There was no change at the top of the baby name poll last year with Sean and Emma proving once again to be the most popular names for Irish babies, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) this morning.
Irish parents seem to have little imagination when it comes to naming boys with the same five names (Sean, Jack, Conor, Adam and James) appearing in the top five since 1999. Girls fare a little better with only Aoife and Sarah retaining their top five slots every year since 1999.
Unlike Britain, where the last couple of years have seen unfortunate babies lumbered with names such as Scarlett, Ashton and, unbelievably, Jordan, Ireland's new parents don't seem swayed by the world of celebrity with old reliables such as Michael, David and Darragh still polling well.
Odhran was a particularly surprising performer this year entering the top 100 for the first time and soaring 56 places making it the highest climber for boys. The top 100 for boys saw seven new entries in all with Charles, Christian, Hugh, Noah, Rian and Tomas joining Odhran in the freshman ranks.
There were four first timers in the girls list: Alex, Amelia, Kayla and Orlaith. Amelia was the most improved leaping an impressive 64 slots to take a position just inside the top 100 at 99.
The figures also revealed that girls are given a wider variety of names than boys. Over one in three girls (37.5 per cent) were given a name not in the top 100, compared with 27.9 per cent of boys.
The full list is available for download from www.cso.ie