Popular baby names in Ireland, 2022

The island of Ireland, located in the North Atlantic Ocean, happens to be the third-largest island in Europe (after Great Britain and Iceland).

Last year, the Republic of Ireland — which covers five-sixths of the island — welcomed over 57,000 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emily and Jack.

Here are Ireland’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

1. Emily, 349 baby girls
2. Grace, 342
3. Fiadh, 320 – pronounced FEE-a
4. Sophie, 292
5. Lily, 291
6. Éabha, 271 – pronounced EY-va
7. Ava, 269
8. Mia, 262
9. Ellie, 259
10. Olivia, 258
11. Amelia, 250 (tie)
12. Emma, 250 (tie)
13. Hannah, 248
14. Ella, 240
15. Freya, 234
16. Lucy, 232
17. Isla, 228
18. Saoirse, 212 – pronounced SEER-sha or SAYR-sha
19. Millie, 206
20. Sadie, 201
21. Sophia, 200
22. Molly, 195
23. Chloe, 191
24. Caoimhe, 190 – pronounced KEE-va or KWEE-va
25. Anna, 186
26. Evie, 181
27. Isabelle, 178
28. Robyn, 177
29. Alice, 160
30. Aoife, 158 – pronounced EE-fa
31. Róisín, 157 – pronounced ROH-sheen
32. Sadhbh, 153 – pronounced siev (rhymes with the number “five”).
33. Cara, 152
34. Katie, 151
35. Erin, 150
36. Kate, 147
37. Willow, 145
38. Croía, 140 (3-way tie) – pronounced KREE-a
39. Ruby, 140 (3-way tie)
40. Sofia, 140 (3-way tie)
41. Bonnie, 135
42. Holly, 129 (tie)
43. Zoe, 129 (tie)
44. Sienna, 126
45. Isabella, 125 (tie)
46. Maya, 125 (tie)
47. Sarah, 121
48. Ada, 119
49. Rosie, 111
50. Leah, 109

Boy Names

1. Jack, 641 baby boys
2. Noah, 485
3. James, 412
4. Rían, 372
5. Charlie, 348
6. Oisín, 340 – pronounced UH-sheen or OH-sheen
7. Tadhg, 324 – pronounced tieg (like the first three letters of “tiger”)
8. Liam, 323
9. Cillian, 316 – pronounced KIL-ee-an
10. Daniel, 303
11. Fionn, 287
12. Michael, 278
13. Conor, 275
14. Finn, 269
15. Patrick, 250
16. Thomas, 246
17. Darragh, 245
18. Harry, 242
19. Seán, 239
20. Luke, 233
21. Theo, 232
22. Adam, 230
23. Leo, 225
24. Alex, 216
25. Oliver, 201
26. Ryan, 190
27. Max, 189
28. Cian, 185 – pronounced KEE-an or keen
29. Tommy, 184
30. Luca, 179
31. Bobby, 170
32. Mason, 167
33. Dylan, 163 (3-way tie)
34. Jamie, 163 (3-way tie)
35. Kai, 163 (3-way tie)
36. John, 160
37. Ollie, 159
38. Oscar, 156
39. Shay, 152
40. Alexander, 149 (tie)
41. Ben, 149 (tie)
42. Matthew, 146
43. David, 143 (tie)
44. Tom, 143 (tie)
45. Ethan, 141
46. Donnacha, 140 – pronounced DUN-uh-ka or DUN-uh-kha (the kh represents a guttural H-sound)
47. Alfie, 139
48. Jacob, 131
49. Billy, 128
50. Sam, 125

New to the girls’ top 100 were the names Hailey, Phoebe, Ayda, and Éala.

New to the boys’ top 100 were the names Blake and Cody.

The fastest-rising names in the top 100 in terms of numbers of babies were:

• Millie (+58 baby girls), Olivia (+39), Éala (+32), Ellie (+31), Isabelle (+31)
• Luca (+58 baby boys), Oisín (+38), Leo (+33), Kai (+33), Tomás (+30)

The fastest-rising names in terms of rank were:

• Éala (+86 places), Phoebe (+45), Mary (+40), Hailey (+38), Ayda (+29)
• Tomás (+42 places), Anthony (+31), Christopher (+29), Joey (+25), Kayden (+25)

Home to more than five million people, the Republic of Ireland is divided into four provinces. (One of these provinces, Ulster, lies largely within Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.) The top baby names within each of the four provinces last year were…

	Top Girl Name	Top Boy Name
Leinster (56% of the population)	Emily	Jack
Munster (27% of pop.)	Emily	Jack
Connacht (11% of pop.)	Éabha	Jack
Ulster [ROI portion] (6% of pop.)	Grace	Jack

And what about the names at the other end of the spectrum? The following were given to just 3 babies each in Ireland last year:

Rare Girl Names	Rare Boy Names
Ananya, Beatriz, Cliona, Dina, Eilidh, Faela, Fianna, Isadora, Joan, Khadija, Líadh, Luisne, Miruna, Morrigan, Nala, Orlagh, Prunelle, Réiltín, Saffie, Scotia, Tilda, Vamika, Zoha	Ailbe, Brooklyn, Caoilte, Denzel, Eamonn, Féidhlim, Geoffrey, Henrik, Isa, Josiah, Kamal, Lúan, Manus, Nilan, Ógie, Pio, Rokas, Séadhna, Tiernán, Viraj, Wayne, Yousuf, Zoraiz

Finally, here are Ireland’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

P.S. If you’re interested in seeing more Irish name pronunciations, just click that link.

Sources: Irish Babies’ Names – CSO (Irish Babies’ Names 2022), Births, Deaths and Marriages – CSO (Vital Statistics Yearly Summary 2022), Data – CSO, Provinces of Ireland – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Flag of Ireland (public domain)
Map: Adapted from Provinces of Ireland location map by Ssolbergj under CC BY-SA 4.0.

[Latest update: Feb. 2024]