The most popular name in 2022 for newborn boys in Ireland was Jack and for girls it was Emily. Jack has held the top spot since 2007, with the exception of 2016, when James was the most popular name. Emily regains the number one spot for 2022, climbing from third place in 2021 and 2020. Prior to 2020, Emily had been the most popular girls' name from 2011 to 2019. Fiadh was the most popular girls' name in 2021 with Grace being the most popular name in 2020.
| X-axis label | Jack | Emily |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 685 | 459 |
| 2018 | 686 | 460 |
| 2019 | 677 | 452 |
| 2020 | 597 | 329 |
| 2021 | 677 | 388 |
| 2022 | 641 | 349 |
Jack and James have been in the top five boys' names since 1998 and both have maintained their position at first and third respectively. Noah remains in the top five in 2022, maintaining its position at 2nd. Rían was a new entrant to the top five in 2021 and rises one place to 4th in 2022. Charlie enters the top five for the first time, rising from 7th in 2021 to 5th in 2022. Conor leaves the top five this year, falling from 4th in 2021 to 13th in 2022.
This year Emily has been the most popular name chosen for girls, rising from 3rd in 2021 to 1st in 2022. Grace remains at 2nd in 2022. Fiadh falls two places, from 1st in 2021 to 3rd in 2022. Sophie is the 4th most popular name for the fifth year in a row while Lily rises from 9th place in 2021 to 5th place in 2022, returning to the top five for the first time since 2012. See table 2.1.
There were two new entrants to the top 100 for boys: Blake and Cody. Tomás was the name rising most in popularity, jumping from 119th place to 77th between 2021 and 2022. See tables 2.1 and 2.5.
There were four new entrants to the top 100 for girls: Hailey, Phoebe, Ayda and Éala. Éala has grown most in popularity, rising from 177th place in 2021 to 91st in 2022, a jump of 86 places in rank. See tables 2.1 and 2.5.
There is a wider variety in the names registered for girls, with 4,966 girls' names in 2022 compared with 4,016 for boys. See table 2.2.
In most areas of the country one of the top five boys’ names took the number one spot.
Jack was the most popular name for baby boys in all provinces in 2022. Noah was the second most favoured name for boys in 2022 and held the top or joint top spot in 10 locations including Donegal and Cork City. Some counties picked names outside the top five. Muhammad was ranked 86th nationally yet was most favoured in Galway City. Harry and James were the joint most popular boys’ names in Waterford county, ranking 18th and 3rd respectively on a national basis. See table 2.8(a).
Emily was the most chosen girls' name or joint-first in five areas including South Dublin. Grace was the second most popular name nationally but was the top girls' name in Ulster. Grace also held the top or joint top name in nine counties and shared first place with Saoirse in Roscommon, while in Kerry Grace shared first place with Ellie, Freya, Croiá and Siún. Names outside the top five were chosen for girls in several counties. Olivia was the most popular girls' name in three counties, namely, Cavan, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Fingal while ranking 10th nationally. Mia and Millie were joint first choice in Sligo while ranking 8th and 19th respectively on a national basis. See table 2.8(b).
Some of the less frequently used girls' names registered in 2022 and not included in the top 100 names were Matilda, Zoey, Tessa, Margot, Daria, Amira, Everleigh and Ariyah.
Some of the less popular boys' names registered in 2022 were Cían, Nicholas, Ciarán, Art, Mustafa and Romeo.
Jack was the most popular boys name where both parents were Irish nationals, while Oliver was the most popular choice with parents of UK nationality. Where both parents were from the EU14 (excluding Ireland) Leonardo and Liam were the joint most favoured boys' name. David was the name chosen most often by parents from the EU15 to EU27. Muhammad was the highest ranked name of baby boys born where both parents were from outside the EU and UK. See table 2.9.
Grace 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 EU15 to EU27. Eva was the main choice where both parents were from outside the EU and UK. There was no singular popular name of 3+ occurrence for girls chosen by parents of UK nationality. See table 2.9.
The top ten surnames of babies registered in 2022 are also included in this publication. Of the 57,542 live births in 2022, 20,334 had unique surnames. The top ten surnames accounted for 7.2% (or 4,118) of the 57,542 live births in 2022. The top three surnames for babies were Murphy at 648 (1.1%), Kelly at 556 (1.0%) and O’Brien at 441 (0.8%). See table 2.10.
In 1972, the most popular name for boys was John. Fifty years later, John ranked 36th in popularity in 2022 for baby boys. See tables 2.1, 2.2, 2.11 and 2.12.
The top five boys’ names in 1972 were John, Michael, Patrick, David and James. The only name in this top five which was still in the top five by 2022 was James. See table 2.1 and 2.11.
None of the top 10 most popular names for girls in 2022 appeared anywhere in the top 100 girls' names in 1972.
Mary was the most popular girls' name in 1972. In 2022, Mary was 87th in popularity for girls’ names, returning to the top 100 this year. None of the top 10 most popular names for girls in 2022 appeared in the top girls' names in 1972. The first name to appear in both top 100’s was Elizabeth who ranked 6th in 1972 and 72nd in 2022. See tables 2.1, 2.2, 2.11 and 2.12.
Noah was the name chosen most often for baby boys in England and Wales in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, while Olivia was the top name for girls. Parents in Northern Ireland in 2021 chose Jack as their most popular boys' name with Grace as the most popular girls' name. Scotland in 2021 chose Jack and Olivia as the most popular names. See table 2.15.
The CSO’s Irish Babies' Names 2022 publication includes the síneadh fada and other diacritics since it was first introduced for names registered in 2018. This change has resulted in a break in the series, with new entries created for names with the síneadh fada and other diacritics.
This has an impact in the order of the popularity of some forenames. For example Sean (without the síneadh fada) has always been in the top 100 most popular names for boys. Seán with the síneadh fada is now included in the data and both spellings are treated as 2 separate names since 2018, thus Seán has a rank of 19 while Sean has fallen to rank 127 in 2022.
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