December's a time for Hollys and Jacks

Holly and Jack were the most popular names for babies born in December 2021, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has confirmed.

Last Christmas, there were 89 babies born on Christmas Day 2021 of which 51 were boys and 38 were girls.

While CSO did not reveal the names chosen on Christmas Day, there seems to be a Biblical reference for four of the five names in the list of Top 5 boys names in December 2021. The most popular names chosen for baby boys born throughout December 2021 were: Jack (58); Noah (42); Michael (38); James (37); and Daniel (36).

The most popular names chosen for baby girls in December 2021 were: Holly (45); Ellie (34); Grace (33); Emily (32); while Ava and Ella were joint fifth with 29 names each.

Comparing last year with 10 years ago, we can see some differences, most notably in the number of babies born on Christmas Day. In 2011 there were 130 babies born on Christmas Day with 70 boys and 60 girls.

For boys born throughout the whole of December 2011, the most popular names were: Jack (79); Sean (65); Daniel (63); Conor (58); and Adam and James were joint fifth with 55 names each.

The most popular names choses for baby girls in December 2011 were: Holly (99); Emily (62); Sophie (47); Ella (40); and Lucy (39).

Commenting on the release, Gerard Doolan, Statistician in the Vital Statistics Division, said: “Looking at the most popular names for babies born in December compared with those whose birth was registered in December we can see a clear Christmas influence when it comes to naming girls.

Holly was the fifth most popular girls name in 2021 by registration (25) but was comfortably the top name for baby girls born in December (45).

In terms of the whole of 2021, the most popular name for girls was Fiadh, while Jack topped the chart for boys’ names not only in December, but for the whole of 2021.”