Cool Irish Names for Babies

Cool Irish Names for Babies
Linda Rosenkrantz

Pamela Redmond Satran

A must-have guide for parents-to-be everywhere. Whether you’re Irish, of Irish heritage or you simply love Celtic-inspired names, this book is packed full of the most popular, unusual and creative names around.By the best-selling authors of Cool Names for Babies and Brilliant Book of Baby Names, this collection takes you beyond the straightforward listings of other books and gives opinion on what’s hot and what’s not in the world of Irish baby names.The information given really helps parents to make the right choices and includes loads of original features – pronunciation guides; which names are going up and which down in popularity; which are unisex, which are good as middle but not first names; and which should really be avoided at all costs.Packed full of creative lists such as Names that are Classic But Not Boring, Place Names, Names from Literature, Spiritual Names and Names of Irish Heroes and Heroines this is every new parent’s one-stop guide to selecting the coolest Irish name for their baby.

Cool Irish Names for Babies

Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u791da054-1a89-597b-9d9a-740cbb1cabf6)

Title Page (#u0cf0dd44-b695-580b-995d-70443a8ddbc9)

Introduction (#uaca33f04-6fd0-5243-a087-be9d5e7fb347)

I. POP COOL… (#ub90d6295-9da2-5616-adcd-784899827cdc)

Aoife (#ua7088548-8a40-5deb-acae-2705e9e4e799)

Senan (#uaed9001e-62dc-579d-b0ea-dbbd6ecdcb90)

Brady (#ue4706ffb-7551-50a2-8ee8-b7f1f00889cc)

Ruairí (#u354f366a-0bee-597e-99d1-3f0f696da2d5)

Darragh (#u956d2acf-41bc-5626-bbfe-2d864816cefc)

Isla (#u8c67a0a6-b281-5064-a889-1b699defc03c)

Cadence (#uc0ae4388-35b5-5b5f-92f0-7710c63c2060)

II. COOL COOL (#u0a61c66a-db46-5956-9431-66d335a47e69)

Cillian (#udb2b5bb2-7973-5db6-86fd-42b3ac26da89)

Rafferty (#u5d2b59cb-a59a-509e-ae3c-a85f7650f56e)

Artemis (#u1436c227-3042-54d6-b838-dc4865a3040f)

Xenia (#u01ccfaad-00ae-5ec0-8e95-86b5979ee7fe)

Juno (#u5989f790-3331-5a0d-87fe-5379dbd03ffa)

Sholeh (#uab7cdbcd-266b-5246-8d3f-c375c5478351)

Orinthia (#uca937bea-aec9-51a6-83df-59c8c14df05c)

Oisín (#u8caa74dd-1e2b-5585-abef-e8b66ab610f9)

III. PRE-COOL COOL… (#ucc62a7bb-239c-5782-b9f4-139453b2de8f)

Emer (#ubd3d838a-ae6f-5d80-b67c-138ed7639ef6)

Africa (#u3d2c39f6-16ea-58f6-8ad9-236e2e2112fe)

Tallula (#u7a439df9-9064-5c69-8a07-b6ca095ced6c)

Lugh (#ud15baa19-76b2-5b4e-86aa-7f7768c3efe1)

O’Duffy (#ucae3318c-17f0-5776-8bd9-482f2a7a8118)

IV. NEW COOL (#ue325e734-8677-53cd-95fc-e979445945dd)

Donegal (#uc22d1e33-af29-5259-93f7-c3ac8af04e4a)

Lennon (#u2ffbfac4-f7df-5fbf-b956-c94741a986c1)

Breege (#ub9dd8a99-d133-5b64-b347-f1edbc88fb71)

Carraig (#u51d77d27-c5c7-5cc0-b869-105203090374)

Laoise (#uf929ef6a-628a-5246-a933-bd9a51041fe3)

Addisyn (#u05dba5b0-ab66-5850-a806-fa8bbb8b8d00)

Pronunciation Guide for Irish Names (#uf837455f-c750-5c24-ab64-1b5a142f265c)

Index (#u928143f7-b773-536e-8dd6-65b1bb109e11)

About the Authors (#u0c769f64-c4bf-5f60-a93d-0d16a9f5943a)

Copyright (#u441f28a2-aa13-5c43-8e90-66a46a2f5dce)

About the Publisher (#u37149961-ddd5-5556-9103-c5eb1c19c4a1)

Introduction (#ulink_abe70728-3e83-5bdd-b562-59ddd0dc1148)

What does cool mean when it comes to names for Irish babies? Something very different than it means for other kinds of baby names.

Our first edition of Cool Names for Babies was aimed at the American market, where cool names are often invented, drawn from a range of ethnic backgrounds, borrowed from places or surnames or things. In the USA, when it comes to baby names, anything from Heaven to Harlow to Harmony goes.

The British are more conservative, so when we devised the UK edition of Cool Names, we focused on the revival of such old-fashioned names as Edith and Arthur, on trendy short forms such as Dixie and Alfie, on royal names such as Leonie and Ludovic.

And then we came to the Irish. Irish baby-naming is a culture in itself, full of gorgeous and often obscure ancient names whose original bearers were kings and queens, mythological heroes and heroines, saints and fairies. During the centuries of British rule, these native Irish names were suppressed, with anglicised forms—Grace for Gráinne, Eugene for Eoghan—taking their place.

But after Irish independence, a priest named Patrick Woulfe started a campaign to restore the use of original Irish names. His 1923 book, Irish Names for Children, launched a national revolution in the way children were named. Ancient names were rediscovered, original forms were revived and a naming culture was restored to its original glory.

Today, such Irish names as Aoife and Conor and Niamh, Cian and Caoimhe and Cillian, Oisín and Róisín, Darragh and Aisling and Saoirse are at the top of the popularity charts. They share the spotlight with non-Irish names popular throughout the English-speaking world: Emma, Sophie and Ava for girls, Jack, Daniel and Luke for boys.

Which brings us back to the issue of cool.

Cool, when we’re talking about Irish names, most often means traditional. In many ways what’s old in Irish names is what’s new. The coolest names these days are the most deeply rooted ones, spelt the original way. Names scrambling the fastest up the popularity ladder, for instance, include Fionn and Ruairí and Aoibhe (in tandem with Finn and Rory and Eve).

And if distinctive, undiscovered names often count for cool in the rest of the world, they do in Ireland as well, where the rosters are full of such treasures. You’ll find them all in these pages, along with details about why their original bearers were so inspirational. Irish literature and theatre also offer a trove of stylish names with inspiring associations, along with lots of other sources, both expected and surprising.

Here are some basic rules to keep in mind when searching for a cool name for your baby:

Cool Means Unusual

In general, the more unusual a name, the cooler it is. With once-uncommon names such as Aoife, Luke and Ella now competing for the top spots, you have to move further and further from the mainstream to find a name that’s truly distinctive. While fashionable Irish names such as Aisling and Cian may still be wonderful choices (and perhaps ultimately the right ones for you), you can’t really call them cool. And trendy names ranging from Shane to Sophie, Chloe to Conor are simply too widely used to meet the prerequisites of cool.

Cool is Diverse

This is a trickier concept when it comes to names for Irish babies than it is for, say, American or British children, since the coolest names in Ireland are often the least diverse, the most ethnocentrically Irish. Still, Irish names don’t have a monopoly on cool, and some Irish parents may wish to search farther afield for fresh choices. But you don’t have to go too far: names from other Celtic cultures—Scottish and Welsh and Cornish and Breton—might provide the individuality you crave without sacrificing too much tradition. And if your tastes run more towards the pan-cultural Emma and Edward end of the spectrum, we’ve also included here names that are considered cool throughout the rest of an ever-shrinking Europe and across the Atlantic in the USA.

Cool Goes Beyond Convention