THE special supplement ‘Born in 2023’ is out today, Thursday, and we can reveal the top ten boys’ and girls’ names for babies born in St Helens last year.

Throughout the past 12 months, we have been appealing to St Helens Star readers to send in pictures of their newborns who were delivered at Whiston Hospital – or further afield – via our website.

Now, we have put together a special eight-page supplement celebrating St Helens’ newest residents.

Our annual ‘Born in….’ souvenir edition always special and this year’s is no exception - the ‘Born in 2023’ supplement will be one for family members to cherish.

Whether babies were born at hospital or at home, or if mums went into labour in an unusual place, we were again inundated with pictures from proud mums and dads across the town and we have tried to include as many newborn babies as possible.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted a photograph for ‘Born in 2023’ and don’t forget to keep hold of a copy or two for your son or daughter’s memory box.

Tom / Tommy and Theo feature in the most popular names for boys and Bonnie and Lilly / Lillie were among the favourites for girls.

Popular names for boys last year were Frankie, Luca and Noah as well as Oscar, Jace and Brodie / Brody.

Rounding out the top ten girls’ names from 2023 were Florence, Gracie and Isla as well Olivia and Ivy / Ivie.

Here are the top 10 baby names in St Helens in 2023 (list compiled from the names submitted to the St Helens Star over the past 12 months):

BOYS

THEO
TOM/TOMMY/THOMAS
BRODIE/BRODY
LUCA
NOAH
OSCAR
FRANKIE
JACK
JUDE
OLIVER

GIRLS

BONNIE
LILLY/LILLIE
FLORENCE
GRACIE
ISLA
OLIVIA
AMELIA
CHARLOTTE
EVIE
MATILDA

The most popular names for baby girls and boys nationally this year look a little different to the top names in St Helens.

Research from pregnancy and parenting destination, BabyCentre, revealed the most popular baby names of 2023 were Olivia and Muhammad.

Muhammad held onto the title of the most popular name for boys last year, while Olivia became the most popular name for girls taking over from Sophia.

Sophia dropped down the list to 8th due to an increase in alternative spellings of the name and this affected many of the popular names in 2023.

Unusually spelled names are on the rise and among names with lots of different spelling are Aiden, which boasted no less than 17 variations in the 2023 registrations and Eliana had 10.

In a recent survey, the overwhelming majority of BabyCentre parents said the spelling of their baby’s name was important to mark it out either as classic or as an unusual version of the traditional spelling.

In response, BabyCentre decided to no longer combine variations of the same name within its rankings.

MOST POPULAR BABY NAMES OF 2023

THESE ARE THE TOP GIRLS’ NAMES OF 2023:

1.         OLIVIA
2.         AMELIA
3.         ISLA
4.         LILY
5.         AVA
6.         FREYA
7.         IVY
8.         SOPHIA
9.         GRACE
10.       WILLOW
11.       MIA
12.       ISABELLA
13.       DAISY
14.       ELSIE
15.       EVIE
16.       FLORENCE
17.       ELLA
18.       EMILY
19.       EVELYN
20.       LUNA

AND THE TOP BOYS’ NAMES 2023:

1.         MUHAMMAD
2.         NOAH
3.         THEO
4.         LEO
5.         OLIVER
6.         ARTHUR
7.         GEORGE
8.         LUCA
9.         FREDDIE
10.       JACK
11.       ETHAN
12.       CHARLIE
13.       HENRY
14.       OSCAR
15.       JUDE
16.       ALFIE
17.       ARCHIE
18.       LUCAS
19.       LIAM
20.       ARLO

If you are expecting your own new arrival in 2024, make sure you keep an eye out for our forthcoming appeals each month, where you can send a photo of your baby along with their name, date of birth, weight at birth and the area of St Helens you live.

We will be celebrating all the babies born in 2024 with another special supplement at the beginning of next year.