This list of Irish-language given names shows
Irish language
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...
given names, their
anglicisations and/or
English language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
equivalents.
Not all Irish
given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...
s have English equivalents, though most names have an anglicised form. Some Irish names have
false cognates, i.e. names that look similar but are not etymologically related, e.g. is commonly accepted as the Irish equivalent of the etymologically unrelated names
Anna and
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...
. During the "
Irish revival", some Irish names which had fallen out of use were revived. Some names are recent creations, such as the now-common female names "freedom" and "vision, dream".
Some English-language names are anglicisations of Irish names, e.g.
Kathleen from and
Shaun Shaun is an Anglicized spelling of the Irish name Seán. Alternative spellings include Shawn, Sean, and Shawne.
Along with spelling variants Shawn and Shaun, the name was among the top 1,000 names for American boys by 1950 and, with all spelli ...
from . Some Irish-language names derive from English names, e.g. from
Edmund
Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector".
Persons named Edmund include:
People Kings and nobles
*Ed ...
. Some Irish-language names have English equivalents, both deriving from a common source, e.g. Irish (anglicised ''Maura''), ( + - "a diminutive suffix"; anglicised ''Maureen'') and English ''
Mary'' all derive from , which ultimately derives from ().
There are more historical Irish given names than can be found on this list, e.g. rare
Middle or
Old Irish
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...
names from the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, but it would be impractical to list them all since there is practically an infinite amount of possible names and variants.
Native
Native feminine names
Native masculine names
Foreign origin
Feminine names of foreign origin
Masculine names of foreign origin
See also
*
Irish name
A formal Irish name consists of a given name and a surname. In the Irish language, most surnames are patronymic surnames (distinct from patronyms, which are seen in Icelandic names for example). The form of a surname varies according to whethe ...
*
List of Scottish Gaelic given names
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
Scottish Gaelic name
References
Footnotes
:Note: at the time of accessing, the ''Encyclopedia.com'' references cited
Hanks; Hodges 2006.
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Irish-Language Given Names
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Lists of names
Celtic language-related lists