REVEALED: Is your name one of the most popular Irish language baby names of 2023?

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has revealed the most popular Irish language baby names of 2023. 

The latest CSO report on baby names in Ireland reveals the Irish names in the top 10 list, analyses names that have joined the top 100, and Irish names which have fallen out of fashion since records began in 1964. 

Rían was the most popular Irish name given to boys in 2023, despite having been only first registered as a name with the CSO in 2018, when it was ranked in 33rd place. 

However, Rian (without a fada) was first registered in 1985, but to date has only reached a high of 25th place in 2017. 

Meanwhile, Fiadh - a relatively new Irish name in terms of popularity, having only first been featured on the register of names in 2002 - was the most popular Irish girls name in 2023. 

Since 2013, it has been rising in popularity and reached the number one spot in 2021, when 424 girls were given the name. 

A variation of the name (Fia) was first registered in 1998 and reached a peak in 2017 when it reached a rank of 136th and 42 girls were given the name. 

The most popular Irish boys names last year include Rian, Oisín, Fionn, Tadhg, Liam, Cillian, Finn, Conor, Seán, and Patrick, while the most popular Irish girls names were Fiadh, Éabha, Croía, Caoimhe, Saoirse, Cara, Aoife, Róisín, Sadhbh, and Erin. 

Cillian was first registered in 1970 with three births and has risen steadily since, hitting its current 2021-2023 peak as 9th most popular name in Ireland overall. 

When Cillian Murphy was born in 1976, the name was ranked in 203rd place, with11 Cillians born that year. 

The name Patrick has remained steadily popular throughout the years, and the lowest rank it has ever received is 24th. 

While in 19th place in 2023, Patrick claimed the number two spot in 1964, 1965, 1968, and 1969, and the number three spot in 1966, 1967, and 1970 to 1974 inclusive. 

However, despite its enduring popularity, it has never claimed the top spot. 

Curiously, the Irish spelling of the name (Padraig) was in 88th place in 1964, while it reached a top ranking of 50th in both 1987 and 1992. 

In 2023, Padraig was ranked 436th. 

The CSO began to record the sineadh fada in 2018, and in that year, Pádraig, reached a rank of 180th, while its highest rank of 151st was achieved in 2022.

In 2023 it was in 215th place. 

However, it's noteable that Paddy joined the top 100 most popular names in 2023. 

While Tadhg was ranked as 7th most popular Irish boys’ name in 2023, its counterpart Tadgh fell out of the top 100 rankings in the same year.

Oisín shot into the top 5 for the first time in 2023 and was first registered with a fada in 2018, however, Oisin, without a fada, has been on the list of baby names since 1964 and reached a high of 8th in 2016. 

Four new entrants into the top 100 boys names for 2023 include Caelan, Paddy, Éanna, and Dáithí. 

Meanwhile, Éabha entered the top five names for the first and only time in 2021, and it was only first registered in 2018 when the fada was included in the CSO data capture process. 

Eabha (without the fada) was first registered in 1990 and reached a ranking of 45th in 2016. 

Croía has seen a meteoric rise in recent years among traditional Irish names, joining the list in 2018 at position 255 (the year before Conor McGregor's daughter Croía was born) and rising to 23rd in 2023. 

First registered in 1971, Saoirse has been climbing in popularity since 1989 and reached a peak of 12th place in 2016. 

The year after Saoirse Ronan's second Oscar nomination for Brooklyn, the name Saoirse was the 12th most popular name for girls in Ireland. 

Aoife has been on the list of names given to girls since CSO records began in 1964, and it has maintained a long period of popularity. 

It first joined the top 10 in 1983 and was consistently among the top 10 from 1987 to 2010, and in the top 20 from 1981 to 2019. 

While it attained the number one spot in 2000 when 633 girls were given this name, it ranked 31^st in 2023 with 148 babies given the name. 

Other traditional Irish names which have seen high spots on the list before include Niamh, Deirdre, Cadhla, Síofra and Aisling. 

Ciara enjoyed a 21 year period in the top 10 from 1985 to 2006, but fell to 95th in 2023.