Of the 60 billionaires listed as having British citizenship by Forbes, only eight first names occur more than once.
The most frequent first name is David, with five occurrences, while Michael and Richard were in joint second place. Only four of the 60 were women and none of their names occurred more than once – although that has more to do with centuries of patriarchy and women being passed over for top jobs than naming patterns.
Of the most popular baby names in 2014, ‘James’ and ‘Chris’ were found among UK billionaires: James Dyson (inventor and founder of the Dyson company), James Ratcliffe (chairman and CEO of Ineos) and Chris Dawson (CEO of the retail chain The Range).
There were two named with the traditional form of ‘Charlie’ (Charles), one named Thomas (Tom) and although there were no billionaires named ‘Jack’, there were three called John and one was called Jonathan.
Only four out of 60 in Forbes’ list of billionaires with British citizenship were women: Benedicta Chamberlain (heir to William Grant & Sons), Mary Perkins (co-founder of Specsavers), Denise Coates (joint chief executive of Bet365) and Cristina Green (owner of Taveta and wife of Sir Philip Green).
Between the 60 of them, UK billionaires were worth £171.15 billion and their average age was 65.
These were the most popular baby names in England and Wales last year
The most popular baby names in England and Wales have been released by the ONS – and Oliver and Amelia are the most popular baby names for boys and girls receptively.
The ONS said Harper – the name of Victoria and David Beckham’s daughter – has seen the biggest surge in popularity over the last decade. It rose 3,636 places and has now entered the top 100.
