:quality(70):focal(2917x2044:2927x2054)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/XJBVDIV7TZCMRF2KHL3EM7BPXI.jpg)
Jack and Emily were the most popular names for babies born last year, new CSO figures show.
Jack has taken the top spot since 2007, except for in 2016 when James was ranked most popular baby name for a boy.
Noah, James, Rían and Charlie were the next most popular names for boys in 2022.
Emily was the most popular name for girls for the first time since 2019, and was followed by Grace, Fiadh, Sophie and Lily.
:quality(70):focal(474x163:484x173)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/SWYTLBW42FEAZAOLHTENJE4G2Q.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/GW2WPY4MOFHVPOSVIQ54CQNMIE.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/5Q5HSGREHE6XQOZYRADPUZK5V4.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/L53MT6MIYNGWLL65ERKE3QJVI4.jpg)
Fifty years ago, in 1972, John was the most popular boys’ name and Mary was the most popular girls’ name. In 2022, they stand at 36th and 87th position respectively.
James is the only name which appears in the top five boys’ names in both 1972 and 2022, but none of the top 10 most popular names for girls in 2022 appeared anywhere in the top 100 girls’ names in 1972.
The first name to appear in both top 100s was Elizabeth who ranked 6th in 1972 and 72nd in 2022.
The name Tomás rose most in popularity for boys, going from 119th place to 77th between 2021 and 2022, and Blake and Cody entered the top 100 for the first time.
There were four new entrants to the top 100 names for girls: Hailey, Phoebe, Ayda and Éala. The name Éala grew most in popularity, going from 177th place in 2021 to 91st in 2022.
There was also a wider variety in the names registered for girls, with 4,966 girls’ names in 2022 compared with 4,016 for boys.
Some of the less common names for girls in 2022 and not included in the top 100 were Matilda, Zoey, Tessa, Margot, Daria, Amira, Everleigh and Ariyah.
Some less popular boys names registered in 2022 were Cían, Nicholas, Ciarán, Art, Mustafa and Romeo.
Muhammad was ranked 86th nationally yet was the most popular boys’ name in Galway City.
Jack was the most popular boys’ name when both parents were Irish nationals, while Oliver was the most popular choice with parents of UK nationality.
Leonardo and Liam were the joint most favoured boys name if both parents were from the EU14 excluding Ireland (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden).
David was the name chosen most often by parents from the rest of the EU. Muhammad was the highest ranked name of baby boys born where both parents were from outside the EU and UK.
Grace was the most popular girls’ name where both parents were Irish nationals, but there was no singular popular name of three or more occurrences for girls chosen by parents of UK nationality.
Emma ranked first with parents from the EU14 (excluding Ireland), and Mia took the top spot with parents from the rest of the EU.
The top three surnames for babies in 2022 were Murphy, Kelly and O’Brien.