office for National Statistics (ONS) builds its list after the year closes, from births registered in that year. The newest list available covers babies born in 2025.

So instead of guessing, we followed the tracks. We placed the ONS top 100 girl names for 2021–2025 side by side and calculated each name's movement by script. The result is not a 2026 ranking; it is a map of the candidates entering 2026 with momentum.

Three lenses: what counts as a "trend"?

• Fast risers: names already in the top 100 in 2021 that climbed the most places by 2025.
• New entries: names outside the top 100 in 2021 that joined the list in later years.
• Steady leaders: the 7 names that stayed in the top 10 in every year from 2021 to 2025.

Counts are births registered in England and Wales in that year. ONS counts every spelling separately — Sophia and Sofia, Lyla and Lilah are separate rows — and we have not added them together. The Arabic spelling shown is the form established in Arabic writing for each name; the Abjad value is calculated from the letters of that spelling.

Fast risers: the 12 names that climbed most in five years

The record climber is Maeve: No. 77 in 2021, No. 26 in 2024 — 51 places in total. Yet in 2025 it stayed at No. 26; births rose from 1,265 to 1,330, but the rank stood still. Mabel's curve is the opposite: slow progress from 2021 to 2024, then one leap in 2025 from No. 37 to No. 16 (1,113 → 1,527 births).

Speed or staying power? Three curves side by side

Delilah shows a third pattern: a quick rise from No. 50 to No. 32, then three years in the 32–33 band. To pick out names whose momentum is still alive going into 2026, the latest year matters most: 10 of the 12 names in the table rose again in 2025 compared with 2024 (Elodie, Mabel, Maryam, Olive, Arabella, Ayla, Lottie, Delilah, Aurora and Clara). Margot slipped slightly, from No. 28 to No. 30.

Wales on its own holds a small surprise: Lottie is No. 31 across England and Wales, but No. 5 in the 2025 list for Wales alone (99 births).

New entries

Among the names that entered the top 100 in 2025, Eliana started highest: straight in at No. 62 with 736 births. Ottilie is the patient climber: it entered at No. 83 in 2022 and reached No. 55 in 2025. Nova, Hazel and Nora have moved up every single year since they joined. The meanings of Athena and Anaya are unknown; Raya is explained only as a pet form.

The ones that never moved: five years in the top 10

Olivia was No. 1 in every year from 2021 to 2025. The counts tell another story: from 3,649 babies to 2,386, a fall of about 35%. In 2021 the gap between Olivia and second-placed Amelia was 485 births; in 2025 the gap to second-placed Lily was down to 137. Lily herself rose from No. 7 to No. 2 over the five years.

The regional tables confirm the picture. In the ONS 2025 regional data, Olivia is first in only 4 of the 10 areas (England's nine regions plus Wales). Sofia leads in London, Lily in the North West and the West Midlands, Amelia in Yorkshire and The Humber and the East of England, and Florence in the South West. The top spot has not changed hands, but the margin at the top is shrinking.

Seen from Turkey: Ayla, Maryam and Fatima

Ayla stands out as a name of Turkish origin: in Turkish it means "moonlight, halo". It is also explained as a spelling of the Hebrew name Ela, so the table cannot tell us which origin parents had in mind. It was No. 67 in 2021 and No. 42 in 2025 (980 births).

Maryam is the Arabic form of the name of Mary (Maryam), the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an; Turkish Meryem has the same Arabic spelling and value: مريم 290. It rose from No. 82 to No. 52 in five years. Fatima is the name of the Prophet's daughter Fatima; it entered the list at No. 99 in 2022, rose as high as No. 76 in 2024 and was No. 79 in 2025.

A small scenario: a family in London wants a name that is easy to say both at school and at grandmother's house in Turkey. Ayla and Maryam are natural candidates. Sources also link Nora to the Arabic spelling Nura (نورا) and Lyla to Leila (Turkish Leyla). But sounding good in two languages is only half the job; the other half is how the name sits within the family.

Through the Abjad lens: five quick questions

Does a name written in Latin letters have an Abjad value?

Abjad works on Arabic letters. Olivia has no single "true" value until its Arabic spelling is fixed. In the tables we used the spelling established in Arabic writing: Olivia أوليفيا 138.

What happens if the spelling changes?

The value changes too, sometimes dramatically. With its established spelling Margot is مارغوت 1647, because the letter ghayn (غ) alone is worth 1000. Written with jim (ج) as مارجوت it is 650; drop the final ta (ت) and مارجو gives 250. Lyla is ليلا 71; ending in alif maqsura, ليلى, it becomes 80. No spelling is "luckier" than another — but the calculation is only correct once the spelling is settled.

Do names that ONS counts separately merge in Arabic?

Many do. Sophia (No. 13, 1,547 births) and Sofia (No. 17, 1,490 births) are written the same way in Arabic: صوفيا 187. Lyla and Lilah are both ليلا 71. Isla (آيلا) and Ayla (أيلا) differ only in the mark on the first alif; both are 42.

Which values in the tables are highest and lowest?

The highest is Margot (1647), the lowest Alba (ألبا 34). And a coincidence: Olivia and Ophelia (أوفيليا, No. 81 in the list) share the same value, 138.

Which element do the leaders' first letters fall into?

Of the 7 names that stayed in the top 10 for five years, 6 begin with a letter of the fire group: four with alif (ا) and two with fa (ف). Only Lily, with lam (ل), belongs to the earth group. This follows the classical classification used in the site's reports; some authors use a different classification.

Are these numbers enough to decide on a name? No. In the Abjad tradition a name's value alone is not an analysis; the real question is how that value comes together with the mother's and father's names. The child's Yıldızname sign, too, comes from the total of the child's name and the mother's name. A trend list gives you candidates; how a candidate fits your family only shows in a calculation made with the family's names. For families living abroad the first step is clear: settle the Arabic spelling of the baby's and the parents' names.

Note: All figures in this article are calculated from ONS data for 2021–2025. No official data for 2026 exists yet, and this article contains no ranking or numerical forecast. Abjad interpretations reflect a traditional perspective and offer no certain result or guarantee.

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Baby names in England and Wales — used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.