While names like Erin, Colleen and Shannon are often thought of as Irish names, they are rarely encountered in Ireland and are not traditional names. They became popular instead in places to which Irish people emigrated, particularly the USA, probably out of nostalgia for the ‘home country’.
The names listed on these pages are mainly of Irish origin, some of them very old and dating back to pre-Christian Celtic times. Others are commonly encountered Irish versions of well known English names. Some are in common use still, although there has been a definite trend towards ‘International’ names in Ireland and a move away from the old ones.
Where meanings are known they are given, but the reality is that many names have been in use for centuries and, in spite of what you may read on other sites, have no clear meaning or definite origin.
Story of a Name: Aoife
The Children of Lir
In Irish legend Aoife was the second wife of King Lir, and was so jealous of his love for the four children of his first marriage (to her sister) that she lured them to a lakeside and turned them into swans.
She placed a curse on them that forced them to spend 300 years at that lake followed by 300 years on a river opening to a stormy sea and 300 years at a frozen lake in the North.
After 900 years, returned to human form, they realised with great sadness that all their beloved father and all their family were long dead.
Except Aoife that is – as punishment for her evil deed she had been turned into a crow, doomed to roam the world in that form eternally.
Irish Girl Names: Afric – Colleen
Afric
Say: Africk
Though it sounds like it should mean Africa, it doesn’t. It has been recorded as an Irish name as far back as the 11th Century and is still quite popular to-day.
Aibreann
April, Avril | Say: av-rawn
Aibreann is the Irish word for the month April.
Aideen
Say: ay-deen
This is a variation of Etain. It is also sometimes used for girls whose fathers are called Aidan – the -een ending is a diminutive. Aidan comes from the old Irish aed which means ‘fire’ with the -een meaning small, so ‘little fire’
Ailbe
Alva | Say: al-vah
From a translation into Irish of the Latin Alba meaning ‘white’.
Aileen
Say: ay-leen
From the old Irish ‘ail’ meaning ‘noble.’. The -een is a diminutive, so little noble one. It is a variation of Eileen.
Ailis Eilis
Alice, Elizabeth | Say: ay-lish
Irish version of both Alice and Elizabeth
Aine
Anya Anne | Say: awn-ya
Two origins: 1. An old Gaelic name meaning ‘radiance’ or ‘joy’. 2. Also used as the Irish equivalent of Anne.
Aisling / Aislinn
Say: ash-ling
In Irish means ‘a vision or dream’.
Alannah
Alana | Say: ah-lan-ah
From ‘leanbh’ the Irish word for child, this is an affectionate usage of ‘child’, often translated as ‘darling child’.
Alma
An early Irish name, used for both boys and girls, meaning ‘all good’.
Aoibheann
Eavan | Say: eve-een
Aoibhinn means ‘lovely’, the name is also sometime a diminutive of Eve – ‘little Eve’.
Aoife
Eve | Say: ee-fa
A very old Irish name meaning ‘beautiful or radiant’. May be related to the English name Eve.
Aurnia
Orla | Say: our-nia
A variation of Orla, meaning ‘Golden Lady’. The 12th century Irish chieftain Donal Óg MacCarthy had a daughter of this name.
Banba
An old name used for Ireland. I have never heard it used as a girls name in Ireland, but it has been suggested as one.
Betha
Say: bay-thah
From the Irish word for ‘life’.
Bláthnaid, Blánaid, Bláthnat
Say: blaw-nid blaw-nat
Blath means ‘flower’, the name is generally understood to mean ‘little flower’. In Irish legend she was rescued by the hero Cuchulainn from an unhappy marriage but later killed by her husbands servant.
Briana, Brianna
Say: bree-a-nah
The female version of Brian meaning ‘hill’ though often said to be indicative of ‘noble or virtuous’.
Brigid, Bridget
Brigit | Say: bridge-id
The name comes from the Irish ‘brigh’ meaning ‘powerful’ or ‘high one’. While mostly associated with St Brigid, it is actually a much older Celtic name. In fact St Brigid predates Christianity too, and was the most important goddess of Celtic times. The stories told of saint and goddess are so intermingled as to be impossible to separate. Could it be they are one and the same?
Bronagh
Brona | Say: brone-ah
‘bronach ‘ means ‘sad or sorrowful’ in Irish. Maudlin name to give a child one would think!
Caitlín
Kathleen | Say: kate-lyn
One of several variants of Kathleen/Katherine
Cait
Say: cawtch
Another variant of Katherine.
Caoilfhoinn
Keelin | Say: key-lin
From the Irish words for ‘slender’ and ‘fair’. Quite a few Irish saints had this name.
Caoimhe
Keva | Say: qwee-vuh or key-vuh
From the Irish word ‘caomh’ which can variously mean ‘gentle, beautiful or graceful’.
Cara
Kara | Say: car-ah
In Irish ‘cara’ means ‘friend.’ – Do Chara means Your Friend and thus the name of this site!
Cathleen
Kathleen | Say: kath-leen
Irish variant of Katherine or Kathleen. Note that in Irish there is no letter K, so it will always be spelt with a C.
Catriona
Katherine | Say: cat-rio-nah
Another Irish variant for Katherine.
Ciara
Keera | Say: keyrah
Feminised version of Ciaran, meaning ‘dark’.
Cliona Clíodhna
Say: klee-un-ah
From the Irish clodhna meaning ‘shapely.’ In Celtic myth Clíodhna was an Irish Goddess who fell in love with Caibhan (Kevin) a mortal.
Clodagh
Say: klo-dah
Thought to be related to the name of a river in Tipperary (The Clody). Many Irish rivers were named after Celtic Gods and Goddesses, but if there was a Goddess known as Clodagh nothing is known of her.
Colleen
Say: kolleen
A phonetic pronunciation of the Irish word ‘cailín’, meaning girl. Rarely used as a name in Ireland, but popular in Irish communities in the USA and elsewhere.
79 Comments
Hey this site can’t list all of the Irish girl names from a-c so unless you want to take the time to do it then stop saying this site is bad
also A-C not the full alphabet
My name is Bridgette, yes, but never considered myself high up, quite the opposite,s by and modest
Why am I reading all these comments in my head with an Irish accent?
Legend lol best comment
My name is Alana, and I knew it was an Irish name, however other sites I had seen it on said it meant rock. Im glad to see it means something better.
I read that it meant “rock” too. In Irish it is more a term of endearment than a name (though used as a name now). My grandmother and particularly my great grandmother would call us a leanbh (Alana) or a chuisle mo chroí (a chusla ma Cree – meaning my heart beat). I think that the “rock” interpretation is people assuming that is as a female form of Alan.
What about Siobhan?
It means god is gracious and is a derivative of joan.
Catherine is a Irish name and it isn’t on their!! This site is stupid!!!!!!
Katherine is my name, a variant of Catherine. It is not an Irish name. It’s probably originally Greek, but is pretty international in various forms and if anything would be more considered a French name today.
Yes you’re right with this one name missing the entire site is stupid. Grow up!!!!
Just because a name that maybe a lot of Irish people have, doesn’t mean it’s Irish. I have an Irish friends with the name “Clarette” I don’t think that that name is Irish but she is still irish
Maybe it didn’t originate from Ireland though, pizza is specialized in Italy but I wasn’t made in italy
You cannot possibly expect every single name to be on there….
This site is not stupid because it didn’t include one name.
Cathrine isn’t an Irish name. It’s not THERE because Caitriona is the Irish version for Catherine. Get more informed!
It is on here but they have a different spelling for it.
this site is BAD!!!! my name is Claire which is Irish and it was not on there.
There are lots of Claires in Ireland but it’s not an Irish name. I believe it’s French, but not certain of that.
Claire is a French name.
Lots of great minds here! I’d like to ask a question.
I like the name Bray for a girl. My mother was born there. However, in America it’s more commonly referred to what horses or donkeys do. ( The wife sees this as a problem). Is there another way to spell it. I assume the letter “y” is not in the Irish alphabet, so there must be another phonetic spelling since it is a town in Ireland, yes?
Thank you all in advance.
The irish translation is Bre (fada over e) meaning hill
I would spell it “Brae.”
Bree is a pretty name. Brigitte?
Wow..can you say vain…lol
P.S I think people would prefer Anne. It’s a nice name!
What of Brosna. My girl has a schoolfriend/neighbour of the name. They’re no tourists; we’re all straight from the bogs. Is it an Irish name or not? I’d always imagined it was a geoname; pulled off the R Brosna.
Where’s Anne on this list? 🙂
I am American with Irish heritage. Can anyone tell me if the Irish prefer Ann or Anne?
I was in Ireland recently and some people there pronounced my name with long A – ie, Ahhn. I loved it!
Annie is a popular girls name in Ireland, so is Àine. I am not a hundred percent sure if they are traditional, I think Àine is. Anne is more of an English name, so is Ann and Anna. Yes, that is the way people pronounce Anne in Ireland! 🙂
Im and Irish Anne, and while its a traditional name its not an Irish name, Áine is the Irish version of it.
And when I was in New York on a working visa for a summer in 2001, my workmates used to think it was hillarious the way I pronounced my name, as they all would say “eyhnnee” phonetically, to my “Ahhnne”
lol
Nice list of names! And…Aifric is the first hehehe!…..we win! 😛
TY for such neat info and ideas! We’re trying to come up with names for Our 4th Irish Baby. Per my insisting! Lol My Maiden name’s O’Malley.. Dad Irish but lots of German. I want to rename HIM right now with all the morning sickness! LOL
My name is Roisin and my daughters name is Aoibheann, I’m from Tipperary so we stay AY veen. The husband is American and we live here now so I wanted a good traditional name. People outside Ireland have a hard time with the spellings, but oh well! People these days struggle with spelling Mary for heavens sake. And this list a good compilation I think. No one in Ireland would name a girl Girl (er, i mean Colleen), and Kelsey is “Irish” in the same way that Notre Dame fans are ” Irish”.
Origin of the name Kelsey:
Derived from the obsolete Old English name Cēolsige, a compounding of the elements cēol (a ship) and sige (victory).
There are many girls in Ireland called Colleen!!
My great uncle’s wife is called colleen, born and raised in Ireland by Irish parents so that is nonesense.
My name is tierna it’s an old Irish name not there for some reson ????
my son is Tiarnán, Tiarna means Lord so I presume Tierna is the same just spelt differently cos you can spell Tiarnán Tiernan.
Is “Patrick” an Irish last name?
Alot of fadas are missing on these names the letter k is not in the Irish alphabet as is v, w, x, y, z and j so any name begging with those letter are not Irish however the may have Irish derivatives
If you need more here is a list of Old English names
Firstly I live on the border in Ireland so I teach in northern Ireland but live in the republic of Ireland and what I’ve found is that the names Shannon, Saoirse and Caitlin are extremely popular kids names. In Northern Ireland they most often pronounce Caitlin as ‘Kate-lyn’, which is incorrect. In republic of ireland, where I have lived all my life I have never met a Shannon, Saoirse (meaning free….hense why lots of northern irish people choose the name in my opinion). There are lots of Caitlins but they are pronounced ‘catch-lyn’ here in ROI. Also Colleen is not an Irish name, nor is any name with a ‘K’ as it’s not in the Irish alphabet!
Another thing to note when choosing an Irish name is that different regions of ireland pronounce names differently. For example in Munster they say ‘Row-sheen’ for Roisin but in Ulster they say ‘Raw-sheen’. Niamh is ‘Knee-yav’ in Munster but in Ulster it’s ‘Kneev’.
Lastly, the reason I came on this site is to try and find my name. I have never been able to find information on my Irish name ‘Cróna’, which is a saints name as in Co. Donegal there is lots of places called St.Crónas chapel etc. But I’ve only ever met one Cróna but lots of Bronaghs! I’d love if anyone had information about it?
Colleen is an Irish name, your wrong on that one
In Ulster they say Row-sheen, I grew up with a Rosein
My name is colleen. Why do americans use this name as an irish girl name if its not even used in ireland?
Americans use the name colleen because they like it I suppose.
In Irish it is Cailín which is pronounced colleen and means “girl”.
The fada over the i lengthen the vowel so it is pronounced ee.
No Irish-speaking person would name their daughter Cailín or Colleen.
Many Americans think that Megan / Meaghan/ Meagan
is an Irish name, but it is from Wales and would be Máiréad in Irish
or Margaret in English.
I’m from Ireland and I am an Irish speaker coming from an Irish speaking family. I know several people called Colleen, including my own sister, and whilst it may not be overly common, contrary to the other posts, there are many people in Ireland called Colleen
was wondering the same thing!!
Because people are wrong when they say it’s not an Irish name.. it is though the spelling is anglocized.
It just means girl. Very few Irish people use it but Americans have heard the expression Irish Colleen and think it’s a name. The Irish word is spelled Cailin. There is a dad’s on the last I but I don’t know how to get them on the phone.
Are we really surprised that Americans lack some knowledge of a culture/country the cultures of ot
Hi my name is Aifric,
Other varients of the spelling include Afric(which is mentioned) and Afraic..The actual meaning behind the name is “pleasant”. And can be traced back to scitland, the isle of man and ireland (mainly Galway). Just sharing what Ive learnt. So contrary to what most people think, it has nothing to do with the continent.
The River Clody flows through Bunclody in Co. Wexford
nice list of names…
I think some of the info on this site is wrong.
Although originally a boys name, Shannon is an extremely common girls name in Ireland.
“Ashling” is spelt Aisling in Irish, and that means a dream or a vision, especially a dream where a homesick person dreams of a woman (who can be either old and ugly or young and beautiful). The woman is supposed to be Ireland personified. “Ashling” is an English variant.
Caitlin is pronounced like caught-lin, at least in the places of ireland i know.
That’s all i can actually be bothered to correct, so forgive me. The Aisling one kind of annoyed me, for good reasons. 🙂 Same with the Shannon. I know waaay to may people with the name Shannon.
Other Irish girls names you might like:
Roisin = little rose (row-sheen)/(rosh-een)
Grainne = most well known as a woman in an irish legend (graw-nya)
Sadbh = good/also a goddess in irish legends (sigh-ve)
Niamh = most well known as a beautiful fairy queen in the legend Oisin i dTir na nOg (Oisin in the Land of the Young) (knee-ve)/(knee-uh-ve)
Fiona/Fionnula = fair-haired, like the boy’s name Fionn/Fionnula was also a child of Lir. (Fee=oh-na)/(Finn-ew-la)
These are just some of some very common but old irish names. If you really want nice names, check out irish legends, they’re full of beautiful names with nice meanings and they are definitely irish.
What bothers me is nobody is putting in the fáda which completely changes the pronounciation and meaning of some names. To put in the fáda press Alt Gr and the letter you wish to put the fáda on. You need to also press the shift up arrow as well if its a capital.
Thank you I had I once had a person say to me I got the spelling of my daughters name wrong I spell it Aisling a girl in my class also spelt it that way with a fatha over the A
The name Kelsey is actually derived from Cenél, meaning brave. Therefore, the name Kelsey has Irish roots, if not directly being Irish.
Kelsey’s an English name. It’s derived from an English given name Ceolsige, which meant “ship’s victory”. It could be an Old English place name meaning “Cenel’s island.” “Cenel’s Island” is a combination of the Old English word “cenel”, meaning “fierce”, and “eg”, meaning island.
Clodagh is named after the river clodagh in tipperary not the clody as far as i know there is no such river.
Also Kelsey isnt an irish name.
Sorry, but Ciara is not the feminised version of Ciaran.
Aoibhinn is my name and I just love it. Kelsey is a place in Scotland not usually a name but a nice one all the same.
La Gra
Kelsey: perhaps the choice of name by your parents was inspired by “Kells” (literally from “cill” – church – a popular place-name component in Ireland – Kilkenny, Kells – and also the name of the famous manuscript) or “Celts”? Sort of like an adjectival form.
Also: I understand Kelsey is often related to “Casey” (much as many Gaelic names in common practice are anglicised to others in Ireland, even if they are not strictly identical – e.g. Denis and Donnchadh – and vice versa; this has been done for centuries, for simple convenience, phonetic similarity etc.); and Casey is of definite gaelic origin.
Kilkenny and other names come from the Irish word for forest, “coill”. Not church. Ireland was one of the most forested regions in Europe until the trees were chopped down. Please don’t spread your “knowledge” unless you know what you’re talking about please. It’s misleading.
My name is Adine im from dubin, Ireland. I dont know anyone else who spells there name in this way. It is another form or at least is pronounced the same as Aideen which is the common english spelling of the name. The irish spelling is Eadaoine.
Kelsey is definetly not an irish name!! :o) sorry to disapoint you
Thank you so much for the list. I am in the prosses of writing a book that has 200 year old Irish names. I was able to find the right one for the main caracter. Aoife. Thanks again.
I like this list, there are alot more traditional names out there but you’ve collected a nit bunch (especially Bronagh, I’m the only person I know that has this name) Good job.
btw… i love your name 🙂 !!!
Kelsey is not an Irish name; there is no “K” in the Irish language…
I am the only person I know with my name!
It means Lovely!!
My brothers have just agreed that all web pages lie… aren’t they sweet.
Yeah well Cillian means victorious champion!!
And Tierney means lord of the household!!
So there!!
(Kelsey is not an Irish name..)
Kelsey isn’t an irish name!!!
It’s a good list, no one could make an exhaustive list ffs.
My name is Keelyn and my name is also spelled keelin. In irish it is Caolifhoinn. It means fair and slender! Whoot which is just what i am!
that’s all a lie that’s not all the names my name is irish and there are others why can no one on these site’s get facts staright?
Kelsey is NOT an Irish name!!!
Yes defintiely not an Irish name, there is no ‘K’ in the Irish alphabet!
Kelsey isn’t an Irish name.
Your names not irish.. more like an american name.. Please don’t give out. Think of all the effort and hard work put into making this website. Great work who ever did . I respect you
Yeah not an Irish name so before you start giving out think you’re the one who needs to get your facts straight! It’s actually from an Old English name
Why is my name not there and my sisters is
My Name Means GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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