Top baby boy names in Ireland for 2001

Jack and Sarah the most popular names last year

Jack and Sarah were the most popular babies’ names registered last year. There were 930 boys named Jack (3.4% of baby boys) and 650 girls named Sarah (2.5% of baby girls).

The top five names for boys and girls remained the same as last year, although the order changed slightly.

There were five new entries to the top 100 for boys: Oran, Finn, Tom, Daire and Shaun. Shaun returned to the top 100 after missing out last year.

There were thirteen new names in the top 100 for girls: Kellie, Abby, Claudia, Lily, Ellie, Alana, Isobel, Margaret, Sara, Lorna, Aimee, Mia and Hazel. Alana, Isobel, Margaret, Lorna and Aimee returned to the top 100 after missing out last year. Sara also returned to the top 100 having been absent since 1998.

In general, the tables show that girls are given a wider variety of names than boys. The top 100 accounted for 64.9% of girls’ names compared with 76.1% of boys’ names.

- Details from the CSO website