Jack and Emily still ruling the roost for popular baby names

Perusing baby name books and online forums? This might help you!

The most popular name in 2019 for newborn boys in Ireland was Jack and for girls it was Emily, the CSO has said.

Jack has held the top spot since 2007, with the exception of 2016 when James was the most popular name. Emily has been the most popular name for baby girls since 2011.

The CSO said Jack, James, Conor and Daniel have been in the top five boys' names since 2007. Three of these names, Jack, Conor and James, have been in the top five since 1998. Noah was new to the top five in 2018 and remained there in 2019.

This is the ninth consecutive year that Emily has been the most popular name chosen for girls. Emily, Grace, Fiadh, Sophie and Hannah, were the top five names for girls in 2019. Fiadh and Hannah were new entrants to the top five in 2019. Amelia dropped out of the top five this year having been there since 2015.

Eli, Joey, Odhrán and Ruairí were new entrants to the top 100 for boys in 2019. Odhrán was also the boys' name that increased most in popularity between 2018 and 2019, he moved up the ranks from 138th place in 2018 to 97th in 2019, CSO figures say.

There were two new entrants to the top 100 for girls, Doireann and Méabh. Alexandra, Heidi and Hollie were the girls' names growing most in popularity. Alexandra gained 25 places, moving from 113th to 88th place between 2018 and 2019. Heidi and Hollie both rose 20 places from 94th and 109th to 74th and 89th place respectively.

There was a wider variety in the names registered for girls, with 4,814 girls' names in 2019 compared with 3,725 for boys.