By Glennys Savage-Moore

Irish baby names, with their Gaelic spelling, are getting very popular.

Like others who immigrated to North America, the Irish gave their babies Americanized names. That way, their children blended into their new society and didn’t stand out among their peers.

But the third and fourth generation started to take interest in their Irish roots and chose Irish words to name their children. Even though some of those names (like Colleen, meaning “girl” in Irish) are not used as names in Ireland, folks of Irish descent honored their heritage by using Irish words

And today? Well, not only are Irish names becoming more common, but the Gaelic spelling of names is too. Spellings like Moira (Mary) and Aoife (Eva, pronounced “EE+fa”) for girls and Eoin (OH+n) for boys are more and more popular.

Why? A lot of people just like the sounds of Irish names or they want their child to have a name that isn’t too common, but just a bit different.

You have to remember though — if you name your child “Eva” and spell it “Aoife”, they’ll forever spell their name for other people, every day of their life! So, you’ll have to decide just how unique your child’s name should be.

A good website for pronunciation is Baby Names of Ireland. It’s great to know how to pronounce these names! They have hundreds of baby names, Gaelic spellings, and pronunciations — for us Irish-challenged folks.

Come to Perfect Baby Names for the top 25 most popular baby names in Ireland in 2003.

About the Author:
Glennys Savage-Moore is a Canadian writer who focuses on articles about babies, health, and needlework. She is the webmaster of Perfect Baby Names and publishes a monthly ezine called “Baby News” with up-to-date baby news, baby fun and learning, and links to resources about choosing baby names.

Tags: baby names, common names, gaelic, irish, irish names, popular names, roots, traditional
Posted in: Baby Names