Seán and Sarah were the most popular names for newborn babies last year, according to figures released from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Alison Healyreports.
They replaced Jack and Emma which were the top babies' names registered in the State in 2005. Some 994 babies were named Seán last year, seven more than the next most popular name, Jack.
There were 698 girls named Sarah, 105 more than the number of girls named Emma. There has been little variation in the most popular boys' names in the past 10 years, with Jack, Seán, Conor, Adam and James all featuring in the top five since 1998.
Parents of newborn girls have been more adventurous with only Emma, Sarah and Aoife remaining in the top five since 1998.
Katie entered the top five in 2003 and Sophie joined this list for the first time this year.
The old Irish name Senan came from nowhere in the space of a few years, to reach 95th on the list last year. Other names gaining popularity last year included Cameron (up 28 places) Calum and Rory. The highest new entry for girls was Aoibheann, which climbed from 182th place in 2002 to 76th last year. A variation on that name, Aoibhinn, also entered the top 100 for the first time last year, as did Jasmine. Alana also increased in popularity last year.
The CSO figures show some geographical preferences for certain names. Seán was the most popular name in the midlands, Dublin and the mideast, while Jack was more popular along the Border, the west, the midwest, the southeast and the southwest.
Emma was the most popular girls' name in the midlands and midwest region but Sarah was more popular in the west, mideast, southeast and southwest.
Katie was the most popular name in the Border region while Sophie was preferred by parents living in the Dublin region.
The CSO list contrasts with the most popular babies' names in the birth announcement columns of The Irish Timeslast year.
James and Lucy were the most popular names in that list. James comes in fifth in the CSO list, while Lucy was the 13th most popular name. The CSO boys' list was more likely to feature Irish names such as Cian, Oisín, Ciarán, Cathal, Fionn and Cormac, while British and American names were more common in the list of girls' names.
Names such as Chloe, Holly, Abbie, Ruby, Jade and Zara all feature in the top 100 list of girls' names.
Overall, girls are given a wider variety of names than boys with 38.9 per cent of girls given a name not in the top 100, compared with 29.9 per cent of boys.