We have covered the top Irish language baby names in another post. Remember that a lot of names in use for Irish babies are not in any way “Irish”. Still, many a young person has been named in the Irish language over the years. This tradition continues quite strongly in Ireland, even though the English language is by far the most dominant language in society (see Irish language facts for more about this).
In this post we’ll provide you with a non-extensive list of traditional Irish baby names, names that you’ll find across all age groups in Ireland. What “traditional” means is always changing, of course. Every few years there are trends – new Irish baby names show up and old names make re-appearances. “Traditional” is surely subjective. DoChara has a very nice extended list of Irish baby names, but this post will hopefully give you a quick start.
Traditional Irish language male baby names
- Mícheál
- Seán
- Ciarán
- Liam
- Breandán
- Caoimhín
- Cathal
- Ruaidhrí
- Tadhg
- Tomás
- Daithí
- Darragh
- Diarmuid
- Séamus
- Domhnall/Dónal
- Eoin
- Fiachra
- Gearóid
- Fionn
Traditional Irish language female baby names
- Sorcha
- Siobhán
- Máire
- Áine
- Bríd
- Úna
- Aoife
- Niamh
- Bláthnaid
- Caitlín
- Ciara
- Deirdre
- Doireann
- Eithne
- Maebh
- Neasa
- Róisín
- Sadhbh
The “Fada” in Irish language baby names
The “fada” is the name of the accent that can be placed over an Irish vowel. It’s used to indicate the “long” or heavy pronunciation of the vowel. The fada looks like this: á, ó, ú, í, é. Of course, many traditional Irish language baby names include one (or several) fadas. If you name you child with such an accent in their name, beware that others may not consitently apply the fada to the name. For example, many Irish people leave out the fada in even such simple traditional Irish names as Seán (often seen as simple Sean). Respect the fada! There are a several ways for writing the Irish fada on a computer.