Jack and Emily were the most popular baby names in Ireland in 2011.
Here are the full top-20 lists for each gender:
Girl Names
- Emily (1.6% of all baby girls)
- Sophie
- Emma
- Grace
- Lily
- Sarah
- Lucy
- Ava
- Chloe
- Katie
- Ella
- Mia
- Aoife [EE-fa]
- Caoimhe [KEE-va or KWEE-va]
- Kate
- Leah
- Hannah
- Anna
- Saoirse [SEER-sha or SAIR-sha]
- Ruby
Boy Names
- Jack (2.4% of all baby boys)
- James
- Sean [shawn]
- Daniel
- Connor
- Ryan
- Adam
- Harry
- Michael
- Alex (tie)
- Dylan (tie)
- Luke
- Cian [KEE-an or KEEN]
- Jamie
- Oisin [UH-sheen or O-sheen]
- Aaron
- Liam
- Thomas
- Darragh
- Charlie
(And here are the 2010 rankings, if you’d like to compare.)
The names that increased the most in popularity from 2010 to 2011 were…
| Boy Names | Girl Names | |
|---|---|---|
| By rank: | Tommy – 160th to 88th Mason – 128th to 70th Hugh – 126th to 99th Donnacha – 102nd to 76th Leo – 94th to 79th | Michaela – 164th to 78th Muireann – 120th to 87th Sofia – 80th to 58th Kayla – 41st to 21st Eve (tie) – 60th to 45th Maebh (tie) – 107th to 92nd |
| By number of babies: | Harry – 364 to 499 Adam – 581 to 637 Mason – 59 to 115 Thomas – 347 to 403 Rian – 161 to 213 | Lily – 371 to 496 Kayla – 186 to 306 Caoimhe – 323 to 398 Mia – 344 to 400 Ella – 380 to 434 |
Tommy’s rise can be attributed to Tommy Moon, a fictional baby who was “born” (read: introduced) on the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders at the very end of 2010.
And we already know why Mason is so popular…
Sources: Irish Babies’ Names 2011 [pdf], Jack and Emily top baby names list
Image: Adapted from Flag of Ireland (public domain)
