UK baby names and births statistics

In the UK the most popular baby names and the headline birth figures come from the national statistics agencies: the ONS for England and Wales, National Records of Scotland, and NISRA for Northern Ireland. Olivia and Muhammad are the most popular girls' and boys' names in England and Wales, there were 585,396 live births there in 2025, the standardised mean age of mothers was 31.1 (provisional), and the total fertility rate was 1.39 children per woman (provisional). BabyData brings these headline figures together, each cited to its primary source and refreshed when that source updates.

Headline UK baby statistics

Measure Latest UK figure Source
Most popular girls’ name (England and Wales) Olivia ONS Baby names in England and Wales
Most popular boys’ name (England and Wales) Muhammad ONS Baby names in England and Wales
Most popular girls’ name (Scotland) Olivia National Records of Scotland
Most popular boys’ name (Scotland) Noah National Records of Scotland
Live births in England and Wales (latest year) 585,396 in 2025 (ONS) ONS Births in England and Wales
Standardised mean age of mothers (England and Wales) 31.1 years in 2025 (provisional, ONS) ONS Births in England and Wales
Total fertility rate (England and Wales) 1.39 children per woman in 2025 (provisional, ONS) ONS Births in England and Wales
Births registered in Northern Ireland (latest year) About 19,500 NISRA

Figures are the latest published headline figures from each agency's release and are refreshed on release. Values are rounded. No figure here is estimated by BabyData: each comes from its named primary source.

Where these numbers come from

Baby-name popularity and counts for England and Wales come from the ONS Baby names in England and Wales dataset, published annually. Births, the birth rate and the average age of mothers come from ONS Births in England and Wales. Scotland's figures come from National Records of Scotland, and Northern Ireland's from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Each agency publishes on its own schedule, so the latest figure for a given measure may be from a different reference year. BabyData cites the source for every number and updates the table when a new release lands.

For the interactive view of names over time and the underlying data assets, see the UK baby names and births data page. The same figures are also available, with their methods, through the data API and MCP server.

OM

Oliver Mackman

Editor, BabyData

Oliver Mackman is the named editor of BabyData and a director of Best Business Loans Ltd (Companies House 16833937), the company that operates the site. He is accountable for its editorial standards, sourcing and corrections, and requires every number to cite the underlying rule and the official UK dataset behind it, with pregnancy tools reviewed against NHS and gov.uk guidance before publication.

Last reviewed: 5 October 2026