Parents play it safe with Jack and Sophie
Jack has been number one for boys for seven out of the 12 years that the Central Statistics Office has been recording name choices and it has never dipped further than third place in all that time.
In fact, five names – Jack, Sean, Daniel, Conor, James – have been in the top six in various orders of preference for all of that time with only Adam and Ryan moving in and out of the group to shake things up.
There has been more variety for girls although last year’s favourite, Sophie, has been in the top 10 since 2002 as have Emma, last year’s third most popular; Sarah (4th), Katie (7th), Aoife (9th) and Chloe (10th).
Emma, Sarah and Aoife have been the most enduring, featuring in the top 10 since records began with Ciara, Rachel, Amy and Leah gradually slipping out of the group to be replaced by Ava, Grace, Emily and Lucy.
But while the favourites are predictable, it doesn’t necessarily mean there’ll be confusion in the classroom because just 1,061 of the 38,082 boys born last year were named Jack (2.8%) and of the 36,196 girls born, there were only 635 Sophies (1.8%).
Names that made it into the top 100 for boys for the first time are Bobby, Shay and Szymon while newcomers to the girls top 100 are Daisy, Emilia, Madison, Olivia and Hollie, although variations of those names have appeared before with only the spelling now changed.
Regional variations did occur across the eight geographical districts with the west and Dublin respectively favouring Sean and Daniel over Jack while the border counties and the south-west preferred Ava to Sophie, the midlands liked Emma best and the west opted for Sarah.
Most notable about last year’s list is the lack of names inspired by the world of celebrity – a world which has recently delivered us Amadeus, son of former tennis ace Boris Becker, and Cosima, daughter of model Claudia Schiffer.
Cheryl Tweedy, formerly Cole, may be the sweetheart of the entertainment industry but she doesn’t even make it into the top 100 and while the latest Sex and the City installment is the biggest thing to hit cinema since Dolby, just one of the fabulous foursome – Charlotte – appears, at the lowly 72nd spot.
On the boys’ front there is no homage to bad boy Russell Brand, no copying brooding action hero, Viggo Mortenson, and not even magnificent hair can get Patrick Dempsey’s alter ego, Derek, into the list although the Grey’s Anatomy star does see his own name remain at number 19 for the fourth year in a row.
The lack of celebrity influence is probably no harm given that 2009 saw reality TV star Nicole Richie name her child Sparrow, while chef Jamie Oliver cooked up Petal Blossom for his daughter and in a particularly bad joke that’s certain to lead to expensive child therapy sessions, The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers called his son Gunner.
lThe full list is available on www.cso.ie
