Most popular baby names: Noah and Olivia top of list

Noah has become the top baby name for boys replacing Oliver, which held the top spot for eight years.

For girls, Olivia remains the top name in England and Wales for the sixth year in a row according to official birth data for 2021.

And new top 10 names in 2021 revealed by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) include Willow and Henry.

The ONS, which published the figures, also says films and TV continue to be big influences on names with Star Wars and Pixar films probably inspiring choices.

Muhammad was the most popular boys' name in four out of nine English regions, while Olivia was the top girls' name for every English region and Wales, except for the East Midlands where Amelia was the most popular girls name.

New entries this year to the top 100 include Lara, Beatrice and Sara for girls and Blake, Brody, Kai, Rupert, Tobias and Nathan for boys.

It is the first time that Rupert and Brody have been in the top 100.

In Wales, Alys, Ffion, Seren and Eira were among the top 50 for girls and Arthur, Osian, Dylan and Elis were among the top 30 for boys.

Names from films and music

There were 885 girls named Mabel in 2021

While the ONS can't say exactly why parents decide on a particular name, they have looked at the increase of certain names which also appear in popular culture.

For example, the number of new-borns named Kylo increased in 2016 after The Force Awakens when the villain Kylo Ren hit cinema screens.

After last year's Pixar film Luca, the number of boys named Luca jumped from 1,323 in 2020 to 1,807 in 2021, making it the 28th-most popular name for boys that year.

The release of Disney adventure Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021, could have been responsible for the number of girls with that name more than doubling. There were 110 babies named Rayas in 2020 and 250 in 2021.

"Popular culture continues to influence parents' baby name choices...from hit TV shows to musical icons," says James Tucker from the Office of National Statistics.

The rise in popularity of the name Ezra and Mabel could also be connected to popular culture, the ONS says.

Ezra was just outside the top 50 most popular names given to boys in 2021, with 1,226 registered that year.

The name became more popular at around the same time that musician George Ezra became famous, with an 89% increase in 2015 coming after his debut album "Wanted on Voyage" topped the charts.

The number of baby girls named Mabel also peaked in 2021 at 885, which followed particularly large increases in 2018 and 2020.

The ONS believe this could have been influenced by rising popularity of the singer Mabel.

What do you think of the top 10, is your name there? Let us know in the comments below.