Harry and Pippa pip William and Kate as top baby names

London: Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton have upstaged the bride and groom from last year’s Royal Wedding – at least when it came to choosing names for babies.

According to Official figures, Harry was the most popular name for baby boys in England and Wales last year for the first time ever, overtaking regular favourites such as Oliver, Jack and Alfie, the Telegraph reported. With more than 7,500 babies being named Harry last year, it was by the far the most popular name for either sex in Britain, in the annual table produced by the Office for National Statistics, from returns from registrars. Traditional Biblical boys’ names fared well last year with Jacob and James among the most used name. Amelia topped the list of baby girl’s names, overtaking popular choices such as Olivia, Sophie and Emily, with 5,054 newborn girls taking the name. Others popular choices for girls last year included Lily, which rose to third, with Jessica, Grace, Ava and Isabella being in the top 10. The name Harry has been rising steadily over the past decade, seemingly boosted by the ‘Harry Potter’ books. But its rise to the top of the table has coincided with greater prominence for Prince Harry. William, by contrast, fell 3 places to 10th in the boys’ name chart. And despite predictions that the royal wedding would lead to a spate of girls being named Kate, it fell to a lowly 267th place from 210 the previous year. Pippa by contrast rose to 204th place – with 250 girls being named Pippa last year – up from 365th place a year earlier. Perhaps significantly, the more formal version of the Duchess of Cambridge’s name fared far better with 212 girls being name Catherines. When all variations of Kate and Catherine are combined there were 809. ANI