STORM TRACKER: Follow 'Storm Amy' as it bears down on Ireland amid brutal forecast
Search
06 Sept 2025
Search
06 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Holly and Jack were the most popular names for babies born in December 2021, latest figures show.
Last Christmas, there were 89 babies born on Christmas Day 2021 of which 51 were boys and 38 were girls.
According to the Central Statistics Office, while it is not possible to 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[i] (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, 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.”
For more on the full list of most popular Irish Baby Names in 2021 see (https://www.cso.ie/en/ releasesandpublications/ep/p- ibn/irishbabiesnames2021/. The most popular Irish Baby Names in 2022 will be published in February 2023.
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
