![\"Lily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/6AKWYKPNMRBILHIFEVYI6VNTVA.JPG\")
Lily holding The Summer of Lily and Esme. Photograph: Fiona Ellis <\/p>\nIn case you missed it, Lily is the number one baby name in Ireland. The name topped the CSO list in 2025 for the first time since they began tracking monikers in 1964.<\/p>\n
Lily first started to gain popularity in 1997 when 15 tots were given the name, and it has been steadily climbing up the ranks since then. Last year, more than 300 babies were named Lily.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s most popular in Cork, Wicklow, Meath, Kildare, south Dublin and Dublin city \u2013 and I didn\u2019t need official stats to tell me that. There are more Lilys in Dublin than you can shake a stick at.<\/p>\n
The 15 OG Lilys who debuted in the late 1990s are about 28 years old now, but the majority I see are aged between five and nine with, as now we know, plenty more coming up the ranks.<\/p>\n
School is chock-full of them; we hear \u201cLily!\u201d shouted across aisles in supermarkets; tiny strangers\u2019 heads pop up when we call out Lily in the playground.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t have a play centre birthday party without surnames needed to distinguish one child from another.<\/p>\n
As a toddler Lily found the L in her name a tongue twister, so she called herself Ninny \u2013 the nickname still sticks \u2013 while her little sister settled on La La, another variant we use. Sometimes in a world full of Lilys it is only her pet names that stand out.<\/p>\n
But despite the popularity of the name and the bustling bouquet of little girls called Lil cruising the capital, I came across the name that would one day be hers in the pages of one of my favourite books, published all the way back in 1991.<\/p>\n
When I was a kid, I was a voracious reader. I couldn\u2019t put a book down. I read so fast my parents used to quiz me about a book to believe I had read it in full, instead of just skimming it.<\/p>\n
Lily holding The Summer of Lily and Esme. Photograph: Fiona Ellis <\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t get books as presents much; they\u2019d barely last a couple of hours. In school I was given The Secret Garden to read instead of Ann and Barry. I remember doing one of those \u201cadvanced\u201d tests as a girl to see if I was gifted. I wasn\u2019t. I just liked reading and could read fast.<\/p>\n
And I would read literally anything. One of my favourite tomes was The Worst Journey in the World, a 1922 memoir by Apsley Cherry-Garrard about Robert Falcon Scott\u2019s doomed expedition to the South Pole in the early 1900s. It was a Penguin copy that consisted of at least two volumes. Another was Anne of Green Gables.<\/p>\n
There was no rhyme or reason to what I would read. They were a gateway to another world: sometimes I\u2019d look up with a start that instead of being in Narnia, or the South Pole, or spending summer term in Malory Towers, I was lying on my bed with my nose in a book. <\/p>\n
One of the books that stood out to me most was Irish author John Quinn\u2019s The Summer of Lily & Esme. It tells the story of two elderly sisters who think they are little girls, and, with the help of a boy who moves next door, solve a mystery.<\/p>\n
It is bittersweet, and sad and funny, and I loved it. And I loved the names Lily and Esme. The name Esme stuck out for me first (also gaining popularity \u2013 35 baby girls were recorded with the name Esme last year), but I tucked both names away and when my daughter arrived decades after I read the book and hoarded the names, she suited the floral tribute more.<\/p>\n
It might have gone on in my memory as a favourite book and pretty name for my firstborn if my sister-in-law Kelly hadn\u2019t contacted John Quinn ahead of Lily\u2019s first birthday.<\/p>\n
![\"Letter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/XRLWGO64SBG6TMX2DL53HZOUCA.jpg\")
Letter from John Quinn to Lily on her first birthday. Photograph: Fiona Ellis <\/p>\n
His reply became family lore and instilled a sense of pride in Lily about the origin of her name \u2013 and is inspiring a budding love for reading that Quinn, who died this year, would surely be proud of.<\/p>\n
He and I share the same love for reading and its transformative powers and it was clear he was touched to learn of his character inspiring a name. As a birthday gift he sent Lily a copy of the book, signed, and a note that she is just now old enough to read.<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Lily, I really hope you enjoy The Summer of Lily & Esme. I wrote it a long time ago, in 1991, and it won the Children\u2019s Book of the Year in 1992. I am proud to say it has never been out of print since then, and many people, including your Mum and your Auntie Kelly, have enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cA book is a very special friend that can take you to many places and introduce you to many people. You can forget where you are and go on many adventures. A book is like a magic carpet, really. So I hope you will have many books in your life and that your life will be all the richer for them. Be happy and enjoy your life.\u201d<\/p>\n