He has bewitched children around the world with his exploits, and now bespectacled schoolboy wizard Harry Potter appears to have worked his magic on parents as well.

The soaring worldwide popularity of the children's books has helped make the name Harry one of the most popular in England and Wales, it was revealed yesterday.

Last year 5,328 boys were named Harry, launching it for the first time into the top 10 of favourite boys' names in England and Wales. Harry now stands as the sixth most popular name for a boy, the office of national statistics said.

A spokeswoman said: "We can only speculate about Harry's popularity but the only thing we can think of in the past year is Harry Potter."

The name Harry is a fairly modern phenomenon, the spokeswoman said.

In 1999 the name was given to 4,162 newborns, making it the 14th most popular boy's name, one place up on the previous year.

Harry, usually a nickname for people christened Henry as in the case of Prince Harry, was ranked 17th in 1997, while in 1994 it came in at number 30.

But number one slots went to the names Jack and Chloe. Jack has been the favourite name for boys for the past six years, while Chloe has remained at the top for girls for the past four.

For the fifth year running Thomas, James, Joshua and Daniel also stayed among the top five parents' choices.

After Chloe, Emily and Megan remain firm favourites for girls, followed by Charlotte and Jessica.

Top five boys' names

1 Jack

2 Thomas

3 James

4 Joshua

5 Daniel

Top five girls' names

1 Chloe

2 Emily

3 Megan

4 Charlotte

5 Jessica