CAOIMHE, Sophie and Jack were the most popular baby names in Clare in 2021.
New data from the central statistics office (CSO) shows Caoimhe and Sophie to be the most popular names in 2021 after Sophie was the most common name in 2020.
Jack was the most popular name for newborn boys in 2021 and Noah took the top spot in 2020.
This is according to CSO data classified by area of residence of mother, between 2020 and 2021
The most popular name in 2021 for newborn boys in Ireland was Jack and for girls it was Fiadh. Jack has held the top spot since 2007 with the exception of 2016 when James was the most popular name.
This is the first time that Fiadh has taken the number one spot, climbing from second place in 2020 and third in 2019. Grace had been the most popular name for baby girls in 2020 with Emily being the most popular prior to this since 2011.
Some of the less frequently used girls’ names registered in 2021 and not included in the top 100 names were Anastasia, Tessa, Daria, Órlaith, Roisin and Florrie.
Some of the less popular boys’ names registered in 2021 were Roan, Santiago, Tiarnán, Kane, Felix and Orson.
In an information note, the CSO says its Irish Babies’ Names 2021 publication includes the Síneadh fada and other diacritics since it was first introduced for names registered in 2018.
According to the CSO, this change has resulted in a break in the series, with new entries created for names with the síneadh fada and other diacritics.
This has an impact in the order of the popularity of some forenames. For example Sean (without the síneadh fada) has always been in the top 100 most popular names for boys. Seán with the síneadh fada is now included in the data and both spellings are treated as 2 separate names since 2018, thus Seán has a rank of 16 while Sean has fallen to rank 102 in 2021.
