Scottish Baby Names: What’s ‘in’ in Inverness?
Looking through the birth announcements in the Scottish newspapers of the last few months-a site which also sometimes include the regions just below the Scottish border and the Isle of Man–a couple of prominent trends jump out.
First of all it’s the nickname names, which right now seem to be even more prevalent in Scotland than in England, for both girls and boys, with a plethora of Ellies and Evies, Alfies and Archies. Here is a list of recent ones, with some of the middle names attached to them (separated by slashes):
girls
EVIE May/Rose/Elizabeth/Harriet
MAISIE Claire/Dolly/Elizabeth/Immogen
MILLIE Elizabeth/Grace/Louise/Mae
boys
ALFIE Christopher/Daniel/Jack/James/Peter/Steven/Anthony/Thomas/William/Zane
ARCHIE David/James/Peter/Keith Oliver/Thomas
THEO Etomi
Another noticeable trend is a return to the Mary–Jane-style hypenated name:
For girls, many of the current international favorites are equally popular in Scotland: the various forms of Isabel, including the Scottish Isobel, Chloe, Scarlett, Sophie/Sophia, Olivia, Ruby, Grace, Lucy (often spelled Lucie) and Lily, Emma and Emily, plus a generous sprinkling of girls named Bethany, Mia, Freya, Amelia, Alice, Daisy, Poppy, Isla, Imogen, and Summer. Also widespread is the Gaelic Niamh (pron. neev) and its Anglicized variations: Neive, Nieve, Neve. Most used as middles: Mae/May, Louise, Rose, Grace.
Here are some of the more unusual (outside Scotland anyway) baby girl choices found:
AALIN Elizabeth
AALISH
AYDA Elizabeth
EILIDH (pron. AY-lee) Catherine/Nicola/Sharon
KALISE
KEAVY Lucy
MIRREN
RENNAE
ROMAE Serenity
TAO Brown
Turning to the boys, classics rule, most particularly Jack, George, Harry and Samuel, plus the trendier Ethan, Jacob, Caleb, Lucas. Also big are Callum/Calum, Cameron, Conor/Connor, Ellis (epidemic), Harvey, Harley, Finlay/Finley, and Lewis.
And among the more distinctive:
BODEN Richard
JALCOLM Jack
ILLIAM (Iggy) Gorry
MIAN Bobby
OSHIN