According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), the most popular baby names in Northern Ireland last year were Grace and James.
Here are the Northern Ireland’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2020:
Girl Names
- Grace, 176 baby girls
- Emily, 146
- Isla, 144
- Fiadh, 138
- Olivia, 133
- Sophia, 125
- Sophie, 123
- Amelia, 115
- Lucy, 112
- Freya and Ella, 101 each (tie)
Boy Names
- James, 190 baby boys
- Jack, 175
- Noah, 174
- Charlie, 169
- Oliver, 134
- Thomas, 119
- Finn, 112 (tie)
- Theo, 112 (tie)
- Harry, 111 (tie)
- Cillian, 111 (tie)
In the girls’ top 10, Fiadh, Lucy and Freya replaced Anna and Evie.
In the boys’ top 10, Finn, Theo, and Cillian replaced Jacob, Daniel, and Alfie.
Now, Northern Ireland doesn’t technically release data on all baby names…but their downloadable tables do include two extra alphabetized sets of names below those that were given to 3 babies. My hunch is that these were the names given to 2 babies and 1 baby, respectively, and that the numbers/rankings were simply stripped out.
So, going with that theory, here are some of the names from the second alphabetized set (the names that I’m assuming were used just once in Northern Ireland last year):
| Unique Girl Names | Unique Boy Names |
| Annagold, Butjilo, Castalia, Cobhlaith, Dhana, Elmamay, Fodla, Ghalia, Jonatha, Krystal-Lake, Lorcagh, Madmazell, Nurvi, Ozde, Riabh, Saorfhlaith, Sauleja, Taleen, Totka, Vespa, Wanda, Zilvania | Advencio, Alfadil, Boss, Cannis, Cumhai, Dualtagh, Eimantas, Elnino, Fhaolain, Gazza, Herkus, Jailandas, Liadhnan, Mitko, Nugmanali, Ocean-Gray, Rathlan, Saichairi, Sujoy, Togi, Vivaan, Weller, Zaslan |
NISRA didn’t release the 2019 data during 2020, so I never wrote a post with the 2019 rankings. But I did write about the 2018 rankings, which were topped by Grace and James/Noah.
Next door in the Republic of Ireland, the top names of 2020 were Grace and Jack.
Source: Baby Names – NISRA
Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)
