Ophelia

femaleStatistical record

What official birth registration shows about Ophelia: which national registrars published it, in which years, and how its recorded position changed.

No researched meaning, origin or pronunciation yet — what that means.

Ophelia: Recorded every year since 1996, its highest recorded position is #73, and it stood at #885 in 2025.

4registrars recorded it
43times a registrar ranked it
30years from first to last
#73highest recorded position
12groupings it qualifies for

Region

Rising

among girls in England and Wales · 1996–2024

View as table

England and Wales · Girls rank by year
Year	Rank
1996	#1112
1997	#946
1998	#801
1999	#816
2000	#728
2001	#871
2002	#1192
2003	#1224
2004	#758
2005	#736
2006	#639
2007	#604
2008	#557
2009	#421
2010	#559
2011	#412
2012	#406
2013	#306
2014	#326
2015	#253
2016	#283
2017	#212
2018	#161
2019	#177
2020	#180
2021	#116
2022	#81
2023	#74
2024	#73

VerifiedSource: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales.Confidence: high.

See all England and Wales names · Source: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales

What the data shows

RisingEngland and Wales · Girls

Recorded in official data among girls in England and Wales in every year from 1996 to 2024.

In 2024: #73 among girls in England and Wales, #253 among girls in Northern Ireland, #260 among girls in Scotland, #631 among girls in Republic of Ireland.

Official data from 4 national registrars across 4 regions, 1996–2025 · Office for National Statistics. Data sources

Popularity journey

First recorded1996
First recorded at #1112 among girls in England and Wales in 1996 — the earliest year that source publishes this name, not necessarily the earliest it was used.
England and Wales · Girls
Highest recorded1996–2024
Highest recorded position: #73 among girls in England and Wales, in 2024 (recorded 1996–2024).
England and Wales · Girls
Most recent2025
Most recently recorded at #885 among girls in Republic of Ireland, in 2025.
Republic of Ireland · Girls

Ophelia appears in 3 of the published lists Namewise holds. The longest record is England and Wales · Girls, which has ranked it in 29 years beginning in 1996, and has registered 4,939 births with the name.

Ophelia across 3 official records

Each registrar publishes its own list, so these figures are read down a row, never across one. A position in one country is not comparable with a position in another, and Namewise never combines them into a single ranking. The birth counts do not compare across rows either, for a different reason: England and Wales registers roughly thirty times as many births a year as Northern Ireland, so a larger total says which registrar recorded it as much as how widely the name was given.

Ophelia's first, highest and most recent recorded position in each official list, with the number of births each registrar registered with the name and its largest single year
Published list	First recorded	Highest	Most recent	Years recorded	Births registered	Most in one year
England and Wales · Girls	#1112 (1996)	#73 (2024)	#73 (2024)	29 of 29	4,939 (1996–2024)	645 (2024)
Republic of Ireland · Girls	#896 (2015)	#559 (2022)	#885 (2025)	9 of 11	38 (2015–2025)	6 (2017)
Northern Ireland · Girls	#266 (2021)	#183 (2022)	#253 (2024)	4 of 4	26 (2021–2024)	10 (2022)

Ophelia by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Births registered with the name in each decade of this one list, with the number of years the list covers in that decade. Bars are scaled on births a year, which is the figure that compares between decades — a decade the list only partly covers has a smaller total without being a quieter decade. Figures belong to this registrar alone and do not carry to another.

Births registered with Ophelia in England and Wales · Girls, by decade, with years covered and the average per year
Decade	Births registered	Years covered	A year
1990s	94	4 of 10	24
2000s	446	10 of 10	45
2010s	1,821	10 of 10	182
2020sbusiest	2,578	5 of 10	516

Across England and Wales · Girls, the 2020s were its busiest decade — the 5 years of it this list covers, averaging 516 births a year.

Its sharpest single-year move came between 2021 and 2022, when recorded births rose by 170, from 433 to 603.

See the names England and Waleshas recorded the most births with →

Ophelia appears in

Groupings this name qualifies for under their own stated rules, from the same official statistics shown above.

Popularity data

Official popularity data is available for 4 regions, from 1996 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #73 in England and Wales in 2024.

Ophelia's recorded popularity observations by year, region and administrative category, including rank, registered births, source confidence and when each region's data was last reviewed.
Year	Region	Category	Rank	Births registered	Confidence	Status
2024	England and Wales	female	#73	645	High	Verified
2023	England and Wales	female	#74	620	High	Verified
2022	England and Wales	female	#81	603	High	Verified
2021	England and Wales	female	#116	433	High	Verified
2020	England and Wales	female	#180	277	High	Verified
2019	England and Wales	female	#177	282	High	Verified
2018	England and Wales	female	#161	335	High	Verified
2017	England and Wales	female	#212	243	High	Verified
2016	England and Wales	female	#283	177	High	Verified
2015	England and Wales	female	#253	197	High	Verified
2014	England and Wales	female	#326	141	High	Verified
2013	England and Wales	female	#306	152	High	Verified
2012	England and Wales	female	#406	115	High	Verified
2011	England and Wales	female	#412	108	High	Verified
2010	England and Wales	female	#559	71	High	Verified
2009	England and Wales	female	#421	99	High	Verified
2008	England and Wales	female	#557	68	High	Verified
2007	England and Wales	female	#604	59	High	Verified
2006	England and Wales	female	#639	50	High	Verified
2005	England and Wales	female	#736	40	High	Verified
2004	England and Wales	female	#758	37	High	Verified
2003	England and Wales	female	#1224	18	High	Verified
2002	England and Wales	female	#1192	17	High	Verified
2001	England and Wales	female	#871	26	High	Verified
2000	England and Wales	female	#728	32	High	Verified
1999	England and Wales	female	#816	27	High	Verified
1998	England and Wales	female	#801	28	High	Verified
1997	England and Wales	female	#946	22	High	Verified
1996	England and Wales	female	#1112	17	High	Verified
2024	Northern Ireland	female	#253	6	High	Verified
2023	Northern Ireland	female	#328	4	High	Verified
2022	Northern Ireland	female	#183	10	High	Verified
2021	Northern Ireland	female	#266	6	High	Verified
2025	Republic of Ireland	female	#885	3	High	Verified
2024	Republic of Ireland	female	#631	5	High	Verified
2023	Republic of Ireland	female	#625	5	High	Verified
2022	Republic of Ireland	female	#559	6	High	Verified
2021	Republic of Ireland	female	#764	4	High	Verified
2020	Republic of Ireland	female	#834	3	High	Verified
2018	Republic of Ireland	female	#896	3	High	Verified
2017	Republic of Ireland	female	#579	6	High	Verified
2015	Republic of Ireland	female	#896	3	High	Verified
2024	Scotland	female	#260	14	High	Verified

England and Wales hub — collected by Office for National Statistics
Northern Ireland hub — collected by NISRA
Republic of Ireland hub — collected by CSO Ireland
Scotland hub — collected by National Records of Scotland

See methodology and data sources for how popularity data is collected and what "confidence" means.

What the record shows

Recorded by 4 registrars between 1996 and 2025, ranked in 30 years of that period.

Its highest recorded position is #73, first reached in 2024.

It held a top-100 place in 3 years, 3 of them consecutive.

Its largest count from any one registrar is 645 births, registered in England and Wales in 2024.

A second registrar first ranked it in 2015, and 28 years separate the first registrar to record it from the last.

Every figure here is counted from the seven official registrars Namewise holds. A position is only ever a place within the list that published it, and a record that thins or stops is a fact about what registrars printed — never about how many children received the name.

Where to go next

Records with a comparable body of evidence, so the catalogue can be read outward from this one. Each group states the rule it was selected by.

Next in the catalogue

The records either side of this one alphabetically.

Oonagh · #171, 61y
Opal · #526, 27y
Opie · #1104, 10y
Oran · #49, 54y

A comparable record

Records held by the same 4 registrars, over a similar number of ranked years, whose highest position is closest to this one. A similar body of evidence — never a claim that the names themselves are alike.

Brody · #73, 30y
Makayla · #73, 30y
Candice · #72, 35y
Darcey · #72, 30y

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Records whose earliest ranking in Namewise's registrar data also falls between 1990 and 1999.

Brody · #73, 30y
Makayla · #73, 30y
Musa · #73, 30y
Bethan · #72, 30y

Ophelia was ranked #73 in England and Wales · Girls in 2024. These are the names immediately either side of it on that published list — a fact about the registrar's own output, not a similarity judgement.

Ophelia and the names beside it

Two names in the same published list are measured on the same scale, in the same year, by the same registrar — so these are positions that genuinely passed each other, not a similarity judgement. Drawn from the 2,573 names with a recorded popularity standing (common, familiar, uncommon), so a name outside that set could have passed Ophelia without appearing here.

Ophelia moved ahead of

Belinda Compare
In 2003 they stood at #1224 and #909 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2004 that had become #758 and #1715.
Eileen Compare
In 2003 they stood at #1224 and #996 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2004 that had become #758 and #1617.
Carol Compare
In 1997 they stood at #946 and #897 in England and Wales · Girls; by 1998 that had become #801 and #1480.
Tracy Compare
In 1997 they stood at #946 and #820 in England and Wales · Girls; by 1998 that had become #801 and #1392.

Moved ahead of Ophelia

Olive Compare
In 2009 they stood at #421 and #428 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2010 that had become #559 and #337.
Ivy Compare
In 2001 they stood at #871 and #962 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2002 that had become #1192 and #998.
Mila Compare
In 2010 they stood at #559 and #616 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2011 that had become #412 and #261.
Harper Compare
In 2011 they stood at #412 and #858 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2012 that had become #406 and #284.

Moved the opposite way to Ophelia

Abigail Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Ophelia went from #1112 to #73 while Abigail went from #21 to #154.
Aimee Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Ophelia went from #1112 to #73 while Aimee went from #70 to #1603.
Aisling Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Ophelia went from #1112 to #73 while Aisling went from #440 to #2000.
Alex Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Ophelia went from #1112 to #73 while Alex went from #161 to #2253.

Moved the same way as Ophelia

Ada Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Ophelia went from #1112 to #73 and Ada from #2683 to #40.
Alma Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Ophelia went from #1112 to #73 and Alma from #2096 to #234.
Alyssa Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Ophelia went from #1112 to #73 and Alyssa from #783 to #285.
Amalie Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Ophelia went from #1112 to #73 and Amalie from #2096 to #1128.

What's not yet available

Meaning
Origin
Pronunciation
Nicknames and spelling variants

Absence from this list does not mean the name isn't genuinely meaningful or widely used — only that Namewise hasn't sourced and reviewed that content yet. Absence from a specific year or geography above does not prove zero use there either; official statistics only publish names above a minimum threshold.

Official popularity data is available for 4 regions, from 1996 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #73 in England and Wales in 2024. Source data last verified 2026-07-21.

Ophelia

Ophelia at a glance

What the data shows

Popularity journey

Ophelia across 3 official records

Ophelia by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Ophelia appears in

Popularity data

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Ophelia

Ophelia and the names beside it

Ophelia moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Ophelia

Moved the opposite way to Ophelia

Moved the same way as Ophelia

Ophelia at a glance

Ophelia across 3 official records

Ophelia by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Ophelia appears in

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Ophelia

Ophelia and the names beside it

Ophelia moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Ophelia

Moved the opposite way to Ophelia

Moved the same way as Ophelia