The Edinburgh Reporter April 2021

8 NEWS
The parallel beams shone out
from Edinburgh Castle
Jack and Isla
top baby names
list in Scotland
Martin P McAdam
Beam me up Scotland
Light show lands in Edinburgh on international tour
Seven rays of laser light
made up a rainbow
BURNS&BEYOND,
Edinburgh’s flagship Burns
Festival, made a surprise
return to spread Love, Hope
and Kindness with the
Scottish premiere of Yvette
Mattern’s spectacular laser art
installation - Global Rainbow
- which illuminated the skies
above the capital for a couple
of nights.
Global Rainbow beamed
seven parallel horizontal rays
of high specification laser
light, representing the
spectrum of the seven colours
of the rainbow from the giddy
heights of Edinburgh Castle.
Having recently been
shown in Kobe, Japan,
Edinburgh joins a list of
international cities to present
Global Rainbow including
New York, Berlin, São Paulo
and Toronto.
Shining above the
National Monument
THE NATIONAL RECORDS of Scotland
(NRS) has announced that the first name
choice for baby girls is now Isla which
overtakes Olivia in second place ahead of
Emily in third.
Jack retained the top spot for boys for
the 13th year in a row. Noah is in second
place up from number seven, and James
stays in third place.
The name Maeve has jumped 130
places to 86th and Ayda rose 63 places
to the 91st place. The climbers in boys’
names are Roman, up 68 places to 332,
and Finley which rose by 48 places
to 88th.
From 23,968 girls born, there were
4,347 names used and for 22,387 boys
3,375 names were used.
Children now seem less likely to share a
name with classmates than their
grandparents would have.
Julie Ramsay, Vital Events Statistician,
said: “We can see from the 2020 names
lists that different generations of
parents have different preferences for
naming their babies.
“Isla, the most popular name for girls in
2020, was the most popular name with
mothers aged 35 and over, but it only
ranked 7th with mothers aged under 25.
“However, Olivia, the most popular girls
name of 2019, was ranked 1st by younger
mothers and 6th by older mothers.
“Jack, the most popular name for boys
in 2020, was the 2nd most popular name
with mothers aged 35 and above, and
only 17th with mothers aged under 25.
“James was the most popular name for
boys with older mothers while Noah was
ranked 1st for younger mothers.”
Smith, Brown, and Wilson have been
the three most popular surnames
since 1975.
Online discussions in the Old Town
THE OLD TOWN Association
on 8 April discuss “The Melville
Monument: A view from the
pavement.” This is an online talk
from Edward Duvall about the
evidence underpinning the recent
changes to the plaque.
The Old Edinburgh Club on 14
April will discuss “John Ritchie
Findlay (1824-98): architectural
patron and benefactor”. Dr Clarisse
Godard Desmarest talks about this
interesting Edinburgh character.
On 21 April in “A Tale of Two
Explosions”. Eric Drake discusses
two memorable explosions that
rocked Edinburgh neighbourhoods
a century apart.
Pete’s a top man in the country
THE FORMER principal of the
University of Dundee has joined
the Board of Scotland’s Rural
College (SRUC).
Professor Sir Pete Downes
(pictured left) is a top biochemist,
chair of Dynamic Earth and
President of the UK Biochemical
Society.
He said: “I’m excited to be joining
the SRUC Board at a time of great
challenge when only the most
resilient and enterprising
organisations will thrive. My
appointment fulfils a lifetime of
interest in the countryside, its
natural resources and the people
who live and work there.”