REBECCA and Daniel came out tops as the most popular names for babies in the North West during 1995 pushing the national favourites Jessica and Jack into second place, according to a survey out today.

The top ten girls' names in the region also include Lauren, which took third place, followed by Sophie, Hannah, Charlotte, Amy, Bethany, Laura and Emma. The national list was Jessica, Lauren, Rebecca, Sophie, Charlotte, Hannah, Amy, Emily, Chloe and Emma.

The most popular ten boys' names in the north west were Daniel, Jack, Thomas, Matthew, James, Joshua, Ryan, Michael, Adam and Joseph, compared with the national list of Jack, Daniel, Thomas, James, Joshua, Matthew, Ryan, Luke, Samuel and Jordan.

The survey was carried out by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and lists the ranking and frequency for the top 100 first names for boys and girls in Britain.

It was compiled from names of 578,000 babies born in 1995 and added to the National Health Service Central Register, which includes the names of all people registered with a doctor. Girls' names entering the top 50 for the first time are Ellie, Abbie and Kayleigh and the boys include Cameron, Reece, Charlie and Dominic. The top names in 1994, Thomas and Rebecca, have slipped this year to third place nationally and Anna, Louise, Hayley, Alex, Richard, Stephen and Mark have dropped out of the ranking since last year.

Shannon showed the greatest increase in popularity rising 22 places to number 11 nationally while Stephanie fell out of favour fastest by 11 places to 36.

In the boys, Connor rose 11 places to 17th and Kieron has also climbed 10 places to 26th. Andrew and Jonathan have both dropped seven places to 27th and 36th.

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