The most popular names for babies born in England and Wales last year have been revealed - and we've had a closer look at the data to find out which names were most popular in Colchester.

Nationally the top five most popular girls names were Olivia, Amelia, Ava, Isla and Emily.

In Colchester Florence claimed the top spot with 15 babies given the name in 2018.

It was followed by Amelia and Rosie sharing second place with 14 babies each getting those names.

Evie was fourth with 13 babies with Isla and Rose joint fifth with 11 each.

Across the town eight babies were given the name Olivia.

For boys the top five names in England and Wales were Oliver, George, Harry, Noah and Jack.

In Colchester the top spot went to Harry with 25 babies given the name in 2018.

Second was George with 23 and third Arthur, which jumped 12 places in the national list, with 22 babies taking that name.

Fourth went jointly to Oliver and Charlie with 19 babies getting those names.

The data from the Office of National Statistics showed Grayson, Jasper, Rowan, Tobias, Sonny and Dominic entered the top 100 names for boys in 2018.

In Colchester parents were adding to the trend with four babies called Grayson, four called Sonny and three babies each called Dominic, Jasper and Rowan.

For girls Ada, Delilah, Ayla, Zoe, Margot and Felicity entered the top 100 names for girls in 2018.

But these names proved less popular across the town with just four parents choosing Margot.

Did Peaky Blinders play a role in names surging up list?

Nick Stripe, from the ONS' vital statistics outputs branch, 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 flipside, 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.”