Will Prince Louis influence baby boy name choice for Oxfordshire parents?

Staff at Oxfordshire’s Registration Service are braced for a surge in boys named Louis following the naming of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s third child and second son.

The naming of royal babies has always tended to influence parents in choice of first names for newly born children. The name Charlotte leapt from a lowly position in league tables in 2016 to being the 14^th most popular name chosen for baby girls in Oxfordshire during 2017.

Louis, the name chosen for the new Prince, was 48th in the list of boys names in 2017 with 16 babies registered with this name (a further 10 were registered Louie). However the new Prince's middle name, Arthur, did surge to 5^th during 2017. A total of 7,672 births were registered in the county during 2017.

Alicja Gilroy, Superintendent Registrar at Oxfordshire County Council’s Registration Service, said: “Trends in the choice of baby names tend to change gradually but royal births can have a fairly immediate impact. That was definitely noticeable with the name Charlotte and it’ll now be interesting to see what happens with the name Louis when we add up the figures at the end of 2018 and 2019.

“Our congratulations go to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their third child.”

Oxfordshire County Council’s Registration Service provides a caring and efficient service for registering births, deaths, marriages, civil partnerships and other celebratory ceremonies.

The service operates out of Registration Offices in Abingdon, Banbury, Bicester, Didcot, Henley, Oxford and Witney.

The 2017 Oxfordshire baby boy name league table (with 2016 for comparison)