John and Elizabeth found to be the names that reign

London: It's a name that has been worn with pride by kings and statesmen, poets and pop stars and even the odd disgraced footballer.

Now John has been identified as the most popular name in the records books.

In total, 2,090,961 boys have been named John — derived from a Hebrew name meaning "God is gracious" — since civil registration began in 1837.

Nearly as many, 1.9 million, have been named William, a moniker with far more contemporary royal connections.

Prince William may be pleased to know that the popularity of his name doubled in the 16 years after his birth (the number of Harrys leapt twelvefold in the same period after the birth of his brother, but didn't make it into the top ten of boys' names). Their cousins Zara, Beatrice and Eugenie sparked similar naming spikes after their births, a trend long established in royal history. The births of Prince Andrew and Princess Anne saw similar leaps.

The most popular girl's name of the last two centuries is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Elizabeth, with 1.1 million recorded in the archives.

The fascinating glimpse of the rise and fall in popularity of baby names from 1837 to 2005 has been charted by family history website Ancestry.co.uk, which has put the results online.

Popular first names