Jack remained the most popular boy's baby name in Ireland last year, a position it has held since 2007, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Among baby girls, Emily topped the list for the third year in a row.

The top five boys' names in 2013 were Jack, James, Daniel, Conor and Sean. These names have all remained in the top five since 2007, with only their order changing at different times.

Just six areas in the whole country favoured boys' names outside of the top five, including Kilkenny, where Michael was the most popular name, Cork City (Alex) and Waterford City (Aaron).

Meanwhile, the top five girls' names in 2013 were Emily, Emma, Sophie, Ella and Amelia. Amelia has grown in popularity - in 2007, it lay in 48th place.

"For girls, there was a wider range of names outside the top five that were county and city favourites. These included Ava, Caoimhe, Kate, Grace, Hannah, Mia, Rachel and Sarah," the CSO said.

The statistics also revealed that two names became first-time entries to the top 100 names for boys - Kai and Kayden. While four girls' names made it into the top 100 for the first time - Sadie, Sienna, Fiadh and Poppy.

The CSO also released details of popular names 50 years ago. In 1963, John and Mary were the most popular baby names. Jack - 2013's top name - did not even feature in the list of 1963 baby names.

The top five boys' names in 1963 were John, Patrick, Michael, Paul and James, while the top five girls' names were Mary, Margaret, Catherine, Ann and Anne.

"In 1963 as in 2013, data shows that girls were given a wider variety of names than boys. However, the range of names for both boys and girls were not as varied 50 years earlier in 1963. There were 1,109 girls' names registered in 1963 (versus 4,643 in 2013) and 678 boys' names (as against 3,628 in 2013)," the CSO noted.

Altogether, there were 68,930 births registered in Ireland last year, with slightly more males than females. While the birth figure was down on 2012's figure, it was still over 11% higher than in 2004, when 61,684 births were registered.

The average age of women who gave birth last year was 32 and almost four in 10 births were to first-time mothers.

There were 1,381 births to females aged 19 or younger - 2% of the total birth figure.

"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.