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Parents cast David out of top 50
names | |
After the furores
surrounding Messrs Beckham and Blunkett, the final blow to the nation's
Davids is revealed today - the name has slipped out of the top 50 list for
baby boys for the first time in more than 60 years.
An annual survey of the names given to babies born in Britain during
the year reveals that David is only the 52nd most popular, down from 48
last year, while for the first time Ellie is the most common name for
girls.
David even shares 52nd place with John, consistently among the top ten
names in Britain for most of the 20th century but now considered
old-fashioned. It marks a decline for the biblical name - after the boy who
beat Goliath with a slingshot
- which has been one of Britain's most popular names for almost a century.
According to National Statistics, in 1964 David was the most popular
name for new-born babies in Britain and even in 1934 was the fifth most
common choice for newborn babies. Its popularity had been established
thanks to David Lloyd George, the First World War Prime Minister. Other
famous political Davids have included Lord Steel of Aikwood, the former
Liberal Democrat party leader, Lord Owen, the former SDP leader, and now
Blunkett.
Most of the list of boys' names for 2004 has a familiar ring. For the
tenth year running Jack is the most common choice, according to the annual
study by Bounty, which provides baby product samples to new mothers.
The top five boys' names remain unchanged from last year, with Joshua,
Thomas, James and Daniel coming after Jack. The biggest riser is Sam,
which has gone up from 49 to 37.
The more traditional Samuel is much higher than last year at 13, even
if many boys registered as Samuel are eventually known as Sam.
But it is among girls' names where the real changes have taken place
with Chloe, the favourite for the past six years, demoted to fourth place.
Two years ago Ellie was the fifth most popular girls' name, then last year
it was second.
Ellie is followed by the traditional names Emily and Sophie, then the
former top choice Chloe, after which come Jessica, Katie, Lucy, Amy, Megan
and Olivia. The fastest-rising girls name this year was Ruby, which jumped
from 64th most popular last year to 31st this year.
Despite celebrities choosing unusual names, such as Apple (Gwyneth
Paltrow and Chris Martin) and Valentino (Melanie Sykes), these rarely
make a dent in the lists of
overall popularity, which are dominated by tradition.
(Agencies) |
簇擁“貝克漢姆”和“布蘭科特”先生的狂熱過后，英國“大衛”們今日遭受了“最后一擊”——這個名字60多年來首次滑出男嬰常用名排行榜前50名。
一份有關本年度英國新生嬰兒姓名的調查顯示，“大衛”在最受歡迎的名字中僅僅排在第52位，比去年的第48位有所下降，而“埃莉”首次成為女孩們最常用的名字。
“大衛”和“約翰”并列排在第52位，然而，在20世紀的絕大部分時間里，“約翰”一直排在英國常用姓名榜的前十位，但是現在人們覺得它過時了。這意味著圣經里的名字逐漸不再流行，盡管那個用彈弓打敗巨人歌利亞的男孩的名字曾經是英國近百年來最受歡迎的名字。
英國國家統計局的數據顯示，1964年，“大衛”是英國新生嬰兒最常用的名字，即便在1934年，它也是排名第五的最常見的新生兒備選名。“大衛”的流行要歸功于一戰期間的英國首相大衛·勞埃德·喬治。其他知名的政壇“大衛”們還包括自由民主黨前領袖史迪爾勛爵，社會民主黨前領袖歐文勛爵和
現任英國內政部長布蘭科特。
2004年男孩名字排行榜上的絕大部分名字都似曾相識。為新媽媽提供嬰兒用品試用裝的寶潔Bounty牌紙巾的年度調研結果顯示，“杰克”連續10年來都是最常見的選擇。
排名前五的男孩名和去年相比沒有變化，杰克后面分別是喬舒亞、托馬斯、詹姆士和丹尼爾。“進步”最大的是薩姆，他的排名從第49位上升到第37位。
更為傳統的“塞謬爾”的排名比去年高了許多，排在第13位，盡管登記為塞謬爾的很多男孩后來的常用名都是薩姆。
在女孩們的名字中，“克洛伊”的變化最大，這個過去六年來最受喜愛的名字降到了第四位。兩年前，“埃莉”在最流行的女孩名中排名第五，去年上升到第二位。
排在“埃莉”后面的是較為傳統的“艾米麗”和“索菲”，然后才是曾經高居首位的“克洛伊”，后面依次是杰西卡、卡蒂
、露西、艾米、梅甘和奧利維亞。今年上升最快的女孩名是“魯比”，它從去年的64位一下上升到今天的31位。
盡管有些名人選擇了與眾不同的名字，比如阿卜（格溫妮絲·帕特洛和克莉絲·馬丁）和瓦倫蒂諾（梅勒妮·塞克斯），但這些名字在常用名排行榜上幾乎沒什么影響力，一些傳統的名字仍然占據了排行榜的主要位置。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2004-12-30 10:31