The following post on the fastest-rising names in the UK is a guest post by Luke Eales from BabyNames.co.uk, one of the UK’s leading baby names websites. Established in 2007, the BabyNames.co.uk helps parents on the path to finding the perfect baby name.

　　Having read Nameberry’s recent article on popular baby names 2010, I was inspired to run some analysis of my own – this time with a UK slant.

　　So in a similar way to what Nameberry did, I delved into our site usage data on British names. I brought up a list of the names receiving the most searches this year so far, and compared the numbers against the same period last year. I then sorted the names to see which had the greatest proportional increase in searches. The result is two lists – the UK’s fastest rising boys and girls names of 2010 so far.

　　British Girl Names

　　1. FLORENCE

　　2. LUCIE

　　3. LACEY

　　4. ESME

　　5. ELENA

　　6. LUCIA

　　7. BEATRICE

　　8. VIOLET

　　9. INDIA

　　10. FRANKIE

　　11. MAI

　　12. EDIE

　　13. LAILA

　　14. PENELOPE

　　15. ELSIE

　　16. MAISIE

　　17. LOTTIE

　　18. DARCIE

　　19. PENNY

　　20. POPPY

　　21. SADIE

　　22. MAISY

　　23. TALLULAH

　　24. IVY

　　25. CARYS

　　26. LEXI

　　27. ANYA

　　28. SIENNA

　　29. SAVANNAH

　　30. ANNABEL

　　31. WILLOW

　　32. BETTY

　　33. MACEY

　　34. EMILIA

　　35. ISLA

　　36. DARCEY

　　37. GRACIE

　　38. OLIVE

　　39. MACY

　　40. JEMIMA

　　41. ARABELLA

　　42. CALLIE

　　43. LYRA

　　44. ISABELLA

　　45. JESSIE

　　46. RAE

　　47. TALIA

　　48. HARRIET

　　49. OLIVIA

　　50. SCARLETT

　　British Boy Names

　　1. OLLIE

　　2. JENSON

　　3. ELI

　　4. JESSE

　　5. COLE

　　6. JUDE

　　7. JACOB

　　8. LEIGHTON

　　9. ALISTAIR

　　10. OLIVER

　　11. BRADLEY

　　12. TOBIAS

　　13. JUSTIN

　　14. FINN

　　15. DARCY

　　16. CODY

　　17. ROWAN

　　18. NOAH

　　19. JACKSON

　　20. FREDDIE

　　21. MASON

　　22. ZACHARY

　　23. ELLIS

　　24. KELSEY

　　25. ZACH

　　26. TOBY

　　27. ARTHUR

　　28. LLOYD

　　29. ANGUS

　　30. HENRY

　　31. ROBBIE

　　32. ALBERT

　　33. MILO

　　34. TOM

　　35. STANLEY

　　36. LOUIS

　　37. LEWIS

　　38. KANE

　　39. HUGO

　　40. LEVI

　　41. CONNOR

　　42. FRANK

　　43. FRANCES

　　44. ISSAC

　　45. LEO

　　46. ELLIOTT

　　47. TROY

　　48. BRODIE

　　49. JONAH

　　50. LOUIS

　　There are a number of pop culture influences in this list – Jenson Button (that’s him in the picture) is an English Formula 1 racing driver who won the recent championships, and Ollie is the name of a very popular contestant on X Factor, the UK’s equivalent of American Idol.

　　Additionally, Florence and the Machine is a band who have grown hugely in the past year, and Frankie is a popular singer from girl group The Saturdays.

　　Some related names appeared on both lists – Darcy, Darcey and Darcie proved trendy, as did Frankie, Frank and Frances.

　　I’d be interested to hear what Nameberry readers think about baby names in the UK – are we at the mercy of US trends, or could you guys learn something from us Brits when it comes to naming ideas?