After the furores surrounding Messrs Beckham and Blunkett, the final blow to the nation's Davids is revealed today - the name has slipped out of the top 50 list for baby boys for the first time in more than 60 years.

An annual survey of the names given to babies born in Britain during the year reveals that David is only the 52nd most popular, down from 48 last year, while for the first time Ellie is the most common name for girls.

David even shares 52nd place with John, consistently among the top ten names in Britain for most of the 20th century but now considered old-fashioned. It marks a decline for the biblical name - after the boy who beat Goliath with a slingshot - which has been one of Britain's most popular names for almost a century.

According to National Statistics, in 1964 David was the most popular name for new-born babies in Britain and even in 1934 was the fifth most common choice for newborn babies. Its popularity had been established thanks to David Lloyd George, the First World War Prime Minister. Other famous political Davids have included Lord Steel of Aikwood, the former Liberal Democrat party leader, Lord Owen, the former SDP leader, and now Blunkett.

Most of the list of boys' names for 2004 has a familiar ring. For the tenth year running Jack is the most common choice, according to the annual study by Bounty, which provides baby product samples to new mothers.

The top five boys' names remain unchanged from last year, with Joshua, Thomas, James and Daniel coming after Jack. The biggest riser is Sam, which has gone up from 49 to 37.

The more traditional Samuel is much higher than last year at 13, even if many boys registered as Samuel are eventually known as Sam.

But it is among girls' names where the real changes have taken place with Chloe, the favourite for the past six years, demoted to fourth place. Two years ago Ellie was the fifth most popular girls' name, then last year it was second.

Ellie is followed by the traditional names Emily and Sophie, then the former top choice Chloe, after which come Jessica, Katie, Lucy, Amy, Megan and Olivia. The fastest-rising girls name this year was Ruby, which jumped from 64th most popular last year to 31st this year.

Despite celebrities choosing unusual names, such as Apple (Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin) and Valentino (Melanie Sykes), these rarely make a dent in the lists of overall popularity, which are dominated by tradition.



簇拥“贝克汉姆”和“布兰科特”先生的狂热过后，英国“大卫”们今日遭受了“最后一击”——这个名字60多年来首次滑出男婴常用名排行榜前50名。

一份有关本年度英国新生婴儿姓名的调查显示，“大卫”在最受欢迎的名字中仅仅排在第52位，比去年的第48位有所下降，而“埃莉”首次成为女孩们最常用的名字。

“大卫”和“约翰”并列排在第52位，然而，在20世纪的绝大部分时间里，“约翰”一直排在英国常用姓名榜的前十位，但是现在人们觉得它过时了。这意味着圣经里的名字逐渐不再流行，尽管那个用弹弓打败巨人歌利亚的男孩的名字曾经是英国近百年来最受欢迎的名字。

英国国家统计局的数据显示，1964年，“大卫”是英国新生婴儿最常用的名字，即便在1934年，它也是排名第五的最常见的新生儿备选名。“大卫”的流行要归功于一战期间的英国首相大卫·劳埃德·乔治。其他知名的政坛“大卫”们还包括自由民主党前领袖史迪尔勋爵，社会民主党前领袖欧文勋爵和 现任英国内政部长布兰科特。

2004年男孩名字排行榜上的绝大部分名字都似曾相识。为新妈妈提供婴儿用品试用装的宝洁Bounty牌纸巾的年度调研结果显示，“杰克”连续10年来都是最常见的选择。

排名前五的男孩名和去年相比没有变化，杰克后面分别是乔舒亚、托马斯、詹姆士和丹尼尔。“进步”最大的是萨姆，他的排名从第49位上升到第37位。

更为传统的“塞谬尔”的排名比去年高了许多，排在第13位，尽管登记为塞谬尔的很多男孩后来的常用名都是萨姆。

在女孩们的名字中，“克洛伊”的变化最大，这个过去六年来最受喜爱的名字降到了第四位。两年前，“埃莉”在最流行的女孩名中排名第五，去年上升到第二位。

排在“埃莉”后面的是较为传统的“艾米丽”和“索菲”，然后才是曾经高居首位的“克洛伊”，后面依次是杰西卡、卡蒂 、露西、艾米、梅甘和奥利维亚。今年上升最快的女孩名是“鲁比”，它从去年的64位一下上升到今天的31位。

尽管有些名人选择了与众不同的名字，比如阿卜（格温妮丝·帕特洛和克莉丝·马丁）和瓦伦蒂诺（梅勒妮·塞克斯），但这些名字在常用名排行榜上几乎没什么影响力，一些传统的名字仍然占据了排行榜的主要位置。