Most Popular Baby Girl Names in England and Wales 2024 (ONS) and Their Meanings

The most popular name for baby girls born in England and Wales in 2024 was once again Olivia, given to 2,761 babies. Amelia followed with 2,448 and Lily with 2,185. The figures come from the official list published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and cover births registered in England and Wales that year. Scotland and Northern Ireland publish their own lists, so they are not part of this data.

The top is familiar; the more interesting movement sits a little lower down. Florence, Elsie, Margot, Arabella, Lottie, Mabel… The British press often talks about a wave of "grandma names" or "vintage names". Are these old-fashioned names really climbing, or is it just an impression? Below you will find the top 30, then a claim-by-claim check against the ONS figures, and finally a short look at the names through Abjad.

The top 30 girls' names of 2024

The Arabic spelling in the table is the form established for each name in Arabic writing, and the Abjad value is calculated from that spelling. A name written in Latin letters has no single "true" Abjad value until its Arabic spelling is fixed. Because the ONS counts every spelling separately, Sofia and Sophia appear as two rows.

Together, the top 30 names were given to 49,906 baby girls. 145 fewer babies were named Olivia than in 2023, yet the name's lead over Amelia is still 313.

Myth or fact? "Grandma names" under the microscope

The small table below shows the ranks of seven names often described as vintage, from 2021 to 2024. A lower number means a higher position.

• Claim: "Old names are rising across the board." Data: largely yes, but not without exceptions. Florence, Elsie, Margot, Arabella, Lottie and Mabel all rank higher than in 2021. Matilda, however, slipped from 28 to 31; in 2024 it was even given to 8 more babies and still dropped just outside the top 30.
• Claim: "Florence is given to more babies every year." Data: no. Florence ranked 8 in 2021 with 2,180 babies and 6 in 2024 with 1,936. Its rank rose, but its count is below 2021; part of the climb comes from the names ahead of it falling faster. From 2023 to 2024, though, 37 more babies were named Florence.
• Claim: "Margot is the fastest of the wave." Data: within the top 30, yes. Margot jumped from 44 to 28 in one year (1,025 → 1,243 babies). Arabella also climbed from 43 to 30.
• Claim: "Elsie has made the top 10." Data: yes. Ranked 18 in 2021, Elsie sits at exactly number 10 in 2024.

These names share a striking trait: most of them are short or pet forms of another name. Elsie comes from Elizabeth, Lottie from Charlotte, Margot from Marguerite, while Mabel is the medieval form of the Latin Amabilis. The figures show a trend; they do not explain it.

From 2023 to 2024: the rest of the list

Risers

The biggest one-year increase belongs to Maya: 337 more babies were given the name, which moved from 29 to 15. Bonnie moved from 26 to 16, and Maeve, the name of a queen of Irish legend, from 36 to 26. Overall, though, the picture is flat: only 11 of the top 30 names were given to more babies than in 2023.

Fallers and names leaving the top 30

The steepest fall belongs to Willow: 352 fewer babies were given the name, which fell from 9 to 21. Evelyn (13 → 20) and Grace (18 → 25) each dropped seven places. Ella, Emily and Matilda, all in the 2023 top 30, have left the top 30 this time (all three remain in the top 100); Maeve, Margot and Arabella took their places.

Sofia overtakes Sophia

The ONS counts different spellings of a name separately. In the 2021–2023 figures we hold, Sophia was always ahead of Sofia; in 2024 the order flipped: Sofia ranks 12 with 1,626 babies, Sophia 13 with 1,610. In London, Sofia is the region's second name, right behind Olivia.

A note from Wales

Looking at Wales alone, Lottie shares rank 7 with Bonnie, on 105 babies, while across England and Wales it ranks 38. The same name can sit in a very different place depending on the region.

Familiar names for Muslim and Turkish families

Further down the top 100 there are familiar names too. Maryam (مريم, 290) rose from 77 to 57 (752 babies); Maryam (Mary) is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an. Fatima (فاطمة, 135) moved up from 85 to 76. And Ayla, of Turkish origin ("moonlight, halo"), ranks 47 with 922 babies.

The 2024 list through Abjad

Abjad works on Arabic letters, so we calculated the values from the Arabic spelling in the table, using our site's convention: letters are counted as written, a shadda is not counted twice, and an alif carrying a hamza is 1.

• Fire dominates the top 10: 8 of the top 10 names begin with alif (ا) or fa (ف), both Fire letters in the classical classification. The main reason is the alphabet itself: names starting with a vowel are written with an alif in Arabic (Olivia أوليفيا, Amelia أميليا, Isla آيلا, Ivy إيفي, Ava آفا, Elsie إلسي). Lily starts with lam (ل), an Earth letter, and Poppy with ba (ب), an Air letter. Note that some authors order the letter elements differently.
• Highest and lowest: the highest value in the top 30 is Margot (مارغوت) at 1,647, 1000 of which comes from the single letter ghayn (غ). The lowest is Poppy (بوبي) at 20.
• Shared values: Ivy, Elsie and Evie all come to 101. Sofia and Sophia are written the same way in Arabic (صوفيا), so both are 187. Maya and Willow meet at 52, and Scottish Isla (آيلا) and Turkish Ayla (أيلا) at 42.
• A different spelling, a different value: Grace in its common form غريس = 1,270; in usage that writes the g sound with ج, جريس = 273. Written مارجوت, Margot becomes 650. Florence gives 426 as فلورنس and 427 as فلورانس.

No spelling is "luckier" than another. But because the value depends so much on spelling, our paid reports always begin by settling the exact spelling of the child's and the parents' names.

A small scenario: a family in London

Picture a Turkish family living in London. They want a name that is easy to say both at school and at grandma's in Turkey, and they are torn between Maya and Ayla. The table tells them Maya is 52 and Ayla is 42. But those two numbers alone cannot say which name suits this family better. The real question is how the baby's name fits together with the mother's and father's names: which element dominates the family's element map, which is missing, and does the candidate name complete that balance? A popularity list cannot know that; only an assessment made together with the parents' names can show it.

Final word

The 2024 list shows two things at once: names like Olivia and Amelia keep the top spots even as their numbers fall, while most of the old-fashioned names are quietly moving up. A name's rank tells you about fashion; whether it suits your family depends on its meaning and on how it relates to the parents' names. The ONS has also published a newer list for 2025; this article focuses on the 2024 data.

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

Note: This article is for information only. Abjad and letter elements are a traditional interpretive framework; no claim is made that a name determines anything definite about a person's life.