Irish boys' names in England and Wales 2021

[SeanChailleach]

These were names given to boys as the first name. I've quickly looked through and pulled out those that appear to me to be Irish. Some of the names have multiple origins and are not only Irish but also used in other language. Some of the spellings include other languages, eg Ruaridh below, as parents thinking of naming their child Ruairí might like to know about Ruaridh. The data doesn't include any fadas.

Here are all the Irish spellings given to more than 12 babies:

Finn 788
Liam 690
Cillian 168
Conor 163
Cian 136
Denis 135
Lochlan 127
Rian 127
Malachi 126
Lachlan 110
Sean 103
Oisin 96
Tadhg 90
Ruairi 80
Brian 79
Niall 76
Fionn 61
Eoin 42
Cormac 26
Odhran 24
Dara 23
Mac 22
Ruan 18
Alasdair 17
Seamus 17
Senan 17
Art 14
Ruaridh 14

The following names are the top twenty of those which appear Irish to me, however they are spelt. Some have multiple origins. Others are derived from surnames.
I've done this so that people thinking of giving their child one of these names (or one that isn't here) can see how popular they are in England and Wales.
I'm not personally endorsing any of the names or the spellings.
If you enjoy this list please say so, it would cheer me up a lot.

Oscar 3,071
Finley 2,283
Rory 1,483
Ethan 1,398
Logan 1,192
Riley 817
Finn 788
Liam 690
Brody 645
Ryan 569
Aiden 469
Patrick 456
Connor 293
Finlay 293
Aidan 289
Kian 269
Rafferty 255
Flynn 223
Lennon 185
Quinn 175

Thanks for posting that @SeanChailleach

Most of my family plus the dog are in one or both of those lists

Thanks @SeanChailleach. I think Oscar might belong in the first list too?

How about Rowan (can be an anglicised version of Ruadhán)? (938 boys)

And Ronan (188 boys).

And Darragh (25 boys).

Thanks for your work!

Thanks Castle, hadn't spotted Ronan and Darragh. I wasn't sure about Rowan.

Thanks LizzieAnt, again I wasn't sure about Oscar.

Thanks @SeanChailleach really helpful

I am veering towards Tadhg for DS (Irish in England) but worried it's 'too much'. Helps to know 90 people went for it!

Finley/ Finlay and Ethan are not Irish names.

Many of the rest are what I'd call surnamey names as opposed to genuine Irish names (i.e. names in the Irish language). The first list is a lot more genuine than the second. And YY to Oscar in the first list.

Nice to see people choosing names in Irish.

WonderWoop Tadhg is a lovely name!

Math yes I see Ethan is Hebrew - I'd always vaguely wondered about it and thought it was Aodhan.

Finley/ Finlay is from Old Irish Find Lug or Find Laech.

Riley and Reilly are English spellings of an Irish surname Ó Raghallaigh, ttbomk.

Logan is Lúghán.

Brody I'm not sure and I irrationally dislike it, it sounds like those ugly shoes they call brogues, so, whatever.

Ryan is Ríán, surely.

Kian could well be Hungarian or other Eastern European or it could be Cian with that wonderful Greek letter, K. I do like the letter K. It has such a lovely certainty about it, unlike the treacherous C.

Rafferty. Is definitely an Irish surname but from what is unclear.

Flynn is from the beautiful gorgeous name Flann which means "scarlet" and is the name of the great writer Flann O'Brien.

Lennon is the lovely poetical name Leannán. And obviously the great songwriter John Lennon's surname.

Quinn is from Ó Cuinn, from the name Conn which probably is from Cú, meaning hound, as in male hound.