Most Popular Baby Names in Ireland are

The CSO have released details of baby names registered in Ireland in 2014 and Jack and Emily remain the most popular.Jack retains the top position it has held every year since 2007 and Emily has retained the number one spot that it first claimed in 2011.

The top five boys? names (Jack, James, Daniel, Conor and Sean) have been the top five since 2007 with the order changing slightly from 2012, when Conor finished in 4th place ahead of Sean. Indeed four of the top five boys? names (Jack, Sean, Conor and James) have been in the top five since 1998. This is the fourth consecutive year that Emily has been the most popular name chosen for girls. Sophie, Emma, Grace and Ava were the next most frequently chosen names to make it to the top five most popular names for girls in 2014.

There were four first time entries to the top 100 for boys: Henry, Hugo, Ollie and Luca. The highest new entry at number 87 was Ollie, rising from 113th place in 2013. It was also the name rising most in popularity up 26 places from 2013.

There were two first time entrants to the top 100 for girls: Annie and Isla. The highest new entry at 75th place was Annie rising from 106th place in 2013. The name rising in popularity most was Evie up 43 places from 110th place in 2013.

As in previous years, the tables show that girls are given a wider variety of names than boys with 4,586 girls? names registered compared to 3,486 boys? names. Despite the greater number of male births, a smaller range of names were used for boys than for girls.

The image below shows a comparison between 2014 names and names from 50 years earlier in 1964

Baby-Names-2014

In most areas of the country one of the top five boys? names took the number one spot.

Only seven areas favoured names outside of the top five for boys; In Cavan, Adam was the most popular boy’s name in 2014. Michael was the most popular boy’s name registered in 2014 in Longford and the name also shared the top spot with Daniel in Limerick County. Patrick and Liam along with Daniel and James were the most popular in Galway city. Oisin along with James was most favoured in Donegal, while Thomas shared the top position with Jack in South Tipperary. Noah along with Sean and Jack proved to be the most popular for baby boys registered in Carlow in 2014.

For girls, there was a wider range of names outside the top five that were county and city favourites. These included Amelia, Anna, Aoife, Caoimhe, Ella, Katie, Lily, Lucy, Mia and Sophia.

Some of the less common girls’ names registered in 2014 and not included in the top 100 names were Skylar, Angel, Meadow, Miley, Destiny, Raven and Halle. Some of the less popular boys’ names registered in 2014 were Troy, Avery, Deacon, Braxton, Dexter, Cooper and Ariel.