THE MOST popular baby names in Ireland for 2021 have been revealed by the Central Statistics Office, with the top boy's name once again going to Jack.
The name has taken the top spot each year since 2007, except for 2016 when James was the most popular choice.
The next most popular boys' names go to Noah, James, Conor and Rían.
The most popular girl's name goes to Fiadh for the first time, followed by Grace, Emily, Sophie and Éabha.
Fiadh has improved her ranking every year since 2009 when it was the 488th most popular girls name. In recent years, it has continued to increase in popularity, ranking 3rd in 2019, to 2nd in 2020 before now taking the top ranking in 2021.
Grace, Emily and Sophie have all been permanent fixtures in the top five names for baby girls since 2016.
Looking back 50 years ago to 1971, John, Michael, Patrick, David and James were the names most favoured by parents of newborn baby boys. There were 198 male newborns named John in 2021, compared with 2,654 in 1971.
Not one of the top five names for girls in 2021 appeared in the top 100 names a half century ago.
Mary, Catherine, Margaret, Fiona and Sinead were the most popular names for baby daughters in 1971, with 1,907 baby girls named Mary in that year. In 2021, there were 424 baby girls named Fiadh, 22.2% of the number of girls given the name Mary (1,907) in 1971.
The CSO has also said that over the years, girls are given a wider variety of names than boys with 4,741 girls’ names registered in 2021 compared to 3,863 boys’ names.
The names Teddy, Daithí, Páidí, Jaxon, Brody, Ted, Hunter, Tadgh, Tiernan and Arlo all featured in the top 100 boys’ names for 2021 for the first time.
The boys’ name with the most growth in popularity in terms of rank between 2020 and 2021 was Ted, jumping 49 places from 139th place to 90th place.
There were three new entrants to the top 100 for girls: Indie, Ayla and Lottie. Croía is the girls' name that has grown the most in popularity in 2021, jumping 43 places, rising from 95th place in 2020 to 52nd in 2021.
Some less common names for boys included Rome, Kobie, Thady, Saul and Eanna. Less popular girls’ names included Sky, Princess, Valerie, Ophelia and Noelle.
