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The number of newborns named George and Louis shrank in 2024, suggesting the royal boost behind their surge in popularity may have come to an end.
George and Louis have held a place in the most popular names for boys for some years, seeing a significant boost in rankings following the birth the Prince William and Princess Kate’s sons.
In the decade after his birth, George steadily climbed the rankings to become the second most popular name in England and Wales for three years running, in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
However, it has now fallen to the sixth most popular name for boys, with 3,257 babies called George born in 2024, according to newly released Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.
While still numerous, this actually represented a notable decline, with George falling two places in the rankings since 2023.
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The names George and Louis fell in popularity in 2024, following a decade long boost based on the two sons of the Prince and Princess of Wales
This appeared to confirm a trend that has seen George drop a place each year after 2021, with 2024 proving to be the steepest decline yet.
The name Louis similarly dropped two spots, falling to 47 in the rankings with 1092 newborns bearing the name.
This would appear to be a gradual reversal of the trend set by the birth of Prince Louis in 2018, shooting up the rankings in 2018 with a 56 per cent increase in registrations that year.
An alternative spelling, Louie, is also much more popular as it climbed a huge eight places in the ranking.
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The name George has fallen two spots in the most popular ranking since 2023
Possibly inspired by the Waleses’ youngest, the variant of Louis was given to 1,518 baby boys in 2024.
As for girls’ names, Charlotte managed to retain its 23rd spot in the rankings with 1,418 babies possibly being named after the Walses’ middle child.
The popularity of Princess Charlotte’s namesake has remained stable since 2014, keeping the same rank at either end of the decade.
Away from the Wales family, Archie has been steadily climbing in popularity in England and Wales.
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Louis also fell a similar amount over the year, but alternate spelling Louie rose a eight spots
Archie, the name of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s eldest, was ranked 10th most popular with 2,575 newborns in 2024.
This represented an impressive three-spot jump from 2023 and a seven-spot gain from 2014.
The ONS released its list on Thursday morning with its top 100 baby names for both boys and girls in England and Wales for 2024.
Once again, Muhammad topped the chart for boys, after joining the top ten list in 2016.
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The popularity of the names George, Charlotte and Louis have seen a a long term rise in popularity owed to the royal connection
The rest of the top spots read: Noah, Oliver, Arthur, Leo, George, Luca, Theodore, Oscar and Archie.
As for the girls, Olivia came first, followed by Amelia, Lily, Isla, Ivy, Florence, Freya, Poppy, Ava and Elsie.
ONS data shows there were 594,540 live births in England and Wales for 2024, with 289,651 females and 304,889 males.
It resulted in 35,386 unique girls’ names and 30,546 unique boys’ names.