top Scottish boy's names

**neloon** · 17th January 18, 04:34 AM

Here are the 2017 figures
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42409512

Alan

**OC Richard** · 17th January 18, 05:10 AM

Originally Posted by neloon

Here are the 2017 figures
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42409512

Alan

I see there hasn't been a sea-change, looks like those names are on the 2015 list too.

BTW I read an interesting article about baby-names in the US, how fads happen for particular names.

The interesting thing was that what seemed logical on the surface wasn't borne out by the reality.

So... there would be a famous politician or movie star or book or film character and then their name would become popular for babies.

Seems logical: there's a name in the public eye, and people start naming their babies after the famous person or character.

But when they searched through birth records they found, over and over, that the name was already getting popular before the famous person had risen to fame, before the book was published or the movie began production that featured a character with a name which became a fad. Yes the baby-name peaked in popularity when the famous name was in the news, but it's popularity had already been on the rise.

This happened to my wife and I. We had chosen the name "Ross" for our boy long before he was born. It's a fairly rare name here, and at the time I'd only known one Ross, the son of local Scottish immigrants.

But around the time our Ross was born suddenly the name was all over the news, with a Ross running for President of the US and a Ross character on a hit TV show. I'm guessing that people, seeing when our Ross was born, might guess he's named for one of those people.

**Jack Daw** · 17th January 18, 06:24 AM

A couple of points from the 2015 - 2017 lists: Alexander remains in the top 10, but Alistair is not; one nephew I have is named Jack (#1), not John, despite the latter being a big family name, so I'm not as disappointed; and, Mohammed has climbed 11 places in 2017 to #36.

**kingandrew** · 17th January 18, 09:32 AM

It's also interesting to note the appearance of variant spellings, as in Jaxon and Jackson. This is something we see lots of in US baby names, with things like Brittany/Britney/Britanee, etc.

In addition, the "unusual" names on the Scottish list are nearly all Gaelic/Scottish names of long standing (Rory, Hamish, etc.). US baby names are often of the "creative" sort, with odd new coinages sometimes gaining widespread popularity, such as the rise of names like "Jace," strange one-offs like "Naquavia," andeven kids named after brands, such as "Lexus" or "Timberland."

Andrew (a name much more popular now than when I was born).

**fflex** · 17th January 18, 09:41 AM

Wayhay! I made the top 5; that doesn’t happen often 😜

**CollinMacD** · 17th January 18, 10:47 AM

Two of my names are very Scottish. ALLAN/ALAN/ALLEN and my middle name COLLIN (Scottish) and Colin (Irish) are very Gaelic, yet missing???? Yet Collin/Colin has become a fairly popular in US and
Canada now. Very disappointing....Please understand my post is not meant to be egotistical, but generations of MacDonald, Clanranald, Sleet, Skye etc. has many Collin/Colin, Allan's, Agnus, Alexander, and especially Archibald, and Donald. Wonder why they are missing? Now those are real SCOTTISH names...

Surprised Jamie and Claire (Outlander) has not gained in popularity. I understand, just recently the Outlander Series has finally been release in Scotland on public TV, only available on pay TV, and not publicized, you might see a gain in popularity with those names this year.

My daughter named my Grandkids"

Andrew, Grace, and William..... I call them the "Royal Family".. My daughter has a very strong Scottish name, Laurie Ann. Funny but Elizabeth, Mary, Marion, Kay, Bridget, and especially Margaret, are either low or not there, and yet VERY Scottish

CHEERS

**The Q** · 17th January 18, 11:45 AM

My Dads name is Duncan, which I think isn't there,
And his brothers were
Malcolm,
Colin,
Ian,
Eugene
Their names are also missing.

My first name is also missing as is my middle name, but since I'm the only one in the UK with the first name and one of only 175 with my middle name i was expecting that.

**neloon** · 17th January 18, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by CollinMacD

Two of my names are very Scottish. ALLAN/ALAN/ALLEN and my middle name COLLIN (Scottish) and Colin (Irish) are very Gaelic, yet missing???? Yet Collin/Colin has become a fairly popular in US and
Canada now. Very disappointing....Please understand my post is not meant to be egotistical, but generations of MacDonald, Clanranald, Sleet, Skye etc. has many Collin/Colin, Allan's, Agnus, Alexander, and especially Archibald, and Donald. Wonder why they are missing? Now those are real SCOTTISH names...

Surprised Jamie and Claire (Outlander) has not gained in popularity. I understand, just recently the Outlander Series has finally been release in Scotland on public TV, only available on pay TV, and not publicized, you might see a gain in popularity with those names this year.

May I just make a few spelling and other comments?
Allan in the Scottish surname spelling and Allen is the English surname spelling. The first name spelling is Alan.
Colin is always spelled with one "l" throughout the British Isles.
The district of Skye is Sleat (from the old Norse for smooth).
Of course, especially in days gone by, spelling was more idiosyncratic.
Nobody in Scotland watches the Outlander nonsense so I doubt if that will make a difference. Jamie is regarded as a posh affectation such as might be used by English gentry to imply a Scottish connection. Likewise Jock for John and Sandy for Alexander. You must remember that the names that you think of as SCOTTISH because of your ancestry came from a very small corner of Scotland and the passage of 200 years and fairly considerable in-migration has diluted the use of those first names.
I doubt if many Scots seek out specifically "Scottish" names for their children but simply follow the fashion of parents around them.
Even the use of names "handed down" in a family has disappeared.

Alan

**Alisdair** · 18th January 18, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by Jack Daw

A couple of points from the 2015 - 2017 lists: Alexander remains in the top 10, but Alistair is not; one nephew I have is named Jack (#1), not John, despite the latter being a big family name, so I'm not as disappointed; and, Mohammed has climbed 11 places in 2017 to #36.

As one of the resident Alisdairs on this forum (are there any others?) I do deplore that Scots are preferring Alexander to its more Scottish equivalent Alisdair...

**Dollander** · 18th January 18, 04:13 AM

Originally Posted by Alisdair

As one of the resident Alisdairs on this forum (are there any others?) I do deplore that Scots are preferring Alexander to its more Scottish equivalent Alisdair...

It was likewise unexpected for me that, while John, Jack, and even the Welsh variant Evan made the top 100, Ian (my name) did not. Especially given its surge in popularity in the US since my parents gave it to me in the mid 70s...though it wasn't 'til the early 90s that it was popular enough for strangers to stop pronouncing it "eye-an".

Speaking of Alisdair...I've considered legally changing my middle name from Alexander to the quasi-Anglicized Alastair, or perhaps the Italian variant Alessandro. Either way, a version that lacks the X while leaving me with the same middle initial (thus reducing the number of IDs I'd have to replace). You see, there was a stupid attempt at a tradition in my father's family of calling the men by our middle names, that thankfully only lasted two generations. So despite making it quite clear that I've preferred going by my actual, given, first name since my teens, some of my relatives stubbornly refuse to acknowledge this and continue calling me Alex. But ultimately it's not worth all the trouble just to be able to tell said relatives that it's no longer my name, since they'd probably keep calling me Alex anyway.