A survey of over 900 parents by the UK’s largest dedicated childcare voucher provider, Computershare Voucher Services (CVS), has found that of the parents questioned, most are shunning made up and celebrity names, preferring instead to stick with tradition by naming their child after a member of the family.

Over a quarter of parents (27%) questioned say they named their child after a family member, in contrast to just 6% of parents who opted for a made up name.

And it appears most parents remain uninspired by the cult of celebrity, with only 4% saying they named their child after a celebrity or famous sporting figure.

A fifth of parents (20%) sought inspiration from baby books to help them find the perfect moniker, and a further 4% followed in the Beckham’s footsteps to name their child after a city.

More unusual decisions include naming a child after a music track, taking the name of a famous painter of cats, and for a pair of teachers – avoiding the name of any child they had taught in the past!

Julian Foster, managing director of CVS, said: “Parents can agonise for weeks about choosing the perfect name for their new child. However, unlike many celebrity parents, we’ve found that most prefer to take inspiration from the names of grandparents and other family members. This may go some way to explain why names like Jack and Sophie continue to be amongst the most popular year after year.

“As the largest childcare voucher provider in the UK we work with thousands of parents and their children, we’ve definitely seen a shift towards more unusual names in recent years. So who knows, maybe we’ll see a Prime Minister Cruz or Queen Sparrow one day.”

Julian added: “My wife and I debated for ages before settling on Gabriel for our baby boy. No family links or famous namesakes, we wanted a traditional and memorable name and it was simply the first one that both of us liked!”

The register – celebrity baby names hitting the headlines

• American actress Natalie Portman recently named her new son Aleph after the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet
• Kate Hudson announced the arrival of Bingham Hawn Bellamy on July 9
• Pop star Pink has opted to name her daughter Willow Sage
• Singer Mariah Carey recently revealed the names of her new born twins as Monroe and Morocco
• Gwen Stefani’s children are Kingston and Zuma
• Nicole Ritchie’s two are called Sparrow James Midnight and Harlow Winter Kate
• The best of British, Jamie Oliver and wife Jules, have stayed with nature for their four children, Daisy Boo, Poppy Honey, Petal Blossom Rainbow and Buddy Bear
• Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin chose Apple for their eldest child

And who’s next? We’ll have to wait and see what Mel B and Lily Allen take as their inspiration.

Computershare Voucher Services is the largest dedicated childcare voucher provider, handling childcare vouchers for over 100,000 working parents every month, via 12,000 organisations.

It is unclear at this point whether or not more episodes will be made available, after all 2 series have been made (which makes 104 episodes, or 105 if you count the unreleased “The See-Saw”).

Visit the DailyMotion Pocoyo page to see the rest of the episodes.

My Kids TV tries to stay true to the course of great information about Kids TV, but every now and again something comes along that is such a good idea we have to share it with the rest of you!

I was told today of a great new site called LittleBird. LittleBird is a group buying site, similar to Groupon, but has a focus deals for the family, rather than the usual high-end dining and personal beauty offers that are usually put forward by similar sites.

For example, today LittleBird is offering a whopping 75% discount on a special Dinosaurs Unleashed Gold Card, which not only gives you a family ticket to the popular animatronic dinosaur adventure, Dinosaurs Unleashed, at the O2 (which is usually worth £42.60 alone) but also a bundle of other advantages and discounts, including discounts on merchandise, dining and other attractions. The whole package would normally cost over £100, but for today only this is available for £25!

For more information visit little bird at www.littlebird.co.uk. You can also follow them on Twitter (@littlebirddeals) or visit their Facebook page.

Please note this is not a sponsored post and My Kids TV have no affiliation with LittleBird – we just really like what they do!

The multi-award winning cartoon animation series Grizzly Tales is guaranteed to scare even the naughtiest children into submission! Based on the hit series of books written by Jamie Rix and narrated by Nigel Planer (The Magic Roundabout; The Young Ones), Grizzly Tales will grab young imaginations with stories of misbehaving children who get their comeuppance.

New episode Tinklebell features Gilbert, a boy who refuses to eat the food on his plate. He offers a deal to his long suffering parents; if they eat the food on their plates for a week he will do the same for the rest of his life. There is of course a catch. Gilbert has to do the cooking and so he prepares revolting food, unfit for human consumption!

In The Flat Pack Kid, Humpty Egg is forever taking things apart to see how they work but never bothers to put them back together again, which means the Egg household is in permanent chaos. After several warnings, Humpty is fl at-packed by DIY Dave who has a penchant for power tools. Unfortunately, he forgets to put instructions in the pack so Humpty’s parents can’t put their son back together again!

Grizzly Tales can be seen on NickToons from Monday 2nd until Tuesday 10th May every weekday at 8.30am and 6pm

Competition

To celebrate the new series of Grizzly Tales, NickToons are giving away five pairs of Grizzly Tales books to five lucky My Kids TV readers:

A Grizzly Dozen
Twelve rude, anarchic tales of grizzliness for fans of Roald Dahl and lovers of squeam! Twelve caustic cautionary tales about wicked and wilful children and the dastardly deeds they do. A GRIZZLY DOZEN comprises the entire contents of books 1 (NASTY LITTLE BEASTS) and 2 (GRUESOME GROWN-UPS) of the popular GRIZZLY TALES series.

Freaks of Nature
Grizzliness is out there. Every child has the makings of mischievousness, and can be lured into committing dastardly deeds. The six stories in each of the Grizzly Tales books show the rise and hard fall of vile and villainous children. We have completely reinvented Grizzly Tales for today’s readers – ingenious concepts to link the separate stories, new design and illustrations, new accessible formats, but still capturing Jamie Rix’s legendary brilliance for creating stories that linger in the mind long after the lights go out at night!

To be in with a chance of winning a pair of books, please Like our Facebook page and leave the answer to this question:

Terms & Conditions

Competition is open to UK residents only. Winner will be chosen at random from the correct answers and notified via email or Facebook Inbox message after 10th May 2011.

To celebrate the centennial race top boys vehicle brand Hot Wheels will attempt to break the current world record distance jump of 302 feet in a four-wheeled vehicle. Fans all around the world will watch in awe as a masked mystery driver from Team Hot Wheels, a crew of stunt drivers, attempts the outrageous, speeding down a 90 ft. ramp, suspended on an enormous 10-story high door (100 feet tall) and soaring across the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

To be in with a chance to watch this incredible stunt and be part of this world renowned race, The Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association (ICVA) has teamed up with Hot Wheels to give one lucky family of four a chance to win a trip of a lifetime to attend the INDY 500. To enter visit the Hot Wheels website.

Win A Hot Wheels 4-Lane Elimination Race Set

We are offering one lucky reader the chance to win the chance to own the new Hot Wheels 4-Lane Elimination Race. You can experience the thrill of high-speed racing with this awesome portable track set. Only one car can make it all the way to cross the finish line and capture the chequered flag. You’re behind the wheel and in control, so make sure it’s you!

To enter all you have to do is make sure you Like the My Kids TV Facebook page and then leave a message in the comments below with the correct answer to the following question:

Terms & Conditions

Competition is open to UK residents only. Winner will be chosen at random from the correct answers and notified via email or Facebook Inbox message after 1st May 2011.

Willow Smith will join the Black Eyes Peas and Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush as a performer at this year’s Kids’ Choice Awards.

“I’m so excited to be performing at the Kids’ Choice Awards,” Smith says. “Really hoping I don’t get slimed!”

Nickelodeon can also confirm that the Kardashian sisters, Kourtney and Kim will be presenting an award at this year’s slimetartic event.

Even Britney Spears is set to make a special appearance, so don’t forget to tune-in to the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2011 from 4pm on Sunday 3rd April only on Nickelodeon

Record-breaking numbers of fans – 140 million and counting! – have been voting for their favorite winners online.

In six more prank-fuelled, havoc-filled escapades, the biggest menace in town, along with Curly, Pie-Face and a certain wirehaired hound – declares war on boredom, anti-fun rules and his smarty-pants rival, Walter.

Beano Town might be sick of pie mixture floods, high flying bouncy castles and remote-controlled killer bees, but there’s a method in Dennis’s mischief as he plots to save the joke shop, get Dad his job back, prevent Pie-Face going out of control at the pie festival and win Curly back from his new best friend Walter!

With 6 prank-tastic episodes, Dennis & Gnasher: Masters of Mayhem DVD also includes bonus scenes: Jamming with the dinmakers, How to look like a rockstar and Dinmaker handshake.

The much-anticipated Nintendo 3DS finally has a UK release date – March 25th 2011. The dual-screen hand-held successor to the DSi will be the first to include a 3D screen that doesn’t require the viewer to wear glasses.

With a retail price of around £229 and available in either Aqua Blue or Cosmos Black, this is a considered purchase, but is it worth upgrading your son’s or daughter’s DSi to a 3DS, especially as it is recommended that children under 6 years old switch the 3D option off (3D games can be played in 2D as well).

The list of games at release is a mixture of classic Nintendo franchises with some strong third-party titles as well:

• Nintendogs & Cats
• Super Monkey Ball 3d
• Asphalt 3d
• Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars
• Street Fighter 3d
• Rayman 3d
• Ghost Recon
• Splinter Cell
• Pro Evolution Soccer
• Pilotwings Resort

To date there seems to be no titles planned that are based on any Kids TV franchises, but the DS/DSi has plenty around at the moment, with more to come, so I expect that some programmes will eventually have their own titles developed for the 3DS. I can see some of the bigger American shows, like Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Do, appearing fairly quickly, along with Ben 10 for older kids. On this side of the Atlantic I’m hoping Peppa Pig will make an appearance, although with 2 DS titles released and third on it’s way, I don’t know if there is much more they can do with Peppa and her friends. Maybe a full-blown adventure title would be good.

The 3DS will also be able to play regular and 3D movies, which makes it a good alternative to a portable DVD player, if enough titles are available to purchase. I also hope they don’t restrict it to recent Hollywood blockbusters – it would be great to see some older movies and regular TV series on there, even if it is in 2D!

Activities include:
Furry Thing – Combine different body parts and create new and familiar furry things.
Painting – Help Wallace paint amazing and colourful pictures.
Tidy Up – Help Humf clean his room by matching the toys to their correctly coloured boxes.
Shadows – Different shapes cast different shadows. Children can try and match them correctly.
Balloons – Help Loon fill the balloons with air, count them then have fun popping them with Humf.
Dot-To-Dot – Join the dots to reveal different characters from the TV show.
Music – Children can have fun making music with different instruments.
Bath Time – Use the water pistol to shoot bubbles at the toys.
Racing – Control the car by tilting the device in different directions.

Gerry Whiteside, Director at P2 Games said: “We have found that there is a growing audience of pre-schoolers out there who use their parents’ iPhone and iPod touch to play games and we’ve created this app with that in mind, delivering engaging and interactive content that they wil enjoy again and again.”

Hannah Mungo, Licensing Manager at Entertainment One adds: “We are extremely pleased to be teaming up with P2 Games to bring Humf and his friends to the App Store and to kids in a fun and appealing way.”

The Humf App is available for £1.79 from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore

WIN TICKETS TO THE BRITISH MUSIC EXPERIENCE AT THE O2, COURTESY OF THE CO-OPERATIVE!

Struggling for ideas for something to do with the little ones in the New Year? Looking for something that will entertain you as well as your kids?! Well, if music is your passion then we have the competition for you.

We are offering five lucky readers the chance to win 4 tickets each to attend the British Music Experience at London’s O2, courtesy of The Co-operative.

The incredible interactive exhibition showcases 60 years of musical history. Along your journey you can step into interactive audio visual spaces that explore great British music moments throughout history, you can witness fascinating one-off interviews between the biggest stars, see an awe inspiring display of famous artifacts, whilst the kids can record themselves singing, mixing, playing guitar, keyboard or drums and feel the adrenaline rush of performing to a massive crowd.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply join the My Kids TV Facebook group and send us the answer to the following question:

Brian May is the guitarist in which popular English rock band?
a) Wham!
b) Queen
c) Duran Duran

For more information about the British Music Experience visit www.britishmusicexperience.com