For the third year in a row, Emma has been at the top of the list of Irish baby girl names. There has been more change in popular Irish baby girl names over the past few years than the baby boy names. While Emma, Sarah and Aoife have been in the top five since 1998, Katie has only been in the top five since 2003 and Amy has only been in the top 5 since 2004.
There were five first time entries to the top 100 most popular Irish baby girl names in 2005: Alicia, Alisha, Isabella, Julia and Ruby. A number of baby girl names regained their popularity and returned to the top 100 after one or more years’ absence: Clara, Emer, Hazel, Heather, Isobel and Zara.
In general, baby Irish girls are given a wider variety of names than boys. Over 38% of newborn girls were given a name that was not in the top 100, compared with 28% of the boys.
Here is the list of the top baby girl names in Ireland during 2005 according to the Irish Central Statistics Office:
Emma
Sarah
Katie
Amy
Aoife
Ciara
Sophie
Chloe
Leah
Ella
Emily
Rachel
Niamh
Grace
Rebecca
Hannah
Caoimhe
Ava
Lauren
Jessica
Anna
Kate
Roisin
Lucy
Molly
Megan
Abbie
Laura
Holly
Ellen
Ailing
Ellie
Mia
Caitlin
Aine
Saoirse
Nicole
Shauna
Tara
Erin
Katelyn
Clodagh
Zoe
Eimear
Abigail
Aimee
Sinead
Mary
Eva
Robyn
Alannah
Lily
Orla
Eabha
Jade
Shannon
Eve
Kayleigh
Maria
Olivia
Ruby
Isabelle
Jennifer
Aoibhe
Jane
Cara
Charlotte
Kayla
Elizabeth
Amber
Abby
Kelly
Ruth
Sadhbh
Isabel
Jodie
Louise
Orlaith
Alanna
Claire
Alexandra
Alice
Catherine
Michelle
Ener
Maeve
Sophia
Alicia
Isobel
Zara
Alisha
Amelia
Alison
Clara
Isabella
Lisa
Heather
Julia
Hazel
Danielle
June 4th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
That’s very interesting to see the top names from another country. In the United States, Emma is also the most popular name and Chloe is in the top 10 as well. I also found that Emma is also in the top ten in Norway. It’s amazing that across different cultures and backgrounds, many of the same names appear.