You asked:
I am researching the linguistic markers of baby names and have thus far made great use of the data provided online by the Office of National Statistics. The data available online is a bit limited (historical data from 1904 only for every 10 years, and consistently only from 1996), and I was wondering if it would be possible to receive further data preceding 1996.
We said:
Thank you for your query regarding baby names data.
We took responsibility for producing baby name statistics for England and Wales in 2009. Prior to this, figures were produced by the General Register Office (GRO). A time series of baby names for boys and girls back to 1996 is available, providing counts and ranks of names in England and Wales as well as the top 10 names by month of birth.
For years prior to 1996, the top 100 rankings in England and Wales were produced by GRO for 1904 to 1994 at 10-yearly intervals. These statistics are published on our website. We are unable to provide any more detailed data for these years, including counts, as we were not responsible for producing these statistics and therefore do not hold this information.
Please see the Baby Names Quality and Methodology Information (QMI): https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/qmis/babynamesqmi
Other special extracts and tabulations of baby name data for England and Wales are available (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreement of costs, where appropriate). You can contact the team directly at: vsob@ons.gov.uk