NEW research has revealed the 15 most popular Irish baby names currently being chosen by new parents in England and Wales.
Rory, Rowan and Erin are top of the list for those seeking an Irish flavour for their newborn's name, according to the most recently available data which has been researched by the Spin Genie site.
Names that have ties to Ireland or are of Irish origin - whether given in their anglicised form or not - have continued to remain popular outside of Ireland, the new findings show.
“Looking at the names that made the top 200 in both the separate boys and girls categories in the latest report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), it was clear that monikers of Irish origin were more likely to be given to boys as 10 names made the list compared with just five for girls,” Spin Genie explained.
The name Rory ranked the highest in the findings, coming in at 39th place in the list of 200 names.
A total of 1,483 baby boys were given the name in the most recent ONS data report, for the year 2021, which was released in October 2022.
It was followed up by Rowan in 63rd and Finn in 72nd in the boys list.
Liam (86th) and Ryan (106th) round out the top five while the likes of Patrick, Connor and Callum appear further down the rankings.
Out of all 200 names given to baby girls in the same year, Erin ranked 59th in the popularity stakes, closely followed by Orla in 66th and Maeve in 77th.
Meanwhile, Niamh finished in 136th place and Aoife in 190th.
Top 15 Irish names given in England and Wales in 2021:
1 Rory 1,483
2 Rowan 938
3 Erin 884
4 Orla 794
5 Finn 788
6 Liam 690
7 Maeve 654
8 Ryan 569
9 Patrick 456
10 Niamh 362
11 Connor 293
12 Finlay 293
13 Callum 292
14 Aidan 289
15 Aoife 269
