Just wild about Harry

It's been a good week for Harrys.  First of all the most famous Harry, that young prince from Wales, was for one night only king of the Olympic castle as he stood in for the Queen at the closing ceremony of London 2012.  And then just a few hours later, his thousands of namesakes claimed a title of their own when Harry was revealed as the most popular name for baby boys born in England in 2011.

It's the first time the name has ever topped the charts.  In fact for many years, Harry failed to register in the top tens or fifties or even hundreds despite many of the male population bearing the name.  It began life as an English attempt to pronounce the imported French name, Henri, written as Henry.  Nearly every boy christened Henry was called Harry by friends, foes and family until English minds got to grip with saying the new name.  Henry grew in poularity, soon joining that select group of men's names that remained evergreen and as every family with a plethora of sons acquired a Henry, the sound of Harry spread throughout the country.

From Harry to Hal and by the time Shakespeare came to record the Wars of the Roses and the Tudor dynasties in his plays it was a royal name, linked to princes who became great kings in the prose of the Bard.  But while the name remained steadily popular it could never challenge the Johns and the Williams who outnumbered allcomers in every list of popular names in England.

But now, after hundreds of years, it has reached the top of the tree.  It only fell out of favour in the sixties, associated then with old men and uncles smelling of stale tobacco.  But by the time the latest royal Henry made his appearance in 1984 it was gaining favour once more and in recent years it has skirted the upper echelons of boys' names once more,.  Its rule at the top may be brief - even if the choice of boys' names remains as static now as it has in the past.  But in a year when the country started to like itself again and remember with pride the great words that have told its past and present, perhaps it is appropriate that the most English of names is the one parents are flocking to again.