Naomh Conaill - champions for the eighth time in Donegal Picture Thomas Gallagher
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22 Oct 2025
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22 Oct 2025
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The most popular babies' names for boys and girls in Donegal for 2020 have just been revealed.
Top of the tots in Donegal was Charlie for boys.
But there was a tie for the most popular name for girls, as it was level pegging between Hannah and Isla.
While Charlie was the most popular boy’s name registered for babies in 2020 in the county, in 2019 it was Jamie.
For the girls in Donegal, there is a change as well compared with 2019 as that year top spot was held jointly by Ella and Emma.
Nationally, Jack maintains the top spot as the most popular name for boys while Grace ousts Emily to take the top spot for baby girls’ names registered in 2020.
The findings have just been released by the Central Statistics Office.
Commenting on the trends in Irish baby names, Carol Anne Hennessy, SCO Statistician said: “Jack has retained the top spot as the most popular baby boys’ name in 2020, a position it has held since 2007 except for 2016, when James was the most popular choice. Jack was followed by James, Noah, Daniel and Conor as the five most popular names for boys in 2020.
“Grace claims the top spot for girls for the first time, followed by Fiadh, Emily, Sophie and Ava. These were the top five names of choice by parents for their newly arrived baby girls in 2020. Emily held the top position for the girls for nine consecutive years (since 2011) until 2020 when it earned the bronze medal spot behind Grace and Fiadh.”
Back in 1970, John, Michael, Patrick, David and James were the names most favoured by parents of new-born baby boys. There were 193 male new-borns named John in 2020, just over 7.3% of the number of boys given the name John (2,629) in 1970.
Interestingly, not one of the top five names for girls in 2020 appeared in the top 100 names a half century earlier. Mary, Catherine, Margaret, Ann and Sharon were the most popular names for baby daughters in 1970, with 1,896 baby girls named Mary in that year. In 2020, there were 410 baby girls named Grace, 21.6% of the number of girls given the name Mary (1,896) in 1970.
Ava reclaims her position in the top five names for girls in 2020, (coming in at number five) for the first time since 2016 when it was the third most popular name chosen for baby girls.
As is evident from the tables, over the years, girls are given a wider variety of names than boys with 4,624 girls’ names registered compared to 3,715 boys’ names.
Sonny was the only new entrant into the top 100 for boys in 2020. The boys’ names with most growth in popularity in terms of rank between 2019 and 2020 were Rian rising most in popularity, jumping 33 places from 119th place to 86th place. Similarly, Eoghan moved 29 places from 108th place in 2019 to 79th in 2020.
There were seven new entrants to the top 100 for girls: Penny, Luna, Cora, Fíadh (with a síneadh fada), Croía, Elsie and Paige. Croía has grown most in popularity, rising from 162nd place in 2019 to 95th in 2020, a jump of 67 places. Cora jumped in popularity from 127th place in 2019 to 90th place in 2020, a rise in 37 places.
Some less popular names for boys included Orion, Creed, Romeo, Klay and Séadna. Less popular girls’ names included Zaria, Vienna, Fódhla, Marlee and Roxie.
For more details see https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-ibn/irishbabiesnames2020/babiesnames2020tables/
The defendant pleaded guilty at Carndonagh District Court, sitting in Buncrana.
ATU Donegal students who attended the walk-out protest at the Letterkenny campus today
Michelle Duffy (second right) and the kayakers spent two and half hours coaxing the bird towards shallow waters where it was caught by other volunteers
Nirvana Restaurant at The Mall in Ballyshannon has been listed for sale
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