Top Baby Names in Scotland 2020

Updated Fri Mar 26 2021

The top baby names in Scotland for 2020 have landed! If you love Scottish and British names, they’re not to be missed.

It’s extra exciting this year because the National Records of Scotland didn’t release provisional data at the end of the year, as they usually do. So, shiny brand new statistics! We’ve rounded up the juiciest highlights, and you can find the raw data and full report on the NRS website.

Scotland’s Top Ten Baby Names 2020

Scotland has a new top girl name: Isla is Number 1 for the first time. For boys, Scottish parents still can’t get enough of Jack: it takes the top spot for the thirteenth year running.

On a local scale, Isla and Jack were only the top names in a small minority of areas. There was a lot of variation across Scotland, with other local favorites including Freya, Rosie, Harris and Muhammad.

In the national Top 10, there were a few small shifts. For girls, Lily re-entered, replacing Charlotte, and for boys, Alexander, Archie and Finlay entered, replacing Charlie, Alfie and Lewis.

Top 100 Scottish Names of 2020

In the Top 100, the highest-rising names were Maeve (now 86) and Ayda (now 91) for girls, and Roman (now 33) and Finley (now 88) for boys.

Other names that shot up into the Top 100 include Autumn, Quinn, Indie, Rosa, Piper, Mollie and Nina; and Joey, Teddy, Robbie, Myles, Frankie and Brody. As in the rest of Britain, it still holds true that nicknames are the height of style.

The Top 100 contains plenty of distinctively Scottish names that are lesser-used elsewhere. Among the standout girl names are Eilidh, Bonnie, Iona, Mirren, and Alba (the Gaelic name for Scotland); and for boys, Harris, Rory and Ruaridh and Ruairidh, Finlay and Finley, Brodie and Brody, Callum, Angus, Fraser, Hamish, Murray, and Innes.

Read Scotland’s full Top 100 list.

Popularity By Mother’s Age

This year, National Records of Scotland provided a breakdown of the most popular baby names by maternal age. 60 girl names and 59 boy names are in the Top 100 for every age group; but among the rest, there are some interesting differences.

The youngest age group, mothers under 25, hints that change is coming to the top of the charts. The most popular names for these mothers were Olivia and Noah, and the national favorites Isla and Jack ranked 7th and 17th respectively. This makes sense for Jack: it has been in the Top 10 since 1995, so a lot of Jacks are parents themselves now.

Other boy names particularly popular with younger parents included Jax and Jaxson (the next evolution of Jack), surnames like Hunter and Grayson, and nicknames like Tommy and Reggie. For girl names, double-barrel names like Amelia-Rose and Lily-Rose were especially popular, as were -ey endings like Darcey, Lacey and Paisley. Several names for both sexes were 1990s favorites in the States, but still sound young and fresh in Scotland — Madison and Tyler, for instance.

These names were only in the Top 100 for mothers under 25:

Among the names uniquely popular with older mothers are long classics like Alexandra and Sebastian, but also diminutives like Ben and Sam. Vintage choices like Edith and Iris are big for girls, and there are some distinctively Scottish choices on the boys’ list, like Ewan and Struan.

These names were only in the Top 100 for mothers aged 35 and over:

Unique Names In Scotland

Like many other countries, parents in Scotland are becoming ever more individualistic in their baby name choices. In 1974, 1 in 30 girls and 1 in 50 boys had a unique name (which was only recorded once that year). In 2020, 1 in 8 girls and 1 in 12 boys did.

It was hard to narrow it down, but here are just a few of the names given to only one girl or boy in 2020.

Even more Scottish names? But of course. Read our list of Scottish baby names.

About the Author

Clare Green

Clare Green has been writing for Nameberry since 2015, covering everything from names peaking right now to feminist baby names, and keeping up-to-date with international baby name rankings. Her work has featured in publications such as The Independent and HuffPost. Clare has a background in linguistics and librarianship, and recently completed an MA dissertation researching names in multilingual families. She lives in England with her husband and son. You can reach her at clare@nameberry.com

View all of Clare Green's articles