Have you ever thought of your Irish name? Many popular names have an Irish equivalent. Some of them are their family nicknames and were derived from their formal forenames. There are Irish names that are simple but there are also challenging ones. In Irish tradition, the names of your children will determine who they will become when they grow older. That is why when picking a name for your children, you have to really consider the meaning of the name before giving it to your children.
While we are in a meeting for the Irish Heritage month celebration and doing more research about this Irish tradition and see what kind of gifts are better for this celebration, the Celtic Knot team discussed everyone’s name and discussed the impact on one’s life. We had some favorite names and it is so surprising we can brainstorm based on the stories about Irish names.
During our brainstorming, we had been reminded of how the Irish culture is and our origin story of Celtic Knot and how we crafted our Irish pieces of jewelry to remind us of our Irish culture and if you spent $99 on our line, the shipping fee is on us.
So today without further ado, let’s dive into some familiar “English” names, their old Irish equivalents, and their direct translations. – let’s now have a look at some familiar “English” names – and share some old Irish equivalents. Now, note some of these names are “equivalents” as opposed to direct translations. Many of the Irish names mentioned existed before the equivalent English ones.
English Names and Irish Equivalents.
Let’s start with some girls names:
English: Jane/Janet – Equivalent Irish: Sinéad (pronounced “Shin-ade”).
English: Barbara – Equivalent Irish: Gormladh (pronounced “Gurm-la”).
English: Joan/Joanna – Equivalent Irish: Siobhán (pronounced “Shiv-awn”).
English: Margaret – Equivalent Irish: Mairéad (pronounced “Mire-ade”).
English: Elizabeth – Equivalent Irish: Sibeal (pronounced “Sybil”).
English: Grace – Equivalent Irish: Gráinne (pronounced “Grawn-ya”).
And on to the boys:
English: Charles – Equivalent Irish: Cathal (pronounced “Caw-hal”). This also gives us the surname Cahill. As you may be aware, most Irish surnames are derived from first names.
English: Terrence/Terry – Equivalent Irish: Turlough (pronounced “Tur-lock”)
English: James – Equivalent Irish: Séamus (pronounced “Shay-mus”) – often Shay for short.
English: Daniel – Equivalent Irish: Domhnall/Dónal (pronounced “Dough-nal”). This also gives us the surnames McDonnell and O’Donnell. Think of “Daniel O’Donnell”.
English: Timothy – Equivalent Irish: Tadhg (pronounced “tie-g”).
English: Dermot – Equivalent Irish: Diarmuid (pronounced “dear-mid”).
What about all the “Patricks” and “Patricias” out there? In Ireland, the actual Irish for Patrick is often used – it is “Pádraig” and pronounced “Paw-drig”. HOWEVER, in Munster especially, most Pádraigs are pronounced “Paw-rick” and often the shorter version of that is used – “Paudie” (pronounced “Paw-dy”). So, you Patricks might want to try on these alternatives for a change!
Well, that’s it on “given names” for a while. How about you – do feel free to reply below and share the Irish names in your family!
What is my Irish name?