The most popular baby names of 2015 were Chloe, Jack and Andrew, according to the Irish Times’ birth announcements column.
The column announced the birth of almost 350 newborns in Ireland last year, and traditional Irish names Chloe and Jack came out as the most popular for girls and boys respectively. Andrew tied first place for the boys.
The second most popular girls’ names were Lucy and Lauren, with Isobel and its variations of spelling coming in third.
Daniel and Hugo tied for second in the boys’ list, with Cian, Sebastian and Charlie joint third.
The list is not necessarily a true reflection of the most popular baby names across the whole of Ireland. Proud parents can pay to have the birth of their baby announced in the column, but the vast majority don’t. It does however, give an indication to the most popular names of the year.
2015 was the second year running that Jack has come top of the boys’ list in the Times announcement column. In 2014, Sophie topped the girls’ chart. This is in comparison to Jack and Emily later being officially confirmed as the most popular baby names of 2014 by The Central Statistics Office.
Another interesting point from the column was that several parents chose to name their babies with traditional Irish names such as Doireann, Élodie Bríd, Fiadh, Odhran, Róise, Róisín Cát Tuong, and Sósanna.
Unlike in Britain, Ireland has not seen any significant rise in the number of baby girls being named Charlotte, following the birth of Princess Charlotte in May.
Brilliant routine on Irish names by comedian Lee Mack
