We’ve been scrutinizing your responses to our recent survey, in particular the question that asked what you’d like to see more of on nameberry, with an eye to accommodating your suggestions.  Quite a few responders put in requests for more ethnic names— with pronunciations—and a couple took note of our blog on birth announcements in the London Times, interested in seeing similar subjects, which Pam will be updating soon.

So, since we aim to please, this time we are taking a look at announcements in the Irish Times over the past few months–the ethnic and not-so-ethnic names found there–with pronunciations when needed.

The current batch of newborn names in Ireland shows a typical mix of Anglo-Saxon classics (especially for boys), modern Irish standards , and the old Gaelic names that have been revived and become fashionable in recent years, as well as some internationally trendy choices.  Below are some of the more interesting, with pronunciations where useful–bearing  in mind that they change from region to region (and reference book to reference book).

GIRLS

Among the currently most popular girls’ names are Emily, Lucy, Isabel (and Isabelle, Isabella and Isobel), and Grace, with several appearances of Hazel and Sophia/Sofia , Rose and Ruby.  Leading middle names in this sampling appear to be Elizabeth, Grace, Rose, Louise, May and Maeve.

Here, some of the more unusual choices–including some interesting combos:

AMELIE Rose

ANNA Catriona (kat-REE-na) Monica

AOIFE (EE-fa)

ARABELLA Elizabeth

ASHLING Elizabeth

AVA Maeve

BEVIN

BRONA Rose

CAMILLE Ita

CAOIMHE (KEEV-eh) Nadine (more…)

While A, E, I and O-starting names abound, increasing  in popularity all the time, poor little step-sibling vowel U tends to get neglected. Of course there are many fewer names starting with that letter, and even fewer that would appeal to the modern baby namer, but there are definitely a few that are at least worth a look, most of them with a touch of the exotic.

GIRLS

ULLA, ULA –  Seen in several cultures, this stong name (it actually means strong-willed in Norse), is sometimes used as a pet form of Ursula or ULRICA/ULRIKA.  Most recently associated with the leggy Swedish secretary character in The Producers.

UMA –  Thanks to Ms. Thurman almost a one-person name, this throaty, exotic appellation is a name of the Hindu goddess Parvati–which surely inspired her father, a renowned expert on Eastern religion, to bestow it on her.

UMBER –  A highly unusual color name, dark and mysterious, which could be used for either gender.

UMBRIA  –  Richly evocative, shadowy Italian place name–a neighbor of Tuscany known for its wines, olive oil and truffles.  Could be a possible replacement for the rapidly becoming overused Siena/Sienna.

UNA –  An ancient Irish name, also Anglicized as Oonagh or Oona, used by Edmund Spenser for the heroine of his classic The Faerie Queene; she’s the daughter of a legendary king and the quintessence of truth and beauty (it was for her that St. George slayed the dragon). 

UNDINE  –  A German mythological water sprite, better known in its Ondine form.

UNIQUE  –  Not any more.

UNITY — One of the newly appealing, lesser used Puritan virtue names, with an admirable meaning.

URANIA –  One of the nine Greek Muses, whose special area was astronomy.  This one is not recommended, for obvious reasons.

URBANA — An unusual  possibility for a city girl.

URSULA –  Kids today will probably associate this martyred saint’s name with the campy, corpulent octopus sea witch in The Little Mermaid,  while others might tie it to  a character in Shakespeare’s Much Ado,  Ursula Brangwen  in D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow, novelist Le Guin,  60’s Bond Girl sex goddess Andress, or the character on Friends.  Novelist/style icon Plum Sykes chose it for her daughter, which puts it on trend alert. (more…)

When we were preparing the article “Bizarre Baby Names: A Growing Trend?” for the July issue of  Reader’s Digest magazine that’s just hit the stands, we put together a lonnnnnng timeline of the key markers in American name history–much longer than they could possibly use with the story.  So here we offer you some of the dates and events that you won’t find in the magazine.

1620.  The Mayflower arrives bearing 102 passengers, mostly with classic English names, but also one Degory, one Resolved, one Remember, one Wrestling, and one Oceanus, who was born mid-voyage.

1750s. Enter classical names (Homer, Horace), chivalrous names (Arthur, Elaine), and romantic girls (Lavinia, Rosalind).  More boys are being called Junior.

1768. Birth of Dolley Madison, one of the increasing number of babies with nicknames on their birth certificates.

1825. John Quincy Adams is the first President to have a middle name, a rarity at this time, when it becomes fashionable to use the mother’s maiden name.

1845. The Irish famine sends masses of Bridgets and Patricks to America.

1925. Girls’ names ending in ’s’ are fashionable–Gladys, Doris, Phyllis, Lois; also those ending in een (Kathleen) and ette (Paulette).

1946. Publication of Dr. Benjamin Spock’s The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care encourages parents to be more relaxed, confident and collaborative: husbands participate more in child care–and baby naming.

1950.  Linda unseats the seemingly unseatable Mary as the number one name for girls.

1959. First Gidget movie released; surfer dude names like Gary, Scott, Dwayne and Bruce catch the wave.

1959.  Mattel introduces the Barbie doll; other nickname names like Lori, Cindy, Sherry and Terri are hot.

1966. Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. renounces his “slave name” to become Muhammed Ali; other celebrities follow suit, influencing African-American baby naming.

1967.  Frank Zappa names his first child Moon Unit,  a seminal ’kooky’ baby name.  Son Dweezil will follow two years later.

1968. TV westerns like Here Come the Brides, featuring brothers Jason, Jeremy and Joshua, signal a return of old cowboy names.

 1974. The first issue of People magazine accelerates fascination with celebrity culture, parents start to be increasingly influenced by names stars give their babies.

1987. Movie Wall Street proclaims “Greed is good,” summing up the Go-Go 80s and inspiring Waspy surnames for boys (Carter, Parker) and androgynous exec names for all (Kyle, Blake, Blair).

1998. Parents continue to get more and more kreeatif with spellings like Adan, Austyn and Alivia all in the year’s Top 700.

2000. The Internet inspires parents to search genealogy sites for old family names.

2003. Extreme starbaby names grow more extreme–this year alone sees the arrival of Pilot Inspektor, Audio Science and Banjo.

2008. Reason returns: With economic downturn, parents look back to solid, traditional girls’ names like Ella, Grace, Olivia, and biblical boys Jacob, Ethan, Benjamin.

Celebrities on both sides of the Atlantic, those with and without Hibernian roots, have long been partial to Irish names for their babies. Here are some of the coolest:

AOIFE (EE-fa) –  Ciarán Hinds
Popular name dating back to a fierce woman warrior in early myth, it as been anglicized as Eva and Ava.

BECKETT – Malcolm MacDowell, Melissa Etheridge, Conan O’Brian, Stella McCartney
An appealing last-name name rich in literary associations, both to the play and film based on the life of Saint Thomas à B. and to the Irish playwright-novelist Samuel B., it’s red hot in Hollywood.

BRODY – Gabrielle Reece & Lance Hamilton
This superstar athlete couple’s choice reflects the new trend towards using Irish surnames like Reagan/Regan and Riley for both sexes: this little Brody is a girl.

CASHEL (Kash-il) – Daniel Day-Lewis & Rebecca Miller
The Irish actor and his American wife chose an unusual Irish place name for their son; it’s also seen as Caisel.

CIARÁN (KEER-in) – Padraig Harrington
The golf star chose an authentic Irish name to match his own.

DARBY – Patrick Dempsey
Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People made this spirited, light-hearted name seem more Irish than it actually is.

DELANEY – Martina McBride
A solid surname that’s now used far more for girls than boys.

DONOVAN – Charisma Carpenter, Noel Gallagher
Another appealing surname, this one has long outgrown its “Mellow Yellow” associations.

FINLEY – Chris O’Donnell, Holly Marie Combs, Lisa Marie Presley
One of the newly popular Fin-family of names, also spelled Finlay (as used by Sadie Frost).

FINN – Christy Turlington & Ed Burns, Jane Leeves, Andrea Catherwood
This is a name with enormous energy and charm, that of the greatest hero of Irish myth, Finn MacCool. Other related cool star-baby names: FLYNN (Elle Macpherson), and FINNIGAN (Eric McCormack of Will & Grace fame), not to mention Julia Roberts’ phabulous Phinnaeus.

FIONA – Jennie Garth
Although this name is a Scottish invention, it has an Irish feel and is commonly found among the Finolas and Fionnualas.

GULLIVER – Gary Oldman, Damian Lewis
This relatively rare Gaelic surname was known primarily through his literary Travels until actor Oldman transformed it into a lively baby-name option.

IRELAND – Kim Basinger & Alec Baldwin
If Ireland isn’t Irish, what is?

JAMES PADRAIG (PAW-drig) – Colin Farrell
Cool combination of classic New Testament name with one of the many authentic versions of the name of Ireland’s patron saint.

JUNO – Will Champion (Coldplay)
The success of the eponymous little-movie-that-could was sure to establish Juno, with its lively image and classic roots, as a potential baby name–and it’s already started on its way.

KIERAN – Julianna Margulies
Irish ‘K’ names are a hot commodity for boys–a category that includes Kieran, Keegan, Keaton and Killian.

LENNON – Patsy Kensit & Liam Gallagher
Naming a child after your cultural or other hero gives him two cool advantages: a name with real meaning and a positive image to reach towards. Another rocker, Zakk Wylde, chose Hendrix as his son’s musical hero name.

LIAM – Calista Flockhart, Tori Spelling
Sprightly and richly textured classic that started as a short form of William.

MAEVE – Chris O’Donnell
An early Irish goddess and queen name, short but strong, now catching on across the pond. The O’Donnells named another of their five children Finley.

MALACHY (MAL-a-kee)  – Cillian Murphy
An Irish version of a biblical name, with an expansive, almost boisterous image.

MILO – Ricki Lake, Camryn Manheim, Liv Tyler, Sherry Stringfield
Jaunty Irish spin on Miles.

QUINLIN – Ben Stiller
A strong surname name usually spelled Quinlan that could make a child feel distinctive while still having the easy to handle nickname of Quinn.

QUINN – Sharon Stone
“The mighty Quinn” is a unisex name that’s strong for both genders.

RAFFERTY – Sadie Frost & Jude Law
One of the coolest of the Irish surnames, with a raffish quality all its own.

ROAN – Sharon Stone
A strong, red-haired choice.

RÓISIN (Roh-sheen) – Sinéad O’Connor
An authentic selection for a little Irish rose.

RONAN – Rebecca Miller & Daniel Day-Lewis
Compelling, legendary name of ten Celtic saints.

ROWAN – Brooke Shields
This friendly Irish surname was almost unheard of as a girl’s name before Brooke Shields made the gender switch; now it shows lots of potential as a likable, unisex choice.

SAOIRSE ROISIN (SEER-sha Roh-sheen) – Courtney Kennedy
Meaning “liberty,” Saoirse has been used since the 1920s as a statement of freedom.

SHEA – Kevin James
Common surname that projects spirit and substance; can also be seen as a short form of Seamus.

SULLIVAN – Patrick Dempsey
A jaunty Irish surname name with a real twinkle in its eye, used for the twin of Darby.

TALLULAH – Patrick Dempsey, Simon LeBon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Damon Dash, Demi Moore & Bruce Willis
The then Willises almost single-handedly launched the cool starbaby name concept when they chose SCOUT and RUMER as well as the more user-friendly Tallulah for their girls. This Anglicization of Tuilelaith is now being picked up on by other celeb parents.

For more Irish celebrity baby names, plus Irish names of all flavors, check out our new book Cool Irish Names for Babies.

One of the great mysteries of baby-naming is how a name comes seemingly out of nowhere to become a fashionable, popular choice.

Finn is such a name.  When we wrote our first baby-naming book, Beyond Jennifer & Jason, 20 years ago, Finn appeared in exactly one place: As a So Far Out It’s In name, in the Irish surname category.

Finn has a lot going for it, starting with the very first inspiration for the name, the greatest hero of Irish mythology, Finn McCool.   How could a name not be cool with an ancestor like that?

But unlike other, far more complex Irish names, Finn has tremendous crossover potential.  It’s also kind of Scandinavian, sort of fishy, easy to spell and say, plus has several attractive relatives: Finnian, Finnegan, Finlay.

And it’s been chosen by such high profile couples as Ed Burns and Christy Turlington for their son, while Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn named their daughter Finley, a version also chosen by Lisa Marie Presley for one of her newborn twin girls.

Once you dissect all that, it’s easy to see that Finn’s popularity hardly came from nowhere.  And it’s a name that’s unlikely to fade away again anytime soon.

For more names from Irish mythology, check out our new book, Cool Irish Names for Babies.

AND HAVE A HAPPY ST. PATRICK‘S DAY!