The top baby names of 2020 have been revealed and they are adorable!
The Irish Central Statistics Office have revealed the most popular baby names chosen in 2020 and the list that has remained fairly static the last few years has had a shake up!
The top boys name, to be fair, has stayed the same. Jack has been top of the list every years since 2007 and hasn’t given up the crowning spot in 2020. But for the first time since 2011, the most popular girls name has changed! Grace has beaten Emily as the most popular name for the first time in nine years and Emily has been pushed to the number 3 spot, behind Grace and Fíadh (with a fada). The rise of the ‘fada’ names has been coming for the last three years according to the CSO.
The top five girl’s names are:
- Grace
- Fíadh
- Emily
- Sophie
- Ava
The top five boy’s names are:
- Jack
- James
- Noah
- Daniel
- Conor
Jack, James, Daniel and Conor have been in the top five boys' names since 2007. Three of these names – Jack, James and Conor have been in the top five since 1998.
When compared with half a century ago in 1970, the boy’s chart has undergone a measure of change. The top boy’s names in the 70’s were; John, Michael, Patrick, David and James. James remains popular, but John has been knocked entirely off the top spots. There were only 193 new Johns in 2020, with over 2,600 in 1970, showing how much can change in 50 years.
When we look at the girl’s 1970 chart however, not one of the top names form that year appears in 2020’s charts; Mary, Catherine, Margaret, Ann and Sharon. Over 1,800 baby girls were called Mary in 1970. This lack of similarity between the two charts also highlights that there is more variety in girl’s names (4624) in 2020 than in the 2020 boy’s selections (3715).
The top 100 names for boys has seen a few new entries; Like Sonny and Rian, which has risen from #119 to #86 and Eoghan moving form #108 to #79.
The girl’s chart, again had more variety which resulted in plenty of new entries to the top 100 charts; Penny, Luna, Cora, Fíadh (with a síneadh fada), Croía, Elsie and Paige. Cora jumped 37 places and Croía jumped a whopping 67.
Some of the least popular names on the boys record included names like Orion, Creed, Romeo, Klay and Séadna. Less popular girls' names included Zaria, Vienna, Fódhla, Marlee and Roxie.
The top three surnames for babies were Murphy at 602 (1.1%), Kelly at 523 (0.9%) and O’Brien at 467 (0.8%).
The EU saw Noah come out on top with most popular boy’s names. Alice, Mia and Olivia make appearances as most popular girl’s names, none of which appear on Ireland’s list.
The most popular name by county saw a few outliers scattered around the country. Donegal’s most popular boy’s name was Charlie, Lietrim’s was Luke, Longford favoured Oisín and Fionn, Mayo and Galway like Cillian and Limerick and Waterford liked Alex.
For girl’s names, Waterford had lots of Amelias and Freyas, Sophie was scattered around West Limerick and Clare, Wicklow and Sligo liked Lily and there were lots of Hannahs, Ella/Ellies and Chloes scattered around. Some Saoirses and Maisies appeared around the midlands.
