The most popular — and the most unusual — names given to babies in Scotland in 2018 have been revealed.
While the lists from the National Records of Scotland confirm that Jack and Olivia remain the nation’s favourite names, they also feature some of the more individual choices made by parents.
For girls, some of the standout names include Tizzie, Moana, Daizy and Birdie.
The boys’ list also shows some unique choices — Sandor (a Game of Thrones name), Rudolf, Nevis, Marvellous and Marvelous immediately catching the eye.
One set of parents seem to have been willing to tempt fate, naming their baby boy Lucifer.
The lists will also confirm if a number of names that were popular in years gone by have dropped off the lists entirely in 2018.
The full list
How the top names have changed since 1974
What’s in a name?
While most of the research that has been carried out has been inconclusive, public surveys suggest unusual names can have a negative effect on people’s life chances.
Recruiters performing the first cut of CVs have even confessed to rejecting candidates with “foreign-sounding” names as a crude way of reducing the numbers of applications to read through.
Other studies have indicated that the name itself is not the most significant factor.
Dalton Conley, author of Parentology: Everything You Wanted to Know about the Science of Raising Children but Were Too Exhausted to Ask, believes being raised by parents whose character leads them to choose an unusual name is far more influential in the long term than growing up with the name itself.
