Irish girls' names in England and Wales 2021

OP people have every right to question your list and the thinking behind it. You can interpret that as bitterness and an instance on a "narrow definition of Irish" (LOL) if you want but the dominant reaction here indicates that you are stretching the concept of an Irish name and applying it in highly unusual ways.

Personally, I love Irish names but how would you feel if someone produced a list of Russian or Welsh names with Aoife or Sadhbh on it because they sound a little bit like a Russian or Welsh name? Would you point out that those are clearly Irish names or would stay quiet to avoid seeming bitter and narrow minded?

A big chunk of the names in your first post are 100% not Irish.

Neither are Tara or Cara from the next list.
Teamhair, yes, and Cara if pronounced Corra. But otherwise no way.

Erin 884 Borderline
Orla 794
Maeve 654
Nora 406
Niamh 362
Alba 352 Nope
Cora 349 Nope
Connie 338 Nope
Paige 252 Nope
Maeva 226 Nope
Kiara 213 Borderline
Quinn 210 Borderline
Tallulah 194 Nope
Norah 176
Neve 172 Borderline
Anya 171 Nope
Keira 147
Peggy 125 Nope
Cara 123 Borderline
Lia 118 Nope
Kyra 110 Borderline
Margo 103 Nope

Op the issue some of us have is your very WIDE range of claiming Irish. I've just gone through 8 name websites not one of them lists Margot as Irish. French or Greek not even always as a demunative of Margaret as suggested here.

Many of us are on the name board because we have a keen interest in onomastics.

I have a dd with a Irish name (not on your list) I am interested in Irish names. I do not agree your list is Irish names only.

You can’t claim Margo/t as Old Irish, it’s very fashionable in the Uk right now as a shortform of Margaret. That’s where it’s current usage is almost always from.

Peggy is also generally a diminutive of Margaret in the Uk.

You can’t claim Anya as a version of Aine either. It might be in some cases, but generally it’s used as a variation on Anna from Eastern Europe.

Similarly Cora comes from Coral, Connie comes from Constance, Alba is Spanish, Paige is a US import from the surname, Cara is Italian, Lia is a diminutive of all sorts of names. This is not to say they can’t be used as Anglicised versions of Irish names, but in the vast majority of cases they aren’t.

Alba is not an Irish name. It is not an anglicisation of Ailbhe. Rarely, Alva is used as an anglicisation of Ailbhe but it’s more likely that if you meet an Alva they are Scandinavian / without an Irish link.

Being Danish I always struggle with Orla as a girls name as I grew up with it as a very normal boys name. When you look on wiki
Female (Irish)
Male (Danish)
Unisex (Norwegian, Finnish, German)

On A tangent I am the same w Kim to me its male not female 😄

Many names have more than one origin. In my case I would not consider. Connie Peggy Talulah and Anya of Irish origin. Even if there are Irish names simar. To me that is not the same to op it seems to be.

Interesting list. I'm with some pps in that not all would be necessarily considered Irish though, Paige as an example. (I do think we should be free to politely disagree on here, so not sure I agree with the sentiment that if we've nothing nice to say we shouldn't say anything!) I think the distortions a pp mentioned might be Kiara, Keira and Kyra listed as forms of Ciara or Neve for Niamh? Some are obvious anglicisations, but are not used in Ireland (Neve) or are infrequently used.

Some of the names are much more strongly linked to other cultures than to Ireland, though you could, I suppose, say that there's an Irish link in that the names were sometimes used as translations of Irish names (eg Kyra or Tallulah or Anya) or sounded similar to Irish words (eg Lia or Cora). I'd even possibly include Cara in this group. Though it means friend in Irish it is pronounced quite differently to the name (as corra). I think the name may be influenced more strongly by the pronunciation of cara in other languages where it is used as an endearment?

Margo is indeed an old Irish name, but again would probably have been pronounced a bit differently to the name in English (Mor-go?). I think its similarly to the form of Margaret is probably a coincidence.

Connie is interesting - it was widely used in Ireland a couple of generations ago, but mostly as a man's name, usually an abbreviation of Cornelius, which was itself used to anglicise Conchobhar. I don't know would I list it as an Irish name in the present day though.

I've never heard of Iniamh as a name, have you heard it used as such @SeanChailleach?

How is Quinn an Irish name when there's no Q in the Irish alphabet?

Interesting list. I'm from Northern Ireland and I've never heard of Connie and some of these other names being considered as Irish.

I recently came across a painting by a male Danish artist named Orla, which really surprised me since I thought that name would be 100% Irish and female.

Quoting from Wikipedia

Aanya or Anya is an Indian name that means inexhaustible, limitless and resurrection. It is of Sanskrit origin.

Aanya or Anya in Hebrew means favoured by God.

Anya (Аня) is a Russian diminutive of Anna.
Ania is the spelling in Polish, which is also a diminutive of Anna.

The spelling Anja is common in Croatian, Norwegian, Danish, German, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Slovenian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Bosnian, Serbian and Kurdish.

Anya is sometimes used as an anglicisation of the Irish name Áine

Anya is an old Kurdish name. It means "strength" or "power".
Anya is a Hungarian word for "mother".

Anya is a Nigerian Igbo name, and also word for "eye."

Anya (ⴰⵏⵢⴰ) is an Amazigh/Berber name. It means "rhythm" or "melody" in Berber languages

So there are 6 Anya is a x name. And for Irish it says its sometimes used

I really do not think you can claim Anya as Irish unless the parents specifically says they used that spelling for Aine

To me its Russian

I have 3 girls with a first and middle name each…3 of those names are on the 1st list, 2 of them I knew were of Irish origin but the 3rd I wouldn’t consider Irish 🤔 it never came up whilst I was searching anyway.

Beautiful names anyway, a really lovely list. Im not Irish so used Anglicised versions, I’d feel a fraud to use the ‘true’ spellings!

Some of those names are obviously not Irish - e.g. Margo - and others are weird distortions that no Irish person would use so I don't really see the point of the list

And Quinn is an Irish surname but wouldn’t commonly be considered an Irish first name? I’ve only ever come across it as a first name in American teen TV shows.

Lots of names in the first list are not Irish origin

This

Neve is not used in Ireland. Lots of names in the first list are not Irish origin, eg Cora

Tallulah is a Native American word popularised by the actress Tallulah Bankhead. The 'Irish' 'version' looks vaguely similar written down but that's about it. These baby name websites have a lot to answer for!

Peggy used to be short for Margaret. Margaret -Meggy- Peggy

Connie is also short for Constance

I would imagine Anya is more Eastern European/Russian inspired than Irish. I don't buy Paige as being derived from Peig and I'm dubious as to Connie's Irish origins. And Margo?

Sorry to be so disagreeable but Neve is not a very commonly used name in Ireland. Peig and Paige are completely different names. That first list you posted is absolutely not reflective of gaelic names. Three quarters of them are simply not gaelic/irish and it's astonishing that an Irish person would claim that they are.