How important is the name you give your children?

The vast majority (89 per cent) of Irish people believe the name they decide to give a child is one of the most important decisions they will make as parents, according to a recent study.

A questionnaire of 150 first and second time mothers, with young children, also found the top source of baby name inspiration for Irish parents comes from ‘Irish’/‘Celtic’ names (45 per cent). Only 7 per cent admitted to being inspired by baby names chosen by celebrities.

The research was conducted by C&G Babyclub, who have introduced a Baby Name Generator with 50,000 names to help prospective parents find the perfect name for their baby. It allows users to filter the search by gender, origins, seasons, style or by the letter you want the name to begin with. There is also an option to generate a surprise name to really get inspired.

There is also a recent application on the Central Statistics Office website, which allows people to track the popularity of names over the last 50 years.

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Baby Names of Ireland lets you track how many babies were registered under any given name in Ireland in an year in Ireland between 1964 and 2016.

After you enter a girl or a boy’s name the application generates a graph detailing how many babies were registered under that name since 1964, and a ranking showing show popular the name was each year.

For example in 1964 there were 3,471 babies named Mary, the most common girl’s name that year.

Jack has been the most popular name for 13 out of the last 19 years.