Daily Mail - 30.08.2019

Daily Mail, Friday, August 30, 2019 Page 
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Flarebag! Phoebe’s joined the green party

Change since 2017 in brackets

(0) Oliver

(+1) George

(-1) Harry

(0) Noah

(0) Jack

(+1) Leo

(+12) Arthur

(+2) Muhammad

(-1) Oscar

(-1) Charlie

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

(0) Olivia

(0) Amelia

(+1) Ava

(-1) Isla

(0) Emily

(+1) Mia

(-1) Isabella

(+3) Sophia

(0) Ella

(+3) Grace

TOP TEN FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

Peaky Blinders siblings Arthur and Ada, whose name is now in the top 100 Source: ONS

Baby Alexa?

It’s a turn-off

GROWING numbers of smart

speakers have stopped parents

from calling newborn girls Alexa,

the baby name list suggests.

The decision by the retail giant

Amazon to give the name to its

robot speaker means that mil-

lions are already familiar with

having an Alexa at home.

The ONS said the increased use

of technology assistants in

recent years may help explain

why the number of baby girls

named Alexa more than halved

from 301 in 2017 to 118 in 2018.

IT’S the gritty crime drama

centred on the violent

exploits of a gangster

family in birmingham

between the wars.

but as well as entertaining mil-

lions of fans, bbC’s Peaky

blinders seems to be having an

effect on today’s culture.

The show is said to be fuelling a

trend for old fashioned baby names.

Most notable is Arthur, which has

got into the top ten boys’ names for

the first time since 1924. Ada has

also entered the top 100 girls’ names

for the first time in a century.

both are names of key characters in

the show: Arthur Shelby (played by

Paul Anderson) – bulldog of the

gangster clan – and Ada Thorne

(Sophie Rundle), the Shelby broth-

ers’ only sister.

The names for babies in 2018 were

charted by the office for national

Statistics in its annual round-up of

the most popular picks. It found

women over 35 are most likely to

call their newborn boys George,

oliver, Jack or Thomas, as opposed

year were oliver and olivia for the

third year running, the report said.

but nick Stripe of the onS said

there are the first signs oliver’s six-

year reign as the number one name

for boys is under threat.

Arthur had replaced Jacob in the

boys’ top ten, while among the top

ten girls’ names, Poppy and Lily were

supplanted by Sophia and Grace.

In the top 100 for boys for the first

time were Grayson, Rowan and

Tobias, while Jasper, Sonny and

dominic were top 100 re-entries.

Ada, delilah, Ayla, Zoe, Margot

and Felicity were new entries in the

girl’s top 100. The onS suggested

that the actress Margot Robbie

and the character Margo in the

despicable Me film series may have

been influential, although older

mothers may have been inspired

by reruns of the 70s TV sitcom The

Good Life with Margo Leadbetter.

Ada had been missing from the

popularity lists altogether since

1924, and delilah, Ayla and Margot

made their first ever top 100 appear-

ances. out of the girls’ top 100 in

england and Wales in 2018 went

darcey, darcy, Julia, Leah, Megan

and Victoria. The change in fashion

meant Megan was out of the top 100

for the first time since 1994.

By Steve Doughty

and Arthur Martin

‘Oliver’s reign

under threat’

to more fashionable names such

as Logan or Hunter preferred by

young mothers. older mothers are

also likely to pick olivia, Char-

lotte, emily or Amelia for girls,

and avoid Scarlett or Harper, fre-

quent choices of the under-25s.

The onS study also pointed to the

growing share of older mothers -

there are now more births in eng-

land and Wales each year among

women over 40 than to teenagers.

It said current mothers are unlikely

to name their children after people

they have known, such as their

grandparents, so names popular in

the 1940s and 50s like Kenneth,

Roger and Keith or Christine, Jean

and Ann no longer figure even in the

top 1,000 for boys or girls.

but new parents have never known

people born in the early 1900s, so

edwardian top names like Arthur,

Florence, Ivy and Ada are back in

vogue. The most popular names last

WITH a precariously financed

guinea pig-themed cafe to look

after, her Fleabag alter-ego could

never dream of splashing out on

designer gear.

But Phoebe Waller-Bridge, 34,

treated herself to a velvet suit by

Victoria Beckham to celebrate her

sell-out run in the West End.

The actress wowed in emerald

flared trousers with a matching

blazer and a thin black camisole as

she was joined by celebrity friends

at an after-party in Soho. The show

sees Miss Waller-Bridge perform as

Fleabag for the final time in a 65-

minute, one-woman show.

Her suit is so exclusive it is not

even on sale yet, but based on Miss

Beckham’s other tailored suits, will

cost upwards of £2,000.

Velvet

touch:

Phoebe

Waller-

Bridge at

the party

Sober students spell end of bar (Pt2)

A UnIVeRSITy has become the first in england to

close its campus bar – as students don’t drink there.

Portsmouth student union’s Waterhole bar has seen a

huge drop in alcohol sales, which bosses say is a sign of

‘changing tastes’. The university plans to turn it into a

‘social space’ with a coffee shop and microwaves.

Alcohol sales at the bar dropped by 20 per cent year on

year for the past four years, losing over half of its total

sales and operating at a loss. The closure comes after

Abertay University in Scotland also closed its union bar

earlier this month because sales there had plummeted

by two thirds in five years.

A survey by the national Union of Students in 2018

found that one in five university students do not drink

any alcohol, while a quarter believe there should be

more drink-free university events.

Peaky blighters...

T V drama boosts

Arthur and Ada

‘You’re 100% sure you want

to call her Killing Eve?’