Premium Bonds: people with these common UK names are far more likely to be prize winners with NS&I
Fresh analysis shows a surprising pattern in who’s pocketing the biggest Bond wins 🎉
If your name is one of the common ones listed below, you might want to check your Premium Bonds.
New insight comes as December’s Premium Bonds draw crowned two new millionaires, one in Norwich and another in Cornwall, on top of more than 16,000 savers who bagged “high-value” prizes up to £100,000.
Behind the scenes, long-running data from NS&I reveals an intriguing pattern: certain names appear far more often than others among people winning £500 or more.
Why some names appear more than others
According to analysis, people named David, John, Michael or Susan, are among the most frequent winners of high-value prizes.
But before anyone called David starts planning an early retirement, NS&I stresses the draw is completely random. Every £1 Bond has an equal chance of winning, regardless of the saver’s name, age, or location.
So why the pattern? It’s simple demographics. Names like David, John and Susan have historically been enormously popular in the UK, particularly among older savers, the group most likely to hold larger Bond balances.
More Bonds mean more chances, and more chances mean more wins. Still, the numbers are fun to dig into, especially if your name shows up near the top.
Since 2020, the name David has cropped up more than 67,000 times among winners of prizes worth £500+. And in 2025 alone (January to October), 18,220 people named David have already claimed at least one prize at that level.
Just behind him come John with 16,058 winners, Michael at 11,772, Susan’s 11,597 winners, 9,683 lucky people called Peter, and 9,203 Pauls. These names dominate the leaderboard every single year.
The most common Premium Bond winner names of 2025:
NS&I’s latest analysis lists the 100 most common names of people who’ve won £500 or more this year.
The top 20 include a mix of classic male names, such as Andrew, Robert, Stephen, and traditional female names like Margaret, Elizabeth, Christine, and Janet.
Here’s the top 100 for 2025 (January–October):
- David, 18,220
- John, 16,058
- Michael, 11,772
- Susan, 11,597
- Peter, 9,683
- Paul, 9,203
- Andrew, 8,572
- Robert, 8,510
- Stephen, 7,768
- Margaret, 7,503
- Richard, 7,463
- James, 7,222
- Christopher, 6,868
- Elizabeth, 5,961
- Patricia, 5,859
- Mark, 5,839
- Ian, 5,757
- Christine, 5,718
- Alan, 5,133
- Janet, 5,004
- Sarah, 4,863
- Linda, 4,825
- William, 4,825
- Anthony, 4,617
- Jane, 4,536
- Helen, 4,524
- Mary, 4,336
- Brian, 4,256
- Jennifer, 4,201
- Julie, 4,096
- Philip, 4,054
- Karen, 3,901
- Gillian, 3,826
- Anne, 3,791
- Jacqueline, 3,778
- Ann, 3,694
- Thomas, 3,689
- Barbara, 3,496
- Simon, 3,496
- Martin, 3,471
- Carol, 3,420
- Jean, 3,403
- Graham, 3,376
- Alison, 3,220
- Colin, 3,194
- Catherine, 3,124
- Angela, 3,029
- Nicholas, 2,932
- Sandra, 2,930
- Pamela, 2,910
- Keith, 2,904
- Matthew, 2,774
- Steven, 2,763
- Kevin, 2,720
- Valerie, 2,705
- Jonathan, 2,661
- Sheila, 2,598
- Nicola, 2,457
- Maureen, 2,436
- Pauline, 2,431
- Deborah, 2,414
- Caroline, 2,400
- Wendy, 2,389
- Judith, 2,382
- Neil, 2,320
- Joan, 2,296
- Gary, 2,295
- George, 2,275
- Roger, 2,275
- Daniel, 2,246
- Kenneth, 2,223
- Claire, 2,166
- Timothy, 2,138
- Nigel, 2,129
- Lesley, 2,102
- Kathleen, 2,091
- Emma, 2,083
- Sally, 2,055
- Joanne, 2,005
- Diane, 1,978
- Edward, 1,970
- Stuart, 1,963
- Geoffrey, 1,930
- Derek, 1,869
- Elaine, 1,833
- Sharon, 1,801
- Amanda, 1,793
- Rachel, 1,777
- Rosemary, 1,775
- Raymond, 1,748
- Fiona, 1,747
- Charles, 1,714
- Brenda, 1,711
- Louise, 1,711
- Rebecca, 1,706
- Alexander, 1,700
- Barry, 1,685
- Julia, 1,650
- Malcolm, 1,627
- Shirley, 1,623
Does your name really matter?
These trends don’t predict who will win next month. They simply reflect which names were most common among generations who bought Bonds in large numbers.
Andrew Westhead, retail director at NS&I, said: “Premium Bonds are one of the nation’s favourite savings products, and since 1957 we’ve given away hundreds of millions of prizes, so it’s interesting to see the most common names of some of our winners.
“But it’s important to remember that whatever your name, the Premium Bonds draw is completely random, with each Bond having an equal chance of winning.”
So while David, Susan or John may dominate on paper, your actual chance of winning is exactly the same as theirs, no matter what your parents wrote on your birth certificate.