Jack has been knocked off the top of the most popular boys’ names in Northern Ireland for the first time in 12 years.
The traditional and popular name has finally had its throne taken by James which finally takes its place as number one having spent years in the top five.
Harry is another name that has seen a significant upward curve, rising to 8th place. There were a total of 1,629 different boys’ names registered in Northern Ireland in 2015.
Consistent favourites include Jack, James, Daniel and Matthew which all featured in the top ten. Their popularity has remained over the past decade as they all featured in the top ten in 2005 too.
As well as the traditional favourites, there were also 381 boys’ names that had never been registered before. These included including Aaren, Christiano and Dani. Moving in the opposite direction were Sam, Ruairi, Daire, Kian, Kyle, Corey, Elijah, Rhys, Christopher, Eoghan, Jay, Connor and Robert, which all fell out of the top 100 between 2014 and 2015.
As for the girls, Emily was the number one choice for newborn babies in Northern Ireland claiming the top spot for the third time.
Ella was second and Grace third. One of the biggest risers in the girls’ list was Rosa which climbed nearly a hundred places from 147th most popular in 2014 to 53rd in 2015.
In contrast to the boys, there were only two girls’ names that featured in the top ten in both 2005 and 2015 with Sophie and Anna being the ones that survived the test of time.
There were 2,207 different girls’ names registered last year, far more than the boys. There were also far more new entries to the girls’ list, with 527 new names registered including Alexah, Fathima and Lolly.
Girls’ names going out of fashion include Aine, Lucia, Nicole, Lara, Madison, Darcey, Darcie, Lydia, Lacey, Bethany, Eliza, Jasmine, Tilly and Laura – all of which fell out of the top hundred last year.
newsletter.html”]