Conor and Emily top of the class for baby names in Galway

Conor and Emily were the most popular babies’ names registered in County Galway last year.

Conor has overtaken Jack as the most popular boys name in the county; this is the third year in a row that Emily has topped the list of the most popular girls’ name.

In Galway City, the most popular babies’ names were Lauren and Adam.

Lauren overtook Sarah in the top spot, while Adam overtook the four joint most popular boys’ names in the city in 2014 – Patrick, Liam, Daniel and James.

The babies’ names list relates to those born in 2015, and was compiled by the Central Statistics Office.

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 had first in 2011.

The top five boys’ names (Jack, James, Daniel, Conor and Sean) have been the top five since 2007 with slight changes to their order. 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.

As in previous years, the tables 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.

In most areas of the country one of the top five boys’ names took the number one spot.

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.

Where both parents were stated as being Irish nationals, Jack was the top ranked name for boys.

For girls where both parents were Irish nationals, Emily was the most popular name.