The most popular names of employees in the charity sector are David and Sarah, a workplace survey has found.

Just under one in ten are called David, while the same proportion are called Sarah.

Not for profit is among nine sectors where David is the most popular male name, however, none have a higher proportion of Davids in their workforce than among charities.

The research also found that in fashion Steven is the most popular male name, while in HR and retail James is the most popular.

Sarah is the most popular name in 13 out of 25 sectors, including healthcare, marketing, property, charity, HR, education, legal and fashion.

The survey has been carried out by the firm Vestd and found that men are seven times more likely to be in senior management roles than women in all sectors.

“Our exercise might have been light-hearted, but the results reflect wider social trends,” said Vestd chief executive Ifty Nasir.

“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.”

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