You asked
Please provide the 10 most popular baby names of both males and females born in the U.K. in 1988.
I would also like to know where the name Shona ranks for girls born in 1988.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for publishing statistics on baby names in England and Wales. Baby name statistics are compiled from first names recorded when live births are registered in England and Wales as part of civil registration, a legal requirement.
Up to and including 1994, a list of the top 100 baby names was produced by the General Registry Office once every 10 years. This means 1984 and 1994 are the closest years to 1988 for which the list is available. The dataset for the top 100 baby names in these years is available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalestop100babynameshistoricaldata
These lists only include the rank from 1 to 100, they do not show actual counts (the number of babies given that name). Shona did not appear in the top 100 in 1984 or 1994. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide any additional information for these two years, or any information for the years in between including 1988 itself.
We also have an interactive chart showing a time series of the top 100 baby names, however Shona does not appear in this chart: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/babynamesenglandandwales/2017#which-names-entered-the-top-100-in-2017
For 1996 to 2016, figures are available for every year. Baby name statistics for boys in England and Wales from 1996 onwards are available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalesbabynamesstatisticsboys
Baby name statistics for girls in England and Wales from 1996 onwards are available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalesbabynamesstatisticsgirls
Baby name statistics for Northern Ireland are available from NISRA: https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/births/baby-names
Baby name statistics for Scotland are available from NRS: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/names/babies-first-names