Top Names For Girls In 2025

Right, sit down, grab a cuppa and brace yourselves, because it's that time of year again: the annual rundown of the top girl names for 2025. Every January we all pretend we're not perving at the name lists, and every January we're all lying. So here it is — the good, the grand, and the feckin' unpronounceable. And if you're one of those couples who "just knew" the name the second they saw the little scan picture, sure, good luck to ye, and may the child forgive ye by the time she's fifteen.

Feathered Flaps and Forest Names: 2025 Goes Full Feral

Colourful paper-cut illustration of a bird, standing in for 2025's flock of nature-inspired baby names

The big news this year is that we've all gone absolutely feral for nature names. If it grows, flaps, or smells of damp earth, it's on the list. Wren is flying up the charts faster than a pigeon nicking your chips in Temple Bar — and sure, she's a lovely name, until you're standing at the school gate roaring "WREN! WREN, COME HERE, YOUR DINNER'S READY!" and three other mammies turn around. Same story with Ivy, Hazel, Fern and Willow: beautiful on the birth cert, deadly when the child decides to hide behind the couch in Dunnes. And the birds are only the start — apparently there's a run on names that sound like they were found in a hedgerow, and God help the poor cratur who gets called Bramble when she's doing her Leaving Cert. Ah sure, it's grand. She can always go by her middle name, which will no doubt be something sensible like Grainne, because every Irish mammy has a sensible name in reserve.

The Cats and the Roses: Granny Names Are Back, Whether You Like It or Not

Illustration of a cat beside a rose in a scrapbook, nodding to the roaring comeback of vintage granny names

The other big trend of 2025 is the great granny-name revival, and honestly, it's about feckin' time. Sure, we spent twenty years naming babies like we were filling out a form for a Scandinavian furniture catalogue, and now we've swung all the way back to names you'd find on a biscuit tin in your nana's press. Mabel is back. Agnes is back. Bridie is roaring back with the fury of a woman who's been waiting since 1952 for her moment in the sun. And the funniest part? The very same auld wans who are delighted to hear their grandchild is called Rose will still turn around and ask you, in all seriousness, why you didn't just call her after herself. "Sure, there's a perfectly good Bridie in the family," she'll say, "and ye went and picked a name off the internet." The cat is out of the bag, so to speak — and if you're planning on Maisie, Rosie or Lily, brace yourself for the follow-up question: "And when's the christening, and will there be a proper feed after?" Because in this country, a name is never just a name. It's a conversation. It's a statement. It's a yoke that will follow your child for the rest of her days, whether she's a solicitor in Dublin or a surf instructor in Lahinch. So pick well, mind yourselves, and remember the golden rule of 2025: whatever ye call her, she'll end up being called "pet" or "love" by every auld lad in the shop anyway, so sure, it hardly matters at all.