Irish Baby Names

Most Popular Irish Baby Names

Sean and Emma were the most popular babies’ names registered in Ireland in 2003

There were 897 boys named Sean (3.1% of baby boys) and 791 girls named Emma (2.8% of baby girls).

The top five names for boys remained the same as last year, although the order changed slightly. For girls, Katie replaced Chloe in the top five.

There were eight new entries to the top 100 for boys: Cameron, Colin, Daire, Emmanuel, Karl, Max, Reece and Ruairi. The highest new entry was Colin and the highest climber was Kian which rose from 268th place in 1998 to 65th place in 2003. First time entries to the top 100 are Ruairi, Emmanuel and Max.

There were nine new names in the top 100 for girls: Alana, Amber, Aoibhe, Cara, Clara, Faye, Naomi, Sophia and Sorcha. The highest new entry was Clara
and the highest climber was Abby which rose from 327th place in 1998 to 60th place in 2003. Newcomers to the top 100 are Faye, Naomi, Aoibhe and Sophia.

Sean and Emma were the most popular names in five and six out of the eight regions. Conor was the most popular boys’ name in the Border andMid-West regions, and Jack in the South East. Sarah was the most popular girls’ name in the Midlands and Aoife in the South East.

In general, the tables show that girls are given a wider variety of names than boys. The top 100 accounted for 61.5% of girls’ names compared with 71.8% of boys’ names.

These results are based on an analysis of the first names recorded on birth returns for registration and vital statistics, begun by the CSO in 1998. Over 93% of birth notifications in 2003 included baby’s first name when the statistical return was sent to the CSO.

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