Melissa Willets
posted in Pregnancy
A British study recently looked at the names of women who are most likely to get pregnant in 2018. Sound a little random? It’s actually based on real science.
You see, the researchers calculated the average age women have their first child in the UK (28.6 to be exact), and then determined the most popular names in the years these women were born.
Behold, the top 20 names of British women most likely to become moms-to-be next year.
- Emma
- Laura
- Sarah
- Stephanie
- Kirsty
- Claire
- Nicola
- Jennifer
- Stacey
- Lauren
- Lisa
- Danielle
- Rachel
- Rebecca
- Natalie
- Amy
- Louise
- Samantha
- Ashley
- Gemma
As you can see, some of the names on the list are also popular among late 20- and 30-somethings in the U.S., like Jennifer, Ashley, Danielle, Lauren, and Lisa. But I wanted to see what the most popular names in this country were around 1991, when moms who are 26 (the average age to have a first child in the U.S.), were born.
According to the Social Security Administration, here were the most-used names for girls during the decade that brought us “Opposites Attract,” 90210, and Goodfellas.
- Jessica
- Ashley
- Emily
- Sarah
- Samantha
- Amanda
- Brittany
- Elizabeth
- Taylor
- Megan
- Hannah
- Kayla
- Lauren
- Stephanie
- Rachel
- Jennifer
- Nicole
- Alexis
- Victoria
- Amber
Of course, this list only takes into account younger moms-to-be. But nowadays, women continue to have babies into their mid- and late 30s, and even 40s. So what about us?
To be fair, here are the most popular names for women born in the 1980s, a pretty darn good decade, too, if you ask me!
- Jessica
- Jennifer
- Amanda
- Ashley
- Sarah
- Stephanie
- Melissa
- Nicole
- Elizabeth
- Heather
- Tiffany
- Michelle
- Amber
- Megan
- Amy
- Rachel
- Kimberly
- Christina
- Lauren
- Crystal
Hmm, Melissa is on this list. Interesting. If your name is Melissa, as mine is.
In any event, clearly this list is only one metric for determining if you are likely to get pregnant in 2018. And it’s not even a very important one, in my opinion. So if you name isn’t on these lists, so what? Maybe a baby is still very much in your future next year!
Images by iStock
Purely out of interest, was your name on any of these lists?