CSO reveals Ireland’s favourite baby names of 2025

The most popular baby names in Ireland in 2025 were Rían and Lily, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has revealed.

The CSO released data on Friday on the most popular baby names and updated its online tool, which allows users to check the popularity of particular names over time.

It said Rían has dethroned Jack as the most popular boys’ name, with Jack having held the top spot for almost a decade.

Meanwhile, Lily was the most popular name for girls in 2025, replacing the previous year’s top choice, Sophie, which now ranks joint sixth with Emily.

The top five names for girls were Lily, Éabha, Fiadh, Grace and Sadie. For boys, the top five were Rían, Jack, Noah, James and Oisín.

CSO statistician Seán O’Connor said: “Rían [has] reached the top spot for the first time since our series began in 1964. It has been increasing in popularity since 2018 and entered the top five in 2021.

“Looking at girls’ names, Lily claimed the number one position as most popular girls’ name in Ireland for the first time since our series began in 1964. Lily first started to gain popularity in 1997 when 15 girls were given the name, and it has been steadily climbing up the ranks since then.” 

There were new entrants in the top 100s for both boys and girls. Levi, Dáire, Naoise, Conall, Elijah and Teidí now feature in the top 100 for boys, while Ríadh, Gracie, Mabel, Arabella, Nancy and Raya appear for girls.

In Cork City, Jack and Lily were the most popular names, while Rían and Éabha were the most popular in the rest of the county.

In total, 10,336 distinct newborn names were registered in 2025.

Murphy was the most common surname for babies born in 2025, followed by Kelly, O’Brien, Walsh and Byrne.

The CSO also examined changes in the popularity of names over time.

“While John was the most popular boys' name in 1975, it occupied the 29th position in 2025, unchanged from 2024,” Mr O’Connor said.

“For girls, Mary was the most popular name 50 years ago, whereas in 2025 it ranked in 112th position. This was only the fourth time in 50 years that the name Mary did not feature in the top 100 most popular names in Ireland with 41 babies given the name of Mary in 2025.

“Interestingly, James was the only name which appeared in the top 10 boys’ names in both 1975 and 2025, ranking 6th place in 1975, and 4th place in 2025.”