The festive season is just around the corner, and from their workshop in the North Pole, Santa makes the all-important gift lists for children of all ages. With a little help from one or two elves, Santa draws up the nice list and makes sure that his work shop has a fantastic range of toys and gifts ready to be delivered on Christmas Day.
To discover which names were most likely to be on Santa’s ‘nice list’ and receive a letter from santa, we looked back through our records to see which children have received a Real Santa Letter, comparing the stats to baby name data in England and Wales. Read on to find out more…
Unique Names Most Likely to be on Santa’s ‘Nice List’
The naughty and nice list originated from the depths of the North Pole. The naughty or nice list is Santa’s way of keeping track of who has been good and who has been bad each year. He uses the list to know who to give the best presents to!
Looking at the 700+ unique names submitted for the 4,262 Real Santa Letters sent to date, we discovered which names were most likely to be on the ‘nice list’.
There were 6 unique boys’ names which were most likely to be on the ‘nice list’ (names which had the highest percentage of children with said name, who received a ‘Real Santa Letter’), which included Braelyn, Broc, Ged, Graydon, Kiernan, and Teigan.
There were unique 10 girls’ names most likely to be on the ‘nice list’ (analysing on the same basis as the boys’ names, mentioned above), which included Adie, Arian, Baillie, Charleen, Hollie-Rae, Jaylee, Kade, Kristie, Melrose, and Mylor.
Popular Names Most Likely to be on Santa’s ‘Nice List’
As well as looking at all of the unique names, we also analysed the figures based on the 50 most popular baby names for each gender (according to ONS data from the last 10 years – sum for years spanning 2012 to 2021) which featured in our data to see where these compared against each other. Based on these popular names, boys named Charlie, Ethan, and Jack, and girls named Sophie, Isabelle, and Maisie, are likely to be on Santa’s ‘nice list’.
The top 20 popular boys’ names most likely to be on Santa’s ‘nice list’ included:
- Charlie
- Ethan
- Jack
- Jacob
- George
- Thomas
- Oliver
- James
- Edward
- Logan
- Oscar
- Harry
- Daniel
- Freddie
- Max
- Joshua
- Isaac
- Noah
- Archie
- Alfie
The top 20 popular girls’ names most likely to be on Santa’s ‘nice list’ included:
- Sophie
- Isabelle
- Maisie
- Ella
- Olivia
- Evie
- Grace
- Sienna
- Freya
- Ruby
- Jessica
- Mia
- Daisy
- Scarlett
- Chloe
- Sophia
- Lily
- Ava
- Isla
- Phoebe
Getting on Santa’s ‘Nice List’
Santa Claus will put you on his nice list if you have encapsulated the Christmas spirit all year round. The Christmas spirit is about sacrifice and giving back – Christmas is a time of selflessness and altruism. Santa doesn’t want you to just forget about these very important things 11 months of the year – he wants you to do good things every day of the year. Start spreading Christmas joy now to guarantee your spot on Santa’s nice list!
It can also help to write a letter to Santa to let him know of all the great things you have done this year. If you’re not sure what to write in a Santa letter, remember that any letters to Santa should be friendly and polite; otherwise, they may end up on the naughty list!
Be sure to include information about the children who are writing the letters – their name, age, what they like about Christmas and why they should be on Santa’s nice list. This should be fun… Tell the kids to include fun facts about themselves, like who their best friend is and their hobbies together.
Also, Santa Claus is a very busy man right now, and he receives so many letters, so you may need to wait a little while for a reply.
- Internal data based on 700+ unique names submitted for the 4,262 letters sent to date by Real Santa Letters
- Baby name data for England and Wales acquired from ONS (Office for National Statistics), focusing on the 10 years spanning 2012-2021 (i.e. children 10 and under)
