Noah and Isla revealed as the most popular NI baby names
NOAH has taken the top spot for Northern Ireland’s most popular name for a baby boy, while Isla is the most popular name for a girl, it has been revealed.
The details were released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra), which collated the results from births registered in 2023.
The research also revealed the biggest climbers in the list of the top 100 most popular baby names. They were Leon, Donnacha, Albie and Seth for boys, while Rebecca, Rhea, Aurora and Raya were also big movers up the list in 2023.
Noah took the top spot for boys in 2023, after being in the top 3 since 2019. That name rose two places in the rank of most popular names to take the top spot this year.
Isla was the most popular choice for girls and jumped four places to come out on top after Grace had previously held it for five years.
152 little boys were given the name Noah while 147 little girls were named Isla.
In second place for boys and girls were the names Jack (146 boys) and Fiadh (138 girls). The name Fiadh entered the top 10 for the first time in 2020. It has steadily increased in popularity and was in third place in 2022 but has now risen to second place in the latest list.
Meanwhile, the name Jack has remained consistently popular and hasn’t dropped on the list, remaining in second place for most popular boy’s name.
James and Grace were in third place with that name chosen for 131 boys and 137 girls respectively. It’s a drop for the name Grace, which has held the top spot for girls since 2018 before being usurped this year by Isla. However, the perennial favourite Grace is yet to drop lower than third place, holding firm for the past 17 years.
Both James and Grace were the most popular names for babies born in 2022 – with James chosen for 175 little boys and Grace for 168 little girls.
Cillian (128) was fourth most popular for a boy and Emily (136) was in the same place for girls.
Possibly inspired by the rising star of Oppenheimer Oscar winner Cillian Murphy, the name Cillian has jumped five spaces to secure the fourth spot of the ten most popular names, while Emily has dropped two spaces.
Charlie (123) and Olivia (126) were in fifth place, followed by Leo and Lily in sixth.
Oisin (116) and Ella (97) were in seventh place and Oliver (114) and Aoife (94) in eighth.
Meanwhile, Luca and Theo were in joint ninth place for boys with that name chosen for 108 boys, while Amelia (92) was the ninth most popular for a girl.
Freya was the tenth most popular for girls with that name chosen for 90 babies.
Four names joined the top 10 of most popular baby names in 2023. They were Leo and Luca for boys, and Amelia and Ella for girls.
Overall, John and Mary have been the most popular baby names given in Northern Ireland since 1922, according to Nisra.
Different names are most popular depending on the local government district. For example, Tommy was the most popular boys name in the Causeway Coast and Glens area, and was the name chosen for 13 boys last year. For girls, Freya was most popular in that area.
In Belfast, Luca and Olivia were the most popular and were chosen for 26 boys and 23 girls respectively.
The recording of first name choices in Northern Ireland began 26 years in 1997.