What Are the Most Common Names in Tech?

The UK’s Tech industry is dominated by James and Samantha according to a new study into first names. Almost 9% of employees today are called James, while 13% are named Samantha.

Across all sectors, Davids now account for almost 8% of the UK workforce today, while Sarahs make up more than one-in-10 employees.  The research, compiled by employee share scheme specialist Vestd, is based on the 25 most common male and female names in the UK, and data from just over a million LinkedIn profiles.

James also leads the way in eight of the 20 industries analysed too, including Retail, Legal, Hospitality, and Construction. Sarah comes top in 13 out of the 20 sectors, then Samantha in seven industries, including Automotive, Electronics, and Manufacturing.

A closer look at the figures suggests that gender stereotypes about certain jobs haven’t gone away, and that women are still under-represented in some senior roles.

Men are seven times more likely to be a business leader, including a CEO or managing director, compared to women.

Within the tech industry, the data indicates a predominantly male workforce, with only 17% female inclusion. Males are well represented in Network Engineering (94%) and Cybersecurity Analyst (70%) roles.

Conversely, females are more likely to be UX/UI Designers (30%) or Data Analysts (29%) compared to other tech roles, with only 5% inclusion in Network Engineer roles.

However, there has been a sharp rise in female students studying computing at university, with a 10.15% increase in 2024. While male applicants still outnumber female applicants by 4.1 to 1, this gap has narrowed from 4.4 to 1 in 2023.

Top male names in the workplace by industry

Top female names in the workplace by industry

Commenting on the findings, Ifty Nasir, CEO of Vestd, said:

“Our exercise might have been light-hearted but the results reflect wider social trends. Lack of representation in some roles and industries demonstrate how persistent some stereotypes are, including ones relating to the types of jobs men and women have.

“Many organisations recognise the value of diversity in the workplace, both ethically and commercially. It’s led some of them, including the Civil Service, to adopt blind recruitment tactics, where candidates omit information such as their name, gender, age and ethnicity.

“Another way to improve diversity is through employee share schemes or enterprise management incentives (EMI schemes) – which quite literally create equity for people in a business, whatever their role or background. It’s also a powerful incentive for staff to work their way up the ranks and hopefully improve representation at a senior level in the future.”