Since 1998, Statistics Sweden has produced and published statistics on the most popular baby names in Sweden.
This year, Astrid and William topped the list.
But now it's stopped
- We know that these statistics are popular and well used.
But these are tough economic times.
We have reviewed our operations as all authorities do, and in this situation we have had to take a bit more forceful action, says Marie Lidéus, head of unit for the department for social statistics and analysis at Statistics Sweden.
Unemployment figures, national accounts and other economic statistics are among the things that SCH must prioritize instead.
The name statistics are not so-called "official statistics", which can be counted as completely reliable.
To some extent, it is about subjective assessments, which also require some work, says Marie Lidéus.
- It's a lot of judgment and no real science.
There can be many spellings of certain names, I usually take Therese as an example, there we probably have 20 or 30 different spellings, she says.
The name researcher critical
The name chart becomes news when it is published each year, and many parents-to-be turn to the lists when thinking about possible names.
Even for name researchers, it is a gold mine.
Linnea Gustafsson, name researcher at the University of Halmstad, is critical of Statistics Sweden stopping publishing the statistics.
- It's really bad.
It is becoming more difficult to be a linguist in Sweden.
The trends, the sensitivity, why names go up and down in popularity.
The statistics have enabled name research to work with more contemporary material, she says.
She continues:
- It is a loss of knowledge for Sweden.
Besides, I don't think expectant parents will be that happy, most of them get into name conflicts at some point in their lives and then I think you use this tool quite a lot.