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Sir Bill Taylor  RSS Feed RSS feed | About
What's in a name?

Calling all you Olivias and Jacks. According to the National Statistics Office you were the top baby names in England and Wales last year.

So much for us poor old Williams (7th) Georges (14th)!

I was served in Manchester earlier this week by an, I'd guess, 20-year-old Lucille (not in top 100 over last five years), according to her name badge.

I was brave enough to say I'd never come across that name before.

Mum and dad liked the name Lucy (7th & 8th over last five years), but so did most of their pals so they added a bit.

In Sheffield Town Hall, as with most, they have the names of their mayors since the mid 1800s on a plaque on the wall.

The Herberts, Joshuas and Fredericks abounded in the early days.

There were certainly few, if not no, female names!

I mused about when the Zaks, Waynes, Chardonnays and Kylies would get on there as surely they will.

In Blackburn Town Hall all the mayors were given only their initials.

There was a bit of a fuss in 1990, when I asked to be Bill, the name people know me by.

Most named now are as they were known.

How do we arrive at our children's names? What do we think of our own names?

Have you ever thought of or actually changed your name? Why?

Does the person shape the name or the name, the person?

4:31pm Wednesday 28th November 2007

Print   Email this   Comment
Posted by: Nostradamous, blackburn on 7:33pm Thu 29 Nov 07
I am really surprised that say Ishmeal,or Akram were not well up on that list,its strange how these things tend to fool a person.
Posted by: justme, bburn on 11:15pm Fri 30 Nov 07
maybe not....but mohammed is number 2 in the most popular uk names.minority,my a**e!
Posted by: Bill Taylor, Blackburn on 10:48am Sun 2 Dec 07
Just Me's right according to a report in the Times...

http://www.statistic
s.gov.uk/cci/nugget.
asp?id=184
Posted by: Marcus, london on 1:31pm Tue 11 Dec 07
The frequency of Mohammed at number 2 has very little or even nothing to do with the size of the asian community.
If you were to show the overall percentage of muslim boys given the name Mohammed it would be high.
If you were to show the percentage of non-muslim boys named Jack it would be low by comparison.
ie Muslim children are far more likely to be called Mohammed than non-muslim childrean are likely to be called Jack.

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