Alas, poor Gordon. He may have saved the world from impending financial doom, but Times readers shunned the Prime Minister when naming their newborn last year.

While “Gordon Brown” appeared in the news pages of this publication more than 3,200 times in 2008, Gordon was nowhere to be seen in the thousands of birth announcements.

His rivals will be happier to know that there were ten Davids, making it our readers' 24th most-popular boy's name.

Perhaps this is the favoured newspaper of monarchists, for it was William who came out on top by a comfortable margin. For girls, Elizabeth was usurped by only Isabel (counted together with Isabella).

Whether royalist or not, Times readers do appear to be a conservative (small c) lot compared with the nation of new parents at large. While celebrity-backed names such as Ruby (the daughter of Charlotte Church, the singer, and the title of a hit song by Kaiser Chiefs) featured prominently in a survey last week of the country's favourite baby names in 2008, the upper reaches of the Times lists are populated by traditional favourites. Alexander, Edward and Henry make the boys' top ten, to be joined by Matilda, Rose and Alice among the girls.

There are clear parallels with the national list, compiled by the parenting website Bounty.com. The favourite girl's name in Britain, Olivia, is fourth among Times readers, while Sophie, Emily, William, James, Oliver and Thomas all make the top tens in both charts. However, while Ruby was the second-most-chosen girl's name in Britain last year according to the survey, it ranked 316th in the pages of this newspaper, after only one mention.

Meanwhile, our readers have remained remarkably consistent in their choices. In 1997, as new Labour came to power, James was first and William second among boys in the Times charts, a reversal of the top two in 2008. Alexander came in third on both occasions. Eight of the top ten boys' names in 1997 are still in the newest list, while six of the top girls' names from that year made the 2008 grade.

Olivia and Jack, the favourite names in 2008, according to Bounty.com, are fifth and a lowly 15th respectively in the Times chart, but were first and tenth in 1997. Perhaps our readers are trendsetters who have now moved on to monikers new.

They can certainly choose an unusual name when they want to. The births of Tuppence Harmony, Ptolemy Byrne and Lancelot Coleridge (brother of Percival) were all heralded in these pages last year, along with Mana Calm (which apparently means “Lifespring of the Universe”) and Mylo Rahul Onions.

And while Gordon did not get a look in, there is a strong Scottish flavour to the lower ranks of our charts, with Alastair, Archibald and Hamish.

While Muhammad remains one of the most popular names for newborn boys in Britain - research by The Times last year showed that it was second only to Jack - it was not one of the more than 300 male names that appeared in Times birth announcements last year.

Julia Cresswell, author of several books on the the subject, including Naming Your Baby, said the list suggested that Times readers were perhaps “too savvy” to go for those names that are the height of fashion. She added: “They also seem to have gone, very sensibly, for the base form of names rather than the pet forms. While Rosie has been more popular than Rose across the nation, Times readers prefer Rose - thereby getting two names for one, as they can always use the pet form.”

Carrie Longton, the co-founder of Mumsnet.com, the parenting website, said that traditional names were making a comeback. “It is important to think about what context the child is going to live in,” she said. “If you live on a road with a rock band it's probably fine to call your child Kiwi Fruit. But if you are settling down somewhere normal, that will be harder.”

The mother of three added that while many people worry about what the name they choose for their baby will mean for his or her future - “If you call your child X they are going to be footballer or Y they will be a nurse” - it is for each child to make their name their own.

Ms Longton's youngest daughter is two-year-old Amelia, who is known as Mimi. “People say she's not going to be prime minister with a name like that, but there are no Gordons and not many Tonys on the Times lists. And what about Barack Hussein Obama? It didn't do him much harm did it?”

Favourite names

Girls:

1 Isabel/la

2 Elizabeth/ Elisabeth

3 Rose

4 Alice

5 Olivia

6 Charlotte

7 Emily

8 Sophie

9 Matilda

10 Sophia/Sofia

Boys:

1 William

2 James

3 Alexander/Alex

4 George

5 Ted/Edward

6 Henry

7 Oliver/Ollie

8 Charles

9 Thomas

10 Frederick/Freddie

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