Over 67,000 births were registered in Ireland in 2014, with Jack and Emily continuing to be the most popular baby names.

According to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), a total of 67,462 births were registered last year - 34,785 boys and 32,677 girls. While this is almost 1,500 less babies than were born in 2013, it is over 8% higher than 2004's figure of 61,684.

Jack continued to be the most popular boy's name last year, a position it has held every year since 2007. It was followed by James, Daniel, Conor and Sean.

Emily remained the most popular girl's name, a position it had held since 2011. It was followed by Sophie, Emma, Grace and Ava.

There were four first-time entries to the top 100 names for boys - Henry, Hugo, Ollie and Luca. There were two first time entries to the girls' list - Annie and Isla.

Only a small number of areas around the country favoured boys' names outside of the top five. These included Cavan, where Adam was the most popular name last year, Longford which favoured Michael, and Donegal, which favoured Oisin and James.

A wider range of girls' names outside of the top five were used, including Anna, Aoife, Amelia, Ella, Katie, Lucy and Mia.

Some of the less common boys' names registered in 2014 included Dexter, Avery, Braxton and Deacon. Some of the less common girls' names were Meadow, Angel, Raven, Destiny and Miley.

An analysis of baby names registered 50 years earlier in 1964, revealed that John was the most popular boy's name. It was ranked 25th in 2014. Mary was the most popular girl's name in 1964. It ranked 77th in 2014.

Meanwhile, the CSO also carried out an analysis of the most popular surnames of babies registered for the first time. The five most popular in 2014 were Murphy, Kelly, Byrne, Ryan and O'Brien.

The CSO figures also revealed that the average age of mothers in 2014 was 32.3 years and almost 40% of births last year were to first-time mothers.

"There were 1,253 (or 1.9% of total) births to mothers aged under 20 years in 2014. This represents a significant fall in the number of teenagers giving birth over a 10-year period if compared to 2004 when 2,560 (or 4.2% of total) babies were born to teenage mothers," the CSO said.

Almost 78% of births in 2014 were to mothers of Irish nationality.