An annual survey of the names given to babies born in Britain during the year — 300,000 of them — 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.

There are not many famous Ellies to act as inspiration — it is short for Ellen, as in MacArthur, the round-the-world yachtswoman.

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.

Celtic names are slipping out of fashion too, according to Bounty. Caitlin has slipped out of the top 20 and Ethan is down from 12 to 15 for boys.

Debbie Davies, the associate director of Bounty, said: “Ellie means light and there is an old-fashioned glamour about the name. I am sure we will see more baby girls named Ellie in 2005. For boys, the enduring popularity of Jack looks set to remain.”

More than half of parents say they choose a name because they like it or because of its meaning rather than because it relates to someone well known.

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