Disney, Moana and Storm - NI's diverse baby names revealed

Trends suggest baby names are diversifying

Disney, Moana, Storm, Phoenix, Axl and Wolf are among some of the less common names given to babies in Northern Ireland in 2018.

A total of 22,983 births were registered last year, according to new figures by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).

Noah and James were the joint first most popular boys name, appearing 217 times each.

Grace was the most popular for girls, with 221 babies given the name.

• Baby names Northern Ireland 2017

But trends suggest baby names are diversifying.

For the first time since name recording began in 1997, Brodie, Cohen, Frankie and Luca all appeared in the top 100 list for boys.

Meanwhile, Ada, Fianna, Mila, Myla, Pippa and Savannah were all among the top 100 for the girls.

A number of seasonal names also appeared on the 2018 list.

The number of girls named April in the month of April increased, while a similar trend applied to boys born in either December or January who were called Noel.

The name Summer was reserved for those born between June and August - with no babies born between December and February receiving the name.

A number of parents passed their own names on to their children

Some children born in 2018 were also named after places, such as Adelaide, Brooklyn, Chelsea, Diego, India and Paris.

Of the names recorded which do not include a hyphen, Oluwatimilehin was the longest.

However a number of names are still being passed down through the generations.

Of births registered in 2018 containing details about the baby's father, 1,626 boys were given their fathers' first name as a first or additional - while 266 girls were given their mothers' name.