The Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Charlie Flanagan, TD, has announced the most popular baby names by passport application for 2016.

Based on passport applications for infants, James was the most popular baby boy name in 2016 and Emily was the most popular baby girl name.

Of the 17,752 passports issued to children born in 2016, 116 went to babies called Emily, and 158 went to boys called James.

Here are the most popular baby names for 2016:

Girls:
1. Emily
2. Amelia
3. Olivia
4. Grace
5. Emma
6. Anna
7. Aoife
8. Sophie
9. Mia
10. Saoirse

Boys:
1. James
2. Daniel
3. Jack
4. Conor
5. Finn
6. Adam
7. Noah
8. Liam
9. Oliver
10. Luke

Minister Charlie Flanagan said; “The list of most popular names reflects the continued overall popularity of Irish-language names, such as Aoife and Finn. It is interesting, however, to look back to 1911, just five years before the Easter rising, when such names hardly registered at all, with John and Mary being the most popular baby names.”

“The 2016 figures also highlight that Ireland is nowadays very much a multicultural society, with Freya and Muhammad the highest new entries

The Minister also added; “It is however, disappointing to see that that the name Charlie has dropped down to number 24 from last year’s rank of 11. We will have to see what can be done about that! I take some comfort in the fact that my middle name – James – topped the poll of the boys’ names!”

To check out the top 200 names for children under three you can click here.