The biggest baby boom in more than a century has taken place in Ireland with a staggering 75,065 babies born last year.

This is the biggest number of babies born in the country since 1896.

Almost half of those babies were born to first-time moms while one-third were born in what the Central Statistics Office quaintly terms "outside marriage."

Jack was the number one boy's name for the second year running while Ava was number one - toppling Katie from last year.

The figures contradicted dire warnings earlier this year that Irish women were delaying having children because of the recession.

The numbers were roughly equal with 38,593 boys and 36,472 girls.

Four of the top boys' names; Jack, Sean, Conor, and James, have been on the list since 1998 while Daniel is a relative upstart having only been on the list since 2007.

There is rather more variety in the girls' list with Emily and Ava debuting in the top 100 joining Emma and Sarah who have been there since 1998 and Katie who's been on the list since 2003.

Hugh came back in to the top 100 after dropping off in 2006 and Odhran and Lorcan returned after dropping off in 2005.

The highest new entry was Jakub which rose from 649th place in 2003 to 63.