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Here's what the most popular baby names were in Ireland last year

The usual suspects feature in top five.

P-IBN2017Infographic CSO CSO

THE CSO HAS released its statistics on Irish baby names in 2017, with Jack and Emily taking top spot for most popular names last year.

The top five names for boys were Jack, James, Daniel, Conor and Sean, while the top five for girls were Emily, Emma, Amelia, Grace and Sophie.

New names in the top 100 for last year are Theo and Jackson for boys, and Aoibhin, Nina, Pippa and Esma for girls.

There was more variety in names for girls than boys, with 4,493 girls’ names registered compared to 3,472 boys.

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You can check out the full list of baby names here.

The CSO also has an interactive tool whereby you can check how popular a baby name has been over the years, since 1964.

It has published a map of Ireland showing the most popular baby names across different counties.

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boys map CSO CSO

The CSO added a comparison between the top names now and in 1967.

Back then, the five most popular names for boys were John, Michael, Patrick, James and Paul, while for girls it was Mary, Margaret, Catherine, Ann and Anne.

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    Mute Eugene Walsh
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    Feb 28th 2018, 11:26 AM

    Loaf

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    Mute Joan Ryan
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    Feb 28th 2018, 11:30 AM

    @Eugene Walsh:
    How much?

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    Mute Frank McGlynn
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    Feb 28th 2018, 1:45 PM

    Look what hey have done!!! Boys names in blue and girls names in a pinkish colour. Where are the PC Thought Control Gestapo today? Have they been decommissioned by the Beast from the East?

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    Mute Jengis O'Can
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    Feb 28th 2018, 9:18 PM

    The old Irish tradition of names for boys and girls is obviously being lost.

    Most Irish babies were traditionally named after Saints (e.g. Aidan, Patrick, Joseph, Mary, Anne) or Bible people (e.g. Luke, Daniel, Miriam, Ruth) or ancient Irish names (Brían, Oisín, Caoimhín (Kevin), Dearbhla, Deirdre, Maedbh (Maeve) etc).

    It was traditional to name the 1st-born boy after the father’s father and the 1st-born girl after the mother’s mother.
    The 2nd-born boy was named after the father and 2nd-born girl after the mother.
    After that, later-born babies were named after the parents’ uncles and aunts.

    In this way, the traditional names followed down the generations and family trees were built up with similar names between siblings’ families.

    If three brothers – say Pat, Tim and Joe – all named their 1st-born sons after their father, let’s say he was called Seán, the three Seán babies would be distinguished by adding their father’s name and so you would have Seán Pat, Seán Tim and Seán Joe (Johnjo). Tim Pat Coogan was a famous Irish writer and journalist.
    Sometimes the added distinguishing name might be after the colour of their hair e.g. Seán Bán Breathnach, the Irish-language TV & Radio broadcaster who was blonde-haired before he went bald.

    These traditional names are dying out and now we’re stuck with names borrowed from foreign pop stars and film or TV soap opera stars and so traditional Irish Genealogical Family Trees will soon have no bearing on Irish traditions – or Ireland for that matter.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Feb 28th 2018, 10:44 PM

    @Jengis O’Can: Yes, people now choose names, ones they like. If you had a name you liked, you could post under it.

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    Mute Vigo the Carpathian
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    Feb 28th 2018, 2:35 PM

    And not a mention of a Vigo anywhere…

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    Mute headbeagle
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    Feb 28th 2018, 12:56 PM

    Jackson may not make the 2018 list.

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Feb 28th 2018, 1:12 PM

    Gaelnazi’s will not be happy, only one in the top 10 boys and none in the top 10 girls

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    Mute Jim Fitzsimmons
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    Feb 28th 2018, 1:31 PM

    Patrick is an unusual name, as long as you put saint before and after it.

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