Jack is back as the country’s favourite boys’ name for 2014

Separate figures show birth rate among Irish teenagers at lowest level in 14 years

Jack is back for the eighth year running as the most popular boy's baby name in Ireland while Emily has again topped the table as Ireland's most popular girl's name.

The top five boys’ names in 2014 were Jack, James, Daniel, Conor and Sean which, in varying order, have been the most popular boys’ names since 2007.

After Emily the names Sophie, Emma, Grace and Ava proved the next most popular names for girls among Irish parents last year.

There were, however, regional variations. Lily was the most popular girls’ name in Waterford, Amelia took the top spot in Fingal while Mia was the most popular girls’ name in Wexford.

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Adam was the most popular boy's name in Cavan, Michael topped the chart in Longford while Oisin and James were most frequently favoured by parents in Donegal.

Four new boys’ names - Henry, Hugo, Ollie and Luca - made the top 100 rank for boys last year while the girls’ names Annie and Isla also made girl’s top-100 list for the first time.

More unusual names included Raven for girls and Avery and Ariel for boys, names which had three or more registrations for the first time last year.

Another first was the publication of top-10 most frequently occurring surnames among babies born in 2014.

In order of frequency they were Murphy, Kelly, Byrne, Ryan, O’Brien, Walsh, O’Sullivan, O’Connor, Doyle and McCarthy.

Teenage pregnancies

A separate set of statistics, also released by the CSO, showed that the birth rate among Irish teenagers is now at its lowest level in 14 years.

There were nine births per 1,000 females aged between 15- and 19-years-old last year compared to 20 births per 1,000 population among the same cohort in 2001.

A total of 67,462 births were registered in 2014, a decrease of 1,468 births on 2013. The average of Irish mothers now stands at 32.3 years.

More than a third of births registered last year occurred outside marriage.

Births to mothers of Irish nationality accounted for over three quarters of the births registered in 2014 with 16 per cent of births registered to mothers within the EU including the UK and 6.4 per cent to mothers from non-EU countries.

A total of 249 infant deaths and 184 neonatal deaths - those occurring among infants aged under four weeks - were registered last year.

Over 29,000 deaths were registered overall in 2014, a decrease of 3.1 per cent compared to 2013 with almost four in five deaths due to a diseases of either heart or circulatory system, strokes, cancer or lung disease.

Deaths due to accidents, suicide and other external causes accounted for a further 5.4 per cent of all deaths recorded last year.

The number of suicides fell from with 475 in 2013 to 459 last year, a 3.4 per cent decrease, with male suicide accounting for four in five such deaths in 2014.

The CSO estimates that the population usually resident in Ireland stood at over 4.6 million in April 2014 with a natural increase - births minus deaths - of 38,367 last year.