Politicians might love babies, as their kissing at election time shows, but the feeling is not reciprocated.
So says the latest top 100 list of babies' names, which shows a distinct lack of infant affection for all names political. There are no entries for Bert, Bertie or Bartholomew. Nor George (as in "W").
Anthony has fallen 10 places in five years, but still ranks highest among Western leaders, at 64 on the boys' list. Highest, that is, unless you count Jack Chirac.
The CSO figures, published yesterday, show contrasting fortunes for popular culture icons, with Leah (Princess) and Luke (Skywalker) jumping 12 and four places respectively between 1999, when Episode I of Star Wars went on release, and last year.
Other names drawn from TV soaps, pop acts and the pages of celebrity magazines pepper the top 100.
For girls, they include Holly (up 40 places since 1998 to 35), Abbie (up 82 places to 51), the similar Abby (up 262 places to 65) and Zara (up 51 places to 87).
For boys, the main movers include Nathan (up nine to 27), Kyle (up 19 to 36), Ethan (up 33 to 50), Josh (up 50 to 62) and Brandon (up four to 70).
Another trend is the proliferation of alternative spellings; an illustration, depending on one's view, of slipping grammatical standards or parental imagination. Witness Robyn and Rachael for girls and Kian and Connor for boys.
The top of each table remains relatively stable, with Jack, arguably helped by the starring of his namesake in the blockbuster movie Titanic, heading the boys' list for the third year running.
Some 3,930 new Jacks have been added to the population since the film's Oscar win in 1998.
Sarah tops the girls' list for the second year in succession, ahead of Aoife, Ciara, Emma and Chloe, whose star is on the wane after heading the list in 1998 and 1999.
In general, the tables show girls are given a wider variety of names than boys. The top 100 accounted for 62.7 per cent of girls' names compared to 73.6 per cent of boys'.
The lists can be downloaded in full at www.cso.ie.
Boys
1 (1) Jack 868
2 (2) Sean 866
3 (3) Adam 798
4 (4) Conor 748
5 (5) James 581
6 (11) Daniel 559
7 (6) Cian 536
8 (10) Michael 520
9 (7) David 501
10 (9) Luke 489
Girls
1 (1) Sarah 655
2 (2) Aoife 585
3 (5) Ciara 577
4 (3) Emma 532
5 (4) Chloe 516
6 (8) Amy 485
7 (9) Katie 418
8 (6) Niamh 407
9 (16) Sophie 404
10 (7) Lauren 402
