Colorful Irish Names and Their Meanings

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Colorful Irish Names
and Their Meanings

Irish names are perfect for a baby girl or boy. They're even good to use for your dog or other pets. Irish last names have a rich and colorful history. You can use these names to proudly proclaim your heritage. If you're not Irish then you can use them just because they sound cool. I mean who wouldn't want a Wolfhound named Ryan or an Irish Terrier called Duffy.

It's too late for me to use Irish names for my kids. They were born before I became interested in family history or genealogy. Oh, to be young and foolish again. Now I'm older and I hope wiser. I'm really into our family history. Other members of my family have carried on with our ethnic traditions. I have a nephew named Sean, a niece named Kathleen. One of my brothers and his daughter share the middle name of Kerrigan. Delia Kerrigan was my great grandmother. She came to the U. S. in 1896 originally from Athlone, Ireland.

If you want to get a feel for life in 1884 Ireland read this chapter from the book "Whispers on the Wind". It takes you back to a time and place when a family makes the final decision to leave their beloved Ireland and take their chances at a new life in America. I highly recommend this read. It helped me to imagine what life may have been like for my great grandmother.

My own name Michael derived from Hebrew meaning, 'who is like God' is a common name in Ireland. Mick is a common pet form of the name Michael. Mick is also a slang word that has come to mean Irishman. In the British Army the Irish Guards are referred to as "The Micks".

What you'll find here

On this site I'll list the top 25 Irish baby girl names for 2005. I also list the top 25 Irish boys names for 2005. I list the meanings for all 50 names. If you want the top 100 baby names for 2008 then check out this PDF from the Central Statistics Office in Ireland. It is a good list of current names used over there. (Turn off pop-up blocker for the PDF link.)

You can find Gaelic Irish girl names and Gaelic Irish boy names with meanings and pronunciations here also.

There are over 3500 Irish last names. This web site will only list some of the most common. The only exception being some of my ancestors last names which aren't so common.

Also I will come up with some cool Irish dog names. Like I've said before, these names can be used for any pet. I'm just partial to dogs. What can I say.

The dog name section is a good place to find Gaelic baby names too.

I hope these pages will help with your search for some good Irish names. Whether you're carrying on a tradition, researching your last name, naming a new member of the family or just naming a pet. I hope this page starts you off in the right direction.

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