MUHAMMAD is the most popular name for baby boys in Bolton, while Amelia topped the list of girls' names.

In 2018, 103 Muhammad's were born in the borough and 24 girls were named Amelia, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In the whole of the North West, Muhammad has overtaken Oliver as the top name from last year, with 785 born.

However, Oliver remained the most popular name for boys in England and Wales for the sixth year in a row, while Olivia topped the nationwide girls’ list for the third year in succession.

Nick Stripe, from the ONS, thinks that a popular BBC drama series is responsible for some new and more popular names in the nationwide list.

He said: “Oliver and Olivia remained the most popular baby names in 2018, although there are the first signs that Oliver’s six-year reign as the number one name for boys is under threat.

“Arthur surged into the top 10 boys’ names for the first time since the 1920s, and Ada jumped into the girls’ top 100 for the first time in a century too, both perhaps inspired by characters in the BBC TV drama Peaky Blinders.

“On the flip side, the growth in the use of technology assistants in our homes may help to explain why the number of baby girls named Alexa has more than halved compared with 2017. Communicating with young children can be hard enough at the best of times.”

According to the ONS, 2018 marked the lowest birth rate in England and Wales for 80 years, with 657,076 live births in 2018, a decrease of 3.2 per cent on 2017 and 9.9 per cent down since 2012.