THE latest CSO figures on baby names has revealed the most popular names for boys and girls in the county last year.
For the third year in a row, Jack is the most popular boy’s name while Amelia is the name most given to girls in Kerry in 2015.
Amelia takes over from Emma in 2014 and Emily in 2013 as the most popular choice in the county.
There were 862 baby boys born in the Kerry last year, while there were 842 newborn girls. There were 121 children were born to mothers over the age of 40, while 27 new mothers were under the age of 20.
Nationally, Jack and Emily remain the most popular babies’ names registered in 2015. Jack retains the top position it has held every year since 2007 and Emily has retained the number one spot that it first claimed in 2011.
The top five boys’ names (Jack, James, Daniel, Conor and Sean) have been the top five in Ireland since 2007 with slight changes to their order. Indeed, four of the top five boys’ names (Jack, Sean, Conor and James) have been in the top five since 1998.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Emily has been the most popular name chosen for girls. Emma, Ava, Sophie and Amelia were the next most frequently chosen names to make it to the top five most popular names for girls in 2015.
George was the only first time entry to the top 100 for boys, rising 13 places, from 103rd in 2014 to 90th in 2015. For the second year in a row Ollie was the boys’ name rising most in popularity. It increased 21 places from 87th place in 2014 to 66th place in 2015.
There were three first time entrants to the top 100 for girls: Annabelle, Mila and Rosie. Mila was also the girls’ name rising most in popularity, up 54 places from 142nd place in 2014 to 88th place in 2015.
As in previous years, the stats show that girls are given a wider variety of names than boys with 4,487 girls’ names registered compared to 3,475 boys’ names. Despite the greater number of male births, a smaller range of names were used for boys than for girls.
Some of the less common girls’ names registered in 2015 and not included in the top 100 names were Paris, Nelly, Dakota, Kim, Pixie and Sabina. Some of the less popular boys’ names registered in 2015 were Barra, Pauric, Zayn, Gus, Romeo and Otis.