The most popular name in 2025 for newborn boys in Ireland was Rían and for girls it was Lily. This is the first time since 1964 that Rían has held the top spot for boys' names with it moving into the top 5 for the first time in 2021. Jack previously held the top spot since 2007, with the exception of 2016, when James was chosen as the most popular name. Lily rose to the No. 1 spot for girls in 2025, climbing from 6th place in 2024. Prior to 2025, Sophie proved to be the most popular girls' name in 2024, with it previously ranking in the top 5 girls names since 2009. Éabha retains its 2nd place position from last year, having previously been ranked in 8th position in 2023. Sadie entered the top 5 for the very first time in 2025.
Rían is the most popular boys' name in 2025, having been ranked in the top 5 boys' names since 2021. Jack relinquishes its top spot for 8 years running and drops one place to 2nd position. Noah dropped from second place in 2024 to 3rd in 2025, but remains a popular choice, having been in the top ten boys names chosen since 2013. James moves up one place to 4th position in 2025, but has been in the top ten names chosen since 1964. Oisín moves up 4 places to 5th position in 2025 and has been in the top ten boys' names since 2022 (See Table 2.1).
This year Lily was the most popular name chosen for girls, rising from 6th place in 2024 to 1st in 2025, the first time ever holding first place in Baby Names. Éabha holds on to second place in 2025. Fiadh rises from 5th position last year to 3rd place in 2025. Sophie drops from 1st place in 2024 to 6th in 2025. Grace is the 4th most popular name in 2025, dropping one place from last year. Grace has remained in the top ten most favoured girls' names since 2006. Sadie comes in 5th position, its first time ever in the top 5 most popular girls' names rankings (See Table 2.2).
There were six new entrants to the top 100 for boys: Levi, Dáire, Naoise, Conall, Elijah and Teidí. Naoise was the name that rose most in popularity when measured by a change in rank, ranking 162nd in 2024 and moving to 88th place in 2025 (See Tables 2.1 and 2.3).
There were six new entrants to the top 100 for girls: Ríadh, Gracie, Mabel, Arabella, Nancy and Raya. Raya has grown most in popularity, rising from 213th place in 2024 to 99th in 2025, a jump of 114 places in rank (See Table 2.2).
There is a wider variety in the names registered for girls, with 5,488 girls' names in 2025 compared with 4,848 for boys.
In most areas of the country one of the top 5 boys’ names took the No 1 spot
Rían was the most popular name in the State in 2025, and the top name for baby boys in two of the four provinces. Jack was the second most favoured name for boys in 2025 and held the top spot or joint top spot in 10 locations including Limerick City and County, Kilkenny, Louth and Laois. Some counties picked names outside the top 5. Liam was ranked 7th nationally yet was most favoured in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Kildare. Fionn was the most popular boys’ names in Westmeath yet ranked 6th on a national basis (See Table 2.5).
Lily was the most chosen girls' name in six areas including Meath, Wicklow and Cork City. Éabha was the second most popular name nationally but was the top girls' name in Munster. Grace also held the top or joint top name in eight counties. Names outside the top 5 were chosen for girls in several counties. Croía was the top girls' name in Kerry while ranking 9th nationally. Hannah was the first choice in Laois, while ranking 21st on a national basis (See Table 2.6).
Some of the less frequently used girls' names registered in 2025 and not included in the top 100 names were Éilis, Breda, Esmée, Linda, Rihanna, Ellen, and Una
Some of the less popular boys' names registered in 2025 were Elio, Séadhna, Óigí, Lughán, Vinny, Ocean, Adonis, and Abram
Rían was the most popular boys' name where both parents were Irish nationals. Where both parents were from the EU14 (excluding Ireland) Liam was the most favoured boys' name. David was the name chosen most often by parents from the EU15 to EU27. Muhammad was the highest ranked name of baby boys born where both parents were from outside the EU and UK (See Table 2.7).
Éabha was the most popular girls' name where both parents were Irish nationals. Olivia ranked first with parents from the EU14 (excluding Ireland), and Olivia also took the top spot with parents from the EU15 to EU27. Hannah was the main choice where both parents were from outside the EU and UK. Florence was the most popular girls' name chosen by parents of UK nationality (See Table 2.7).
Since Irish Babies' Names 2023, the CSO has expanded its surname analysis to provide a further breakdown of the most common surnames associated with babies born. Murphy, Kelly, O'Brien, Walsh, and Byrne, were the most common surnames for 2025 births. Of the 54,120 live births in 2025, 21,154 had unique surnames. The top 10 surnames accounted for 6.3% (or 3,403) of the 54,120 live births in 2025. The top three surnames for babies were Murphy at 557 (1.0%), Kelly at 455 (0.8%), and O'Brien at 354 (0.7%) (See Table 2.9).
In 1975, the most popular name for boys was John. Fifty years later, John ranked 29th in popularity in 2025 for baby boys (See Tables 2.1 and 2.10).
The top 5 boys’ names in 1975 were John, Michael, David, Patrick, and Paul. The only name in the top 10 which was still in the top 10 by 2025 was James (See Tables 2.1 and 2.10).
Olivia was the only name in the top 10 most popular names for girls in 2025 that also ranked in the top 10 girls' names in 1975
Mary was the most popular girls' name in 1975. In 2025, Mary was 112th in popularity for girls’ names, dropping from the top 100 for the 4th time since 1964. Olivia was the only girls' name in the top 10 most popular names for girls in 2025 that also appeared in the top 10 girls' names in 1975, ranking 8th in 2025 and 4th in 1975. (See Tables 2.2 and 2.11).
Muhammad was the name chosen most often for baby boys in England and Wales in 2024, the most recent year for which data is available, while Olivia was the top name for girls. Parents in Northern Ireland in 2024 chose James as their most popular boys' name with Grace as the most popular girls' name. Scotland in 2024 chose Noah and Olivia as the most popular names (See Table 2.8).
The CSO’s Irish Babies' Names 2025 publication includes the síneadh fada and other diacritics since it was first introduced for names registered in 2018. This change has resulted in a break in the series, with new entries created for names with the síneadh fada and other diacritics.
This has an impact in the order of the popularity of some forenames. For example, Sean (without the síneadh fada) has always been in the top 100 most popular names for boys. Seán with the síneadh fada is now included in the data and both spellings are treated as two separate names since 2018, thus Seán has a rank of 23 while Sean has fallen to 141st position in 2025.
Check the popularity of any name and how it has changed over time
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.