[?]Off topic

[sjd]

Hi. This is off-topic. I hope no one minds too much.
My husband and I have two boys. They are named Stewart and Nigel. If you have spent much time in the US you know that those are VERY uncommon names for kids (anyone) in the US. Stewart (means steward) was named after my deceased father. For our second child, we wanted a name that would sound good with such an older style name, and one with a strong meaning. With a tremendously complicated and scary pregnancy, we one day learned that Nigel was the latin form of Neil and meant champion or victor. We decided if it was a boy, that was it. WELL, our baby came 8 weeks prematurly and he did prevail over a long and difficult hospitalization. The name proved perfect for him.

MY QUESTION IS -- whenever someone hears our boys names they comment on how British they sound and inquire about our British links (we have none:-)). I am wondering if any one could comment on how popular these names really are in the UK. Are they frequently found? Are the frequently found on today's children? What are popular names on todays UK babes?

If this is too weird for this forum, please accept my apology. It just occurred to me as I signed off the other night that this may be the place to have my questions answered.

Thanks!
StacyD

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Hi Stacy

Yes, they are both popular names in the UK. I'm not sure they are terribly common childrens names but I have quite a few friends and aquaintances called both Nigel and Stewart (sometimes spelt Stuart).

'Nigel' is also the name by which UK airline staff refer to British Airways flight crew as they always seem to be called Nigel .

Popular names for children today in the UK might be Sophie, James, Jack, Ben, Joshua, Joe, Megan, Emily, George. I'm going off popular names in our childrens classes for ideas here .

[millie]

I have attached the top 20 names for 2002 for girls and boys. I don't think that Nigel or Stewart are in the list and are not that common for children now but quite common in adults.

Boys
1.Jack
2.Thomas
3.Joshua
4.Lewis
5.Jake
6.Callum
7.Ethan
8.Luke
9.Daniel
10.James
11.Jamie
12.Kieran
13.Nathan
14.Harry
15.Owen
16.Ryan
17.Adam
18.Brandon
19.Connor
20.Jordan

Girls
1.Chloe
2.Ellie
3.Rebecca
4.Megan
5.Jessica
6.Lucy
7.Sophie
8.Courtney
9.Grace
10.Katie
11.Lauren
12.Bethany
13.Emily
14.Hannah
15.Caitlin
16.Georgia
17.Abbie
18.Amy
19.Holly
20.Leah

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Quite a few Irish names in there Millie - is the list just for the UK or does it include Ireland too?

[fiona]

Stewart or Stuart is common in Scotland.

Nigel is probably quite old fashioned nowadays - I did have a boyfriend when I was 16 called Nigel - but that was 30 years ago!!!

[porky]

Don't forget the great Nigel Mansell who won Fi one year then Indy cars the following year.

Jacqui

[millie]

I think the list is for the Uk - must be a trend for Irish sounding names!

quote:Originally posted by floridadreamvilla.co.uk

Quite a few Irish names in there Millie - is the list just for the UK or does it include Ireland too?

[Andy & Arlene]

My eldest son, who is called Shaun gets really annoyed cos he can never find anything in Florida with his name spelt this way. The American version is spelt with a 'w' as in Shawn.
Last xmas while struggling with stocking fillers to get for them, I ended up getting a mug from Universal spelt the other way with a 'w'. He was not amused.

[steph_goodrum]

My friends daughter (7) is called Kristy and they have never managed to find anything with her name on, there seem to be a couple of actresses in Australia (Kristy Wright used to be in neighbours) so don't know if it is Australian but in April when it was her birthday her aunt and uncle were looking in Clinton cards for her birthday card when her uncle spotted that they had a batch of mugs wrongly spelt under the name of Kirsty, so they bought the 4 different designs they had to last her a few years.

[fiona]

Well you want to try finding Catriona or Pippa or even Fiona!

Pippa they are totally flumoxed by when seeing it written and can only manager Pepper. Catriona becomes how you spell it rather than Catrina and as for Fiona! Only one that is easy is Chris! My brother is a disaster as well with Alastair, but as my mother has an Irish name Eileen that of course is usually available!