Jack and Fiadh were the most popular names for babies born last year, new CSO figures reveal.
Jack has been the most popular name for baby boys since 2007, except for the year 2016 when James took the top spot.
Noah, James, Conor and Rían were the next most popular names for boys in 2021.
Fiadh claimed the top spot for girls for the first time, followed by Grace, Emily, Sophie and Éabha. Grace, Emily and Sophie have been permanent fixtures in the top five names for baby girls every year since 2016.
In total, 58,442 live births were registered in 2021.
Fifty years ago, John, Michael, Patrick, David and James were the names most favoured by parents of newborn baby boys.
None of last year’s top five names for baby girls appeared in the top 100 names half a century earlier. Mary, Catherine, Margaret, Fiona and Sinead were the most popular names for baby daughters in 1971.
Teddy, Daithí, Páidí, Jaxon, Brody, Ted, Hunter, Tadgh, Tiernan and Arlo all featured in the top 100 boys’ names for the first time in 2021.
However, there were three new entrants to the top 100 for girls: Indie, Ayla and Lottie.
Ted and Croía were the names which gained the most popularity last year when compared to 2020, rising nine places from 139th to 90th and 43 places from 95th to 52nd respectively.
Some less common names for boys included Rome, Kobie, Thady, Saul and Eanna. Less popular girls’ names included Sky, Princess, Valerie, Ophelia and Noelle.
Variety
Girls were given a wider variety of names than boys. 4,741 girls names were registered in 2021 compared to 3,863 boys’ names.
Jack was the most popular name when both parents were Irish nationals, while William was the most popular choice for parents of UK nationality.
Liam was the most favoured boys name if both parents were from the EU14 excluding Ireland (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden).
Leon was the name chosen most often by parents from the rest of the EU. Muhammad was the highest ranked name of baby boys born to parents from outside the EU.
Fiadh was the most popular girls’ name where both parents were Irish nationals. Emma ranked first with parents from the EU14 (excluding Ireland) and Mia took the top spot with parents from the rest of the EU. Sarah was the main choice where both parents were from outside the EU.
The top three surnames for babies born last year were Murphy, Kelly and Ryan.