ANNUAL Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures have revealed that no babies were named Nigel in England or Wales last year.

With the extinction of Nigels a distinct possibility over the course of the next half-century, we reached out to our readers to find out what they think of the situation.

Plenty of sons, daughters, wives and friends tagged their significant Nigels in the comments of our social post to bask in some light-hearted banter - a few referencing the plight of the dodo - while a soon-to-be-mum rejected the notion that she could stop the rot by naming her future child Nigel.

Nigel Lynn seemed nonplussed by the potential extinction, writing: "It's about time we became extinct. My parents must have been drunk when they gave me this rubbish name."

Others put a positive spin on the news, saying they felt "special" and "rare", and that a resurrection of the name is not completely out of the question.

Nigel Rigby said: "I heard about this on the radio, it just makes us Nigels more special and we will be back out in force next year."

Nigel Davies kept it short and to the point, he wrote: "It's a middle-aged fat persons name now."

Nigel Lancashire said: "I think I like being rare - although I'm far from being in mint condition."

Nigel Bullock quipped: "We are all pretty special though aren't we?"

Nigel Fielding prefers to go by the shortened 'Nige', saying that he is only "formally known as Nigel".

Laura Leilani was asked by a friend if she would consider calling her soon-to-be-born baby Nigel, should it be a boy.

She wrote: "No chance! It's bad enough that my husband is called Nigel. I can't inflict that on my child!"

The ONS revealed that the names Carol and Sally are also on the verge of extinction, as no babies were given those names during 2020 in England and Wales.

While not totally eradicated from registration like Nigel, Sally and Carol - there were fewer than 30 registrations of the names Jane, Christine, Keith, Graham and Colin last year.