After Janet and John, Moet and Ikea

THE name Ikea usually adorns out- of-town warehouses full of flatpack furniture.

But soon it will be appearing on the school register.

It is one of a list of bizarre names parents have begun choosing for their children after shunning tradition and taking inspiration instead from famous brands.

Ikea – which is apparently a girl’s name – has been joined by Moet, now a boy’s name as well as a champagne label.

Both appeared at least once in the list of over 600,000 births registered in Britain over the past 12 months. The trend is thought to be inspired by the ‘ original’ names given by celebrity mothers such as Gwyneth Paltrow, who named her daughter Apple, and Jamie Oliver’s wife Jools, who has daughters Daisy Boo and Poppy Honey.

The girl’s name Chardonnay has also become popular – 79 were registered last year – after a character from the TV show Footballers’ Wives.

Others in the latest register have followed the example of the Beckhams who famously named their eldest son after the place where he was conceived. But while David and Victoria chose Brooklyn, children in Britain have been named after places such as Finchley in North London and the cathedral city of Ely in Cambridgeshire.

Both are male names. Other examples of unusually named boys registered in the past 12 months include Rocky, Rivers, Tudor and Red.

As well as Ikea, the new girls’ names include Paprica, Caramel, Bambi, Fire-Lily, Skylark and Tame – which apparently stands for The Apple of My Eye. The names are highlighted in research carried out by Bounty, a marketing firm which provides over half a million mothers with ‘ starter packs’ of baby products every year.

The company’s managing director, Simon Williamson, said yesterday: ‘Today parents are looking for ideas outside of the usual sources of inspiration because they want a name that is different.

‘ They are looking for something that will enable their child to stand out from the crowd and in some instances have a story behind it such as where the parents met.’

While the trend for unusual names may be gathering momentum, it is not an exclusively modern phenomenon. Earlier this year, researchers at the Cornwall Record Office compiled a list of more than 1,000 unusual names found in censuses and births, deaths and marriage records going back as far as the 16th century.

These revealed extraordinary names such as Boadicea Basher, Philadelphia Bunnyface, Ostrich Pockinghorn and Gentle Fudge.