Irish girls' names in England and Wales 2021

[SeanChailleach]

Here are the top twenty Irish names given to girls in 2020 in the UK:
Erin 884
Orla 794
Maeve 654
Nora 406
Niamh 362
Alba 352
Cora 349
Connie 338
Paige 252
Maeva 226
Kiara 213
Quinn 210
Tallulah 194
Norah 176
Neve 172
Anya 171
Keira 147
Peggy 125
Cara 123
Lia 118
Kyra 110
Margo 103

[Title edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

... and these are the names with Irish spellings given to more than 12 babies. There are no fadas in the database.

Orla 794
Niamh 362
Cara 123
Orlaith 81
Tara 52
Roisin 46
Caoimhe 36
Eabha 32
Aine 26
Meabh 25
Ailbhe 17

Neve makes me howl with rage... Niamh or use something else! I have an Irish name... on the phone to a call centre recently I was asked if I was using the Irish spelling of my name. I told them I was using THE spelling of my name! 🙄

How on earth can Alba, Connie, Paige and Tallulah be claimed as irish. Complete nonsense. Most of the other names are a stretch also.

Agree about neve spelling or indeed kiara or ceara. Just spell the name properly please.

Is Neve even an anglicisation of Niamh, historically? It seems more likely to be from the Italian/Portuguese word for snow. Plus possible influence from the actress Neve Campbell, in whose case it's her mother's maiden name. And Alba is pretty obviously Scottish, in a UK context.

Tailefhlaith is an Old Irish name. Tallulah is the Anglicisation.
Alba, Paige, and Connie all may have multiple origins, but Ailbe, Peig, and Conna are all Irish names for which these Anglicisations are often used.

I’m pretty confused. By 2020 do you mean 2021? And instead of UK did you mean England and Wales? I’ve only checked the count for the top three names on the list, but the numbers for all of those names match the England and Wales list - and England and Wales ≠ UK.

Also not sure how all of these are Irish. Anya is a Russian diminutive of Anna which sounds similar to Áine but isn’t the same name. Alba and Tallulah aren’t Irish either.

Yes it's England and Wales 2021. Thanks for pointing that out.

Yes some people may be giving their babies these names without regarding them as Irish names. That's not the point of posting this, which is mainly for parents who are thinking of calling their daughters one of these names, or a name such as Fiadh which doesn't actually feature on this list because fewer than 12 babies got that spelling in England and Wales last year.

Yes Neve is an Anglicisation of Niamh. Although it's also a Spanish name, it's very commonly used by Irish people.

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.

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?

Connie is also short for Constance

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

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!

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

Lots of names in the first list are not Irish origin

This

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.

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

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!

Yes, it's true Neve does not feature on the CSO Ireland list last year. Maeve and Aiveen do.

I'd always prefer Iniamh.

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

Yes, it's true Enko, Anya is a name that is popular in many languages, as well as a modern Anglicised spelling of Áine which would rarely get recognised correctly outside of Ireland.
Thanks Oddshoes for being the one positive post.
Ruby, Margo is a surprise, isn't it? Listed on Ó Corráin and Maguire as Old Irish, but obviously not well-known as such.
I can't see any "weird distortions". You do seem very bitter to be honest. Do you know what Iniamh means? Ná habair rud, mura bhfuil rud deas agat a rá, b'fhéidir.
Yup, Quinn is an Irish surname which like most Irish surnames is from an Irish given name.
Tailefhlaith is listed in Ó Corráin and Maguire Irish names with the form Talulla and Twilleliah and he is a scholar of Old Irish.
Cora I don't know. It's big in Ireland currently. It sounds like Cara. It seems like "comhar" to me, which is such a lovely concept - working together.

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.

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

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?