James

Some names have revivals. James has simply never stopped. While everything around it has cycled through fashionable and dated and fashionable again, James has been sitting there in the top tier, unbothered, wearing a decent coat.

The origin is Hebrew, and the meaning is a genuine plot twist: supplanter. One who takes another's place. For a name this reassuring, this thoroughly sensible, this reliable-chap-who-helps-you-move-house, the underlying definition is essentially "the one who nicks your spot". Do with that what you will. Personally I think it gives James an edge it otherwise hides very well.

The popularity figures are almost absurd. It is sixth in the United States as of 2020, eighth in Canada in 2024, twelfth in New Zealand and nineteenth in Australia. England and Wales place it at 40, which for a name this old feels less like a ranking and more like a permanent address. It even turns up at 168 in France, 355 in Brazil and 382 in Mexico City, places where it is not remotely native and yet there it is, charting quietly anyway. Very few names manage that trick.

Three names in a trench coat

What you are really choosing is a set. There is James, which is boardrooms and best man speeches. There is Jim, which is solid and slightly gruff and probably good with an engine. There is Jimmy, which is all mischief. And there is Jamie, which is the warmest of the lot.

That range is the name's superpower. A child can be Jamie at six, Jim at sixteen and James at a job interview without ever once feeling like they are pretending. Not many names give you a wardrobe.

The famous bearers stretch across centuries. James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet who lived from 1882 to 1941. James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer. Jimmy Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. And going right back to the beginning there is James, son of Alphaeus, one of the Twelve Apostles. Literature, navigation, high office and scripture. The name has never had trouble finding work.

It sits naturally alongside William, Thomas, Charles, Elizabeth and Mary, which tells you exactly what sort of shortlist it belongs on. If the rest of your list looks like the index of a very good history book, James will feel like it was always there.

The obvious catch

Ubiquity. In a top-ten name you accept that there will be others, and that a shout across a park may summon three children who are not yours. Plenty of parents solve this with a distinctive middle name and consider the trade entirely worth it, because the thing you get in exchange is a name nobody will ever mispronounce, misspell or raise an eyebrow at, for the whole of a life.

Which is the maddening bit, really. The safest choice on the list is still a choice, and you will still lie awake weighing it against six others. Enjoy it. The shortlist stage is the fun part.