First,revolutionised the way women can choose clothes using data . Now she aims to do the same for that other fraught issue: baby names

What does 15 years of baby name data tell us about modern Britain?

If you are a parent, or soon to be a parent, you may already have discovered the US's Baby Name Voyager. It's a data-visualization classic, a wonderful way to bring 100 years of American baby names to life. And like (I think) the very best visualizations, it is useful: not only does it reveal broad social trends, but you can hunt for names for your own children.

I am a freelance developer, and recently, for fun, I decided to make a version for the UK. The Office of National Statistics only releases 15 years of name data, but I thought that would still be long enough to make a useful tool for British parents, and find some interesting trends. After all, the country has changed plenty since 1996.

So I built a web app called, imaginatively, England & Wales Baby Names. Just like the Voyager, you can look up names for your own children and see naming trends. You can quickly search through the 27,000 names used by parents since 1996, and see the exact number of babies given each name every year since 1996.

I've tried to make the tool as easy to use as possible - and if you type slowly, it will show you results letter by letter. So if you'd like a name starting with the letter I, you can search that way. You won't be alone, because intriguingly, names beginning with I have trebled in popularity since 1996.

Names of British babies beginning with the letter 'i'. See live chart

The tool also reveals some striking celebrity-related trends - such as the precipitous decline of the name Jordan. In 1996, Jordan was a very popular name, accounting for 5750 boys and 372 girls. From 1996-1998, when Ms. Price was a fresh-faced Page 3 girl, there was a small fall for boys, and a jump for girls. But in the following decade, as her chest inflated, parents increasingly avoided the name - only 268 boys (20 times fewer) and 5 girls were named Jordan in 2010.

British babies named Jordan. See live chart

I've written a blog post with lots more analysis of the trends that I found, but here's a quick highlight. Firstly, pop stars with unusual names really seem to affect the trends: thus Macy, Miley, Olly, and Kenzie are all in the top-10 fastest risers over the whole period, with Rihanna hot on their heels.

Celebrity names may also give an insight into public opinion: I enjoyed comparing trends for Jude and Sienna, especially after he was caught cheating on her in 2005 - the popularity of his name dips sharply...

British babies named Jude. See live chart

but hers continues to rise.

British babies named Sienna. See live chart

Some names, like Jordan, are chiefly notable for falling out of fashion over the period. Most striking is Britney, who explodes into fame in 1999 and almost as swiftly falls from favour again: Courtney is another. Unsurprisingly, both Usama and Osama fall sharply in popularity after 2001.

Sporting names, delightfully, seem to mirror their owners' careers. Jenson (the second fastest-rising boys' name over the whole period) is a case in point. It first gains traction in 2000 (when Jenson Button became Britain's youngest-ever F1 driver), zooms ahead in 2004 when he finished in the rankings for the first time, falls back again, then races up in 2009, when he won the World Drivers' Championship.

British babies named Jenson. See live chart

Perhaps surprisingly, the young royals' names William, Harry, Zara and Beatrice are all steadily on the up since 1996 - indeed, Harry is now the 3rd most popular boys' name, up from 17th in 1996.

Political names almost invariably seem to have negative, if any, effects. There's a significant drop in the name Cameron in recent years, and from a lower base, Blair post 1997. And Cherie has collapsed as a girls' name.

British babies named Cameron. See live chart

I only spotted one political exception (it might be influenced by the rise in Polish names, but still): Boris, slowly but surely on the rise.

British babies named Boris. See live chart

It isn't all pop stars and footballers, though: I noticed big jumps for Amelie (the second fastest-rising girls' name over the period), Lyra and even Grayson.

Finally, there's a strong swing towards more unusual names during the last decade and a half. In 1996, the ONS reported 8,671 unique names for 649,488 babies, or roughly 74 babies for each name. By 2010, this had risen to 13,421 unique names for 723,165 babies, or roughly 55 babies for each name. (The ONS doesn't include names given only to 1 or 2 babies in a year, but the overall trend is clear.)

What trends have I missed? Let me know in the comments.

A note on colour: I really wanted to avoid using pink for female names. I tried green and purple, but the visual contrast was poor, and early testers found it confusing. I've tried to use relatively un-girly dark-red pink. Sorry, pink haters.

Try looking for your own name on the site: England & Wales Baby Names. I've written more about trends in my blog post. If you want to do your own analysis, please see the ONS raw data, or my aggregated dataset (reproduced under the Open Government Licence), and check out the script I used to identify trends.

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