Hundreds attend Nigel Night festival in Evesham

372 people named Nigel gathered at the village pub outside Evesham

Nearly 400 Nigels from across the globe gathered in Worcestershire for a festival celebrating the name.

Nigel Night was held on Saturday in a pub near Evesham by landlord Nigel Smith, in a bid to revive a name that is in danger of becoming extinct.

It comes after Office of National Statistics data revealed that no babies were given the name in 2016 or 2020.

Mr Smith said he was hoping to inspire something of a renaissance in the name.

"The name Nigel was particularly popular in the 50s and 60s," he said. "I was born in 1963 and that was pretty much peak Nigel year, when there were 5,000 of us born.

"Sadly, of late there have been very few - not enough Nigels to be recorded by the Office of National Statistics.

"We're on a mission to make sure the name Nigel is revived and reused by future generations."

A family of Nigels

Describing the name as "character building", Mr Smith told BBC Radio 5Live: "You've got to be really working on your child's resilience if you're naming them Nigel."

The weekend's gathering at The Fleece Inn, in Bretforton, attracted 372 Nigels and about the same number of non-Nigels.

Some of them travelled from as far away as the USA, Zimbabwe and Nicaragua.

The 58-year-old landlord had hoped to smash his own 2019 world record, in which 434 people came to the Nigel Night event.

A Nigel from Zimbabwe joined pub landlord Nigel Smith at the event

"We had at least 10 people from America and Canada so it was quite exciting, and we did have a heck of a good party," he said.

Mr Smith added: "We are very keen for people to take on the challenge of naming their child Nigel or Nigella.

"We are trying to make sure the name Nigel lives on, because it has such great connotations of stoicism and self-deprecation."

The event featured the specially brewed Nige Ale