Jack and Emily were the most popular names registered here in 2018, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The síneadh fada and other diacritics were identified for the first time last year.

Emily retains the top spot for girls - with Grace, Emma, Sophie and Amelia the top five names of choice.

Jack has retained the top spot as the most popular baby boy's name - a position it has held since 2007, except for 2016 when James was the most popular.

Jack was followed by James, Noah, Conor and Daniel as the first five most popular boys names.

Most popular boys names by county | Source: CSO

Frankie, Freddie and Theodore were new entrants into the top 100 for boys - with Theodore and Frankie the names rising most in popularity.

There were four new entrants to the top 100 for girls: Ada, Bella, Bonnie and Ivy.

Ada gained 67 places, moving from 137th to 70th place between 2017 and 2018.

Ivy also rose from 137th place to 84th over the same period.

Most popular girls names by county | Source: CSO

Some less popular names for boys included Diego, Ruan, Casper, Donal and Felix - while less popular girls' names included Tessa, Mae, Arianna, Faith and Helen.

Back in 1968, John, Patrick, Michael, James and David were the names most favoured by parents for boys.

While there were 2,863 baby boys named John 50 years ago, the five most popular boys' names in 2018 together accounted for 2,691 baby boys.

Source: CSO

Interestingly, not one of the top five names for girls appeared in the top 100 names a half century earlier.

Mary, Catherine, Margaret, Ann and Anne were the most popular names for baby daughters in 1968 - with 2,364 baby girls named Mary in that year.

In 2018, there were 460 baby girls named Emily, 19.5% of the number of girls given the name Mary in 1968.

Image: CSO

The CSO included the síneadh fada and other diacritics for the first time in 2018.

This change has seen a break in the series, with new entries created for names with the síneadh fada and other diacritics.

This has had an impact in the order of the popularity of some forenames.

For example Sean (without the síneadh fada) has always been in the top five most popular names for boys.

Seán with the síneadh fada is now included in the 2018 data - and both spellings are treated as two separate names - meaning it falls out of the top five.