Top baby boy names in Ireland for 2002

Jack and Sarah the most popular names last year

Jack and Sarah were the most popular babies’ names registered last year. There were 868 boys named Jack (3.1% of baby boys) and 655 girls named Sarah (2.4% of baby girls).

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

There were six new entries to the top 100 for boys: Charlie, Connor, Denis, Eric, Seamus and Steven. Eric and Steven returned to the top 100 after missing out last year. Seamus and Connor also returned to the top 100 after being absent since 1998.

There were nine new names in the top 100 for girls: Ailbhe, Eabha, Heather, Isabel, Isabelle, Laoise, Lara, Nadine and Sadhbh. Lara returned to the top 100 after missing out last year. Heather and Nadine 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 62.7% of girls’ names compared with 73.6% of boys’ names

- Details from the CSO website