Analysing the Influence of Food and Drink - Ingredients, Dishes and Brands - on Baby Names Choices

May 02, 2023

As a nation of foodies, we wanted to discover how food and drink was influencing our baby name choices, so we sifted through the most recent release of relevant ONS data for England and Wales searching for mentions of food or drink related ingredients, dishes, and brands.

We managed to find 60 food or drink related names, and our analysis revealed which of these have been more popular over the last 25-years (1996-2021), as well as the most recent year (2021). Read on to find out more…

Girl Names

In total, we analysed 36 girl names:

Baby name	Category	Type	25-year count (1996-2021)	2021 count
Anise	Food	Spice	76	[x]
Apple	Food	Fruit	10	[x]
Berry	Food	Fruit	146	6
Brandy	Drink	Alcohol	41	[x]
Brie	Food	Cheese	63	5
Candy	Food	Sweets	80	[x]
Chai	Drink	Tea	12	[x]
Champagne	Drink	Alcohol – wine	3	[x]
Chardonnay	Drink	Alcohol – wine	517	5
Cherry	Food	Fruit	737	25
Clementine	Food	Fruit	2,254	290
Clove	Food	Herb	4	[x]
Coco	Food	Fruit	1,264	69
Dulce	Food	Sweet	19	3
Ginger	Food	Spice	5	5
Honey	Food	Sweet liquid	3,940	152
Madeleine	Food	Cake/cookies	12,310	161
Maize	Food	Cereal plant	12	4
Maki	Food	Sushi	3	[x]
Maple	Food	Syrup	81	18
Margarita	Drink	Alcohol – cocktail	217	13
Margherita	Food	Pizza type	76	5
Nigella	Food	Seed	30	[x]
Nori	Food	Sushi seaweed	46	13
Olive	Food	Fruit	4,557	691
Peach	Food	Fruit	26	4
Peaches	Food	Fruit	270	22
Pepper	Food	Vegetable	113	12
Plum	Food	Fruit	7	[x]
Rosemary	Food	Herb	1,963	63
Roux	Food	Sauce	151	23
Saffron	Food	Spice	4,061	57
Sherry	Food	Alcohol	97	[x]
Stella	Drink	Alcohol brand	2,984	148
Strawberry	Food	Fruit	3	[x]
Sultana	Food	Fruit	70	3

Looking at the 2021 data, the most popular baby girl names were Olive, Clementine, Madeleine, Honey, and Stella. Looking at the 25-year data (1996-2021) the most popular baby girl names were almost the same, with Saffron replacing Clementine – Madeleine, Olive, Saffron, Honey, and Stella.

Some of the more unusual girl name examples which have featured in the last 25 years (named between 1996 and 2021) included Apple (10), Champagne (3), Maki (3), Strawberry (3), Peach (26), and Plum (7).

Boy Names

Baby name	Category	Type	25-year count (1996-2021)	2021 count
Alfredo	Food	Pasta dish	135	7
Angus	Food	Beef type	4,520	329
Bailey	Drink	Alcohol	15,448	238
Baker	Other	Job	51	5
Barley	Food	Grain	3	[x]
Basil	Food	Herb	329	28
Benedict	Food	Breakfast dish	3,344	57
Bran	Food	Cereal grain	80	5
Caesar	Food	Salad type	96	6
Dijon	Food	Mustard type	26	[x]
Herb	Food	Herb	21	3
Ice	Other	Ice	3	[x]
Jameson	Drink	Alcohol brand	15	40
Juniper	Food	Berry	3	[x]
Kale	Food	Vegetable	172	[x]
Kobe	Food	Beef type	1,763	218
Lyle	Food	Syrup brand	536	27
Perry	Drink	Alcohol	977	18
Reese	Food	Chocolate brand	365	5
Reuben	Food	Sandwich	20,849	1,534
Roe	Food	Fish eggs	20	5
Romaine	Food	Lettuce	3	[x]
Rye	Food	Cereal grain	70	6
Sage	Food	Herb	84	17

Looking at the 2021 data, the most popular baby boy names were Reuben, Angus, Bailey, Kobe, and Benedict. Looking at the 25-year data (1996-2021) the most popular baby boy names were the same, just slightly reordered (Reuben, Bailey, Angus, Benedict, and Kobe).

Some of the more unusual boy name examples which have featured in the last 25 years (named between 1996 and 2021) included Chai (32), Dijon (26) Herb (21), Ice (3), Juniper (3), and Roe (20).

Unisex Names

Of the 60 names we analysed, 6 were unisex:

Baby name	More popular gender in 25-years	25-year count (1996-2021)	More popular gender in 2021	2021 count
Bailey	Male	15,448 (vs 1,942)	Male	238 (vs 71)
Barley	Female	14 (vs 3)	Female	3 (vs 0)
Benedict	Male	3,344 (vs 9)	Male	57 (vs 0)
Juniper	Female	515 (vs 3)	Female	83 (vs 0)
Perry	Male	977 (vs 25)	Male	18 (vs 0)
Reese	Female	463 (vs 365)	Female	(15 vs 5)

Of the six unisex names, Bailey, Benedict, and Perry were more popular for baby boys, whereas Barley, Juniper, and Reese were more popular for baby girls.

Methodology:

Analysis using ‘Baby names in England and Wales, 1996 to 2021’ from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
25 years based on 1996 to 2021, and latest year based on 2021 only.