How accurate are the nameberry popular lists and how do these translate into reali life? For example [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] is at number 2 currently but in stats it was 70 something in UK last year, will it leap to the top 10 or is this unlikely?
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The Nameberry popularity lists I believe are based on the names getting the most searches/views on Nameberry, so they do give some idea of what names people are looking at and therefore maybe considering for the future, however they are also influenced a lot by current events and popular culture as well as just curiosity. For example a lot of people are searching for Kylian maybe because of the footballer Kylian Mbappe who was a big star in the world cup, meaning people are curious about what his name means, not necessarily that a lot of people will be naming their sons Kylian or that it is going to be the number 1 name in a few years (although it will probably rise somewhat in popularity because of the footballer).
ETA: I like looking at the popularity graphs on Behindthename.com as they will give an indication of if a name is trending upwards or downwards in recent years. Unfortunately the webpage isn’t loading for me at the moment so I can’t check Maeve for you!
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I think it’s worth remembering that the NB popularity lists are based on people searching for names - and often, those people are interested in names - maybe in one they’ve heard, but don’t know a lot about, or, because they’re in the search of something beyond [name_f]Olivia[/name_f], [name_f]Amelia[/name_f], [name_u]Harry[/name_u], [name_u]James[/name_u] and [name_m]Oliver[/name_m] etc.
For what it’s worth, popularity lists are tricky anyway - having worked with kids, sometimes you’ll find you do meet a lot of kids with the popular names, but there are other top names that I’ve encountered so so rarely (or not at all) in real life. And then they’ll be unusual ones that, for whatever reason, seem to be popular amongst the kids I’ve met 
For example, the year group I was working with last year, I had numerous kids called [name_f]Carys[/name_f]. In my old job, I’ve worked with several kids called [name_f]Carys[/name_f] too. I became convinced [name_f]Carys[/name_f] was super popular. It is nowhere near so popular as I’d been imagining however. [name_f]Ella[/name_f] though? [name_f]Jessica[/name_f]? [name_f]Poppy[/name_f]? [name_u]Erin[/name_u]? Hardly met any - maybe one of each in the last few years, yet they rank higher.
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The Nameberry list is based on website clicks from visitors all over the world. It doesn’t necessarily correlate to babies being born with a certain name in the UK. I remember when the Hunger Games was popular, one of the top names on Nameberry was [name_f]Katniss[/name_f]. That one never got popular in real life. [name_u]Luxury[/name_u] is the current number one name on Nameberry and I can’t see that one taking off in the UK either.
That isn’t to say that [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] won’t rise in popularity in [name_u]England[/name_u], but I doubt the Nameberry ranking is an indication of how far it will rise.
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They have nothing to do with the actual number of babies being named.
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