Trendy baby names come and go but biblical ones are here to stay - particularly for boys.
That is message from a study of the birth announcements published in the JC in the Jewish year 5774.
Compiled by Sarah Peston and Naomi Goldman of the Jewish Baby Directory, it reveals that many of the top baby names for the 830 newborns - 426 boys and 404 girls - during the past 13 months are taken from the Old Testament.
For boys, Samuel, which ranked in joint first place with Jack last year, topped the list on its own this time, selected 15 times. The figure translates into 3.5 per cent of parents choosing the name.
Noah, which did not feature in the top 10 at all last year, came in second place, while Jack fell two places to third. Other biblical choices were Jacob, Benjamin and Joshua.
Boys names like Jacob and Joshua never go out of fashion
For girls, the tradition was less strongly observed with Rose, which was fourth last year, topping the list, with 19 appearances - 4.7 per cent of parents opted for the name.
Sophia fell one spot to second, followed by Leah, which rose one place from last year's list. Popular selections from the Bible also included Esther and Miriam.
"There are biblical names in the top 10 girls names, but they are more likely to go in and out of fashion," said Mrs Peston. "Boys names like Jacob and Joshua just never do."
She said favourite non-biblical choices such as Harry and Oliver and Rose and Olivia were peculiar to the UK.
"These names are very British, " she said. "You don't really get them in the United States or other English-speaking countries like Australia and New Zealand," she said.
The list also showed a tendency among Israeli parents living in the UK to give their children British names, said Mrs Peston.
"There are no Israeli names in the top 10. One reason for this is Israeli parents considering whether people could pronounce the name. There are Israeli kids in the UK - in my children's school - who have British names like Shelley or Zack."