Luke and Elena were the most popular names given to babies born last year, official figures have shown.

More babies were born as compared to 2013 – a total of 4,277, of which 53 per cent were boys.

At least four per cent of boys were named Luke or one of its variants followed by Matthew and Jacob in second and third place.

Names such as Liam, Benjamin, Joseph, Jack, Nathan, Thomas, Julian, Noah, James and Samuel became more popular while John, Kaiden, Alexander, Andrew, Nicholas, Daniel, Aiden and Jaden were less popular.

Elena, including Elenia, Helena and Ella, was the most popular name given to baby girls, followed by Julia. Emma ranked as the third most popular name given to girls.

The predominance of biblical names or those of saints was once again apparent and include names such as Luke, Matthew, Jacob, Zachary, John and Isaac for boys and Elena, Eliza, Catherine, Maria, Anna and Sarah for girls.

Some parents were also influenced by TV drama, pop culture and sports when naming their children Blake, Calvin, Craig, Denzel, Lionel, Mason and Neymar or Adele, Chanel, Chloe, Megan, Nicole, Norah, Rihanna, Scarlett and Sienna.

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