Emily and Jack remain the most popular babies’ names registered in 2015.
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 slight changes to their order.
Four of the top five boys’ names (Jack, Sean, Conor and James) have been in the top five since 1998.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Emily has been the most popular name chosen for girls.
Emma, Ava, Sophie and Amelia were the next most frequently chosen names to make it to the top five most popular names for girls in 2015.
Some of the less common girls’ names registered in 2015 and not included in the top 100 names were Paris, Nelly, Dakota, Kim, Pixie and Sabina. Some of the less popular boys’ names registered in 2015 were Barra, Pauric, Zayn, Gus, Romeo and Otis.
George was the only first time entry to the top 100 for boys, rising 13 places, from 103rd in 2014 to 90th in 2015.
For the second year in a row Ollie was the boys’ name rising most in popularity. It increased 21 places from 87th place in 2014 to 66th place in 2015.
There were three first time entrants to the top 100 for girls: Annabelle, Mila and Rosie.
Mila was also the girls’ name rising most in popularity, up 54 places from 142nd place in 2014 to 88th place in 2015.
As in previous years, there are a wider variety of names for girls than boys with 4,487 girls’ names registered compared to 3,475 boys’ names.
Despite the greater number of male births, a smaller range of names were used for boys than for girls.
For boys, eight areas favoured names outside of the top five for boys in 2015.
In Galway city, Adam was the most popular boy’s name while Charlie was the most popular boy’s name registered in Kilkenny and in Wexford.
In Laois and Longford, Michael and Patrick respectively got the number one spot. In Waterford City, Daniel, Harry, Luke, Oisin and Oliver all shared the top position.
Similarly, in South Tipperary Darragh and Harry along with Jack were the most favoured names. In Roscommon, Thomas along with Jack proved most popular. See table 8(a).
For girls, there were only seven areas in 2015 where the number one name was not one of the top five. Ella was the favourite in Roscommon. Grace was the most popular in Louth and South Tipperary. In Galway City, Lauren was the most popular name. Leah was the name most favoured in Waterford City while Molly was the most popular in Cavan.
In Limerick County, Anna, Emily, Grace and Mia all shared the top position.
The new monikers are a far cry from 1965 when Mary and John were the top names given to children.
An analysis was done of the baby names registered fifty years earlier in 1965. There were 3,360 boys whose registered name was John in 1965 which made it the most popular name for boys.
For girls, Mary was the name of choice for 3,229 parents for their newborn daughters in 1965 making it the most popular name for girls born that year.