In the US, Irish baby boy names more popular than Irish girl names for 2015

It was a bad year for Irish baby girl names in the US with no name of Irish origin making the top ten most popular girl names of 2015.

Irish boy names fared better, however, with Irish names taking four of the top ten spots in the most popular boy names of 2015, a list compiled annually by the San Francisco-based website BabyCenter.

Although many of the top girl names of 2015 also feature in the top baby names used on Irish passports, none of them have Irish origins. Top of the list in the US for 2015 was Sophia which came 13th in Ireland according to 2014 Irish passport applications (an alternative Sophie came in second place also).

Emma came 2nd in the US this year which has also been an extremely popular name in Ireland, coming third in passport applications.

In the top ten boy names, Irish names shone through with Aiden coming in second and Liam in third.

Caden and Logan followed in eighth and ninth place respectively.

All four of these names hold origins in Irish names or in the Irish language.

As previously reported by IrishCentral, Aidan is an Anglicization of Aodhán, meaning “little fire.”

Liam is a shortened form of Uilliam, the Irish form of William, a Germanic name made of two words meaning “desire” and “protection.”

Caden may also be an Anglicization of the Irish surname MacAodháin, or possibly a name from the Irish name Cathán, meaning "battle," while Logan stems from the Irish surname O’Loughan.

This year shows a slight increase in the use of Irish names in the US which had been on the decline in 2014. Last year, Jackson, Aiden, and Liam were also ranked as the top three boy names (and in 2013 also) but no other Irish boy name appeared in the top ten and no Irish name featured in the top ten list of girl names.

The list of girl names remained relatively the same since last year with Sophia, Emma and Olivia taking the top three spots again in 2014.

Irish names did appear in the top 100 girl names, however, where we see Kaylee (#22), Nora (#30), and Kayla (#97) and more Irish names further down on the boys’ list with Owen (#28), Nolan (#69), Declan (#93).

The ten most popular girl names of 2015 in the US were: