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Noah has become the most popular name for boys, while Leslies are on the way out, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The new number one knocked Oliver off the top spot after an eight-year reign, as shorter names came to the forefront last year.
Academics have pointed to the vogue of gender-neutral names as a possible reason why Noah has become the most popular, with a record high number of girls taking on the female equivalent - Noa - in 2021.
Professor Ellie Lee, director of family and parenting research at Kent University, told The Telegraph: “Parenting becomes about an expression of identity and the name that you choose for your child becomes part of that and gender neutrality is a part of it.”
She added: “For some people it’s very important for them to be as gender-neutral as possible and they think they‘re going to be doing a terrible thing to their children if they don’t do this and they’re much more concerned about the child choosing things for themselves.
“With Noah/Noa, it is to do with gender neutrality rather than calling someone after the biblical story.”
Meanwhile, Olivia topped the girls' list for the sixth year in succession and Lilibet made the list for the first time on record - which James Tucker of the ONS attributed to Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes second child born in June 2021.
He told The Telegraph: “It was the first time that Lilibet broke the threshold as there were eight of them in 2021, so that could well be a royal effect given that there were potentially none before that, or three or less.”
In total, 4,525 baby boys were named Noah in 2021 and 3,649 girls were named Olivia, up from 3,640 in 2020.
Noah was the fourth most popular boys' name in 2020 and has risen 15 places since 2011.
Mr Tucker said: "While Noah and Olivia are enjoying their places at the top, some names could be in danger of falling out of favour.
"Leslie has had relatively little popularity in recent years with fewer than seven boys named each year since 2018."
Data show that mothers over the age of 35 are more likely to give their babies traditional names such as Thomas, while younger mothers are more likely to use shortened versions, such as Tommy.
"Noah has been in the top 10 for quite a while now, and it seems to be younger mothers who are favouring Noah at the moment,” added Mr Tucker. “It just seems to be particularly popular among them … as generally they are going for shorter names.”
The ONS data for 2021 also showed that Henry replaced Jack in the top 10 names for boys, which is the first time Jack has not been in the top 10 since the annual series began in 1996.
Mr Tucker told The Telegraph that the name may have fallen out of favour because it has been “so popular” for some time.
He said: “Names can fall in and out of favour like in a cycle. For example, Jack has been so popular that I imagine now people might think: ‘Oh there are loads of Jacks around, like in my kid’s class,’ so it just naturally just falls away a bit.”
Mr Tucker explained that: "Popular culture continues to influence parents' baby name choices … from hit TV shows to musical icons.” He cited Kylo as an example, after the popular Star Wars villain “moved away from the dark side” in the third film of the latest trilogy.
Other popular culture influences include the number of boys being named Luca jumping from 1,323 in 2020 to 1,807 in 2021, largely driven by the coming-of-age Pixar film of the same name released last year.
There has also been an increase in the number of David Bowie-inspired baby names following the musician's death in 2016, data show.
The number of boys named Ziggy - a reference to his acclaimed 1972 album Ziggy Stardust - in England and Wales rose from 49 to 136 between 2016 and 2021.