Britain's most popular baby names of 2008 were Olivia for a girl and, once again, Jack for a boy, according to the annual survey by the Bounty parenting club.

It is the fourteenth year on the trot that Jack has topped the polls for baby boys.

This year, however, Oliver came a very close second - opening the prospect of almost the identical name topping both boys' and girls' charts.

The name Olivia, used by Shakespeare for one of his heroines in Twelfth Night, means olive tree, and comes from the same Latin root as Oliver, the boy's equivalent.

There has been a return to silver screen glamour as names inspired by Hollywood, such as Sofia, Julia, Darcy and Amelie, have all shown a revival, according to researchers who analysed the trends in this year's baby names.

The name Amy meanwhile fell in popularity down to 23rd in the list, possibly mirroring the declining personal fortunes of the singer Amy Winehouse, who has battled drug and health problems.

Blake, the first name of Winehouse's husband Blake Fielder-Civil, has however entered the top 100 boys' names for the first time.

Mums over the age of 40 were more likely to choose traditional names such as William, Thomas, Joshua and Harry.

Younger mums, by contrast, were the most prone to take their cue from the names of celebrities, choosing boys' names such as Jayden, Tyler, Lewis, Ryan and Dylan.

Theo, inspired by England's teenage football hero Theo Walcott, rose 12 places to take the number 58 spot for boys.

Celebrity influence also made itself felt for baby girls. Ruby, chosen by singer and TV presenter Charlotte Church for her daughter, is this year's second most popular girl's name, while Ava, the name of Myleene Klass's baby, leapt 15 places to number 19.

British mums seemed however to have drawn the line at imitating the name of Tom Cruise's baby daughter Suri, or Angelina Jolie's baby Shiloh, and so far there have been no reports of a UK surge in popularity in the name Barack, in homage to the new US President.

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