Downton Abbey baby names soaring in popularity

Image credit/PBS

Thousands of new parents in the UK have been inspired to name their bubs after Downton Abbey characters, new figures have revealed.

The popularity of television period drama Downton Abbey, set in 1920s England, has launched Cora, Violet, Edith, Sybil and Elsie into the UK’s most popular girls’ names. The most popular was Elsie, with over 1,200 babies being named after Downton’s head housekeeper in the past year.

When the show first aired in 2010, many of the character’s names were dwindling in popularity, however along with the rise of royal baby names, traditional monikers have made a return over the past couple of years.

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The figures, released by the Office of National Statistics, show that in the past year the number of girls named Coara more than doubled in England and Wales, while there were three times the number of Sybils compared with that of 2010.

Violet, the matriarch of the Crawley family, has been a particularly influential character when it comes to naming newborns, making a big comeback after jumping from 466 in 2010 to the 78th spot in 2013.

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