Most popular Irish baby names 2020: The newcomers

Mar 1, 2021

Last week, the Central Statistics Office revealed the most popular baby names chosen in 2020 – and no, they weren’t Corona and Pandemia. The list has actually been fairly static the last few years and was in need of a good shake up, which we definitely got in 2020!

The top boys’ names have stayed mostly the same, with Jack remaining at the top of the list as it has since 2007, along with Noah, Conor, Daniel and James all retaining their high up spots. 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 Fiadh.

But what is most interesting are the names that managed to get onto the top 100 list this year for the first time! Some of these names have been slowly creeping their way up to that coveted top 100 spot while others had a meteoric rise to fame, with likes of Croía shooting up a massive 67 places from 2019!

The new names that have managed to get onto the top 100 list are:

Boys

Eoghan, now in 79^th place from 108^th.

Sonny, now in 81^st from 103^rd.

Rian (which is one of my favorites) now in 86^th from 119^th.

Shane now 87^th from 111^th.

Sean is 88^th up from 108^th.

Sebastian at 97^th from 113^th.

Girls

Lara is now in 80^th place up from 103^rd.

Nina is in joint 83^rd from 119^th.

Penny is also 83^rd alongside Nina and is up from 114^th.

Mollie is at 85^th up from 104^th.

Luna (so adorable) is now 86^th up from 105^th.

Cora is now at 90^th from 127^th.

Fíadh is at 93^rd from 111^th.

Croía had a major jump up to 95^th from 162^nd.

Elsie (so cute) is at joint 95^th from 130^th.

Pippa is joint against Elsie and Croía for 95^th from 114^th.

Maeve is joint at 99^th from 105^th.

Paige is joint with Maeve for 99^th place up from 123^rd.

The girl’s list is revealing, with names like Croía and Fíadh showing the new trend towards Irish names. The CSO said that the fada has been slowly making an appearance on the top 100 lists for the last few years. Irish names fell out of fashion there for a while but with staples like Maeve, Eoghan and Sean returning. Alongside a few newer ones like Fíadh and Rian, Irish names are becoming favourites among new parents.

The girl’s names have more variety, with short, feminine names dominating the chart. Luna’s popularity may be due to Chrissy Teigen’s child Luna. That, and the fact that it’s just a gorgeous name.

Each county, however, had a few outliers that didn’t make the top five. What’s interesting to see is that in some regions there are clusters of names that have become popular that don’t get a look in, in other parts of Ireland. Amelia, Lily, Charlie, and Isla are all specific to certain regions, and are less popular elsewhere.