Unusual old names in Ireland from 1920s

[Weligama]

Thinking of old family and friends names from this era not always Gaelic in origin - possibly church related - my list includes the following - anyone else have any other suggestions:

Malachy,
Jarlath,
Cornelius
Aloysius
Jeremiah

Can’t recall many unusual female names except maybe Philomena, Immaculata, Attracta,

Fascinating subject . Quite annoying at times . My English sil is big into this family tree stuff and our family has her driven demented. ' Your family is like a Russian doll with loads of other dolls inside! ' she says. True enough. It wasnt until my uncle Brian died I realised his birth name was Bernard. A recurring pattern. And aunt Una was Winifred, god alone knows why. As she pointed out a better translation would be Agnes , since Una basically means ' lamb'.

In the older generations there seemed to be two factors at play , a fondness for names of saints and other holy people and a - perhaps unconscious - reluctance to use Gaelic names , at least for official purposes. Hence Tadg becoming Thady , Timothy , Donncha / Denis , Diarmuid being rendered Jeremiah and so on. My uncle Dónal died very young and she found his birth certificate recently - Donald. Another odd thing is the frequent use of middle names instead of first names in everyday conversations?

On Bina . I'm told this is really Gobnait. And Delia is Brigid. Someone tried to explain why to me once ....but I'd lost the will to live long before the end 😆

Ooh. Another lovely name is Morgan. And Hanora. Some of these old names are due a revival I think.

Yes, lots of my family use names that aren’t actually their proper names, and I never realise until their funeral when the official name comes out!

My NI Protestant family had lots of more Irish-style name (Kathleen and the likes) before partition, and there was a marked change in names after that.

One of my grandmother's friends was always known as Rita but her full name was on the order of service for her funeral, which was Anchorita. I've never heard of anyone else by that name and the only reference that I can find on Google is a cocktail by that name which is a variation on a margherita.

Maura
Bridget
Bernadette

Forgot about my aunties Deira, Mary and Brigid.

I have a photograph of four generations of Hanorah which I treasure.

The Concepta, Attracta and Eucharia would have all probably been born on those feast days. My mum said it was handy for remembering birthdays!
Edited to add that none of my mothers or grandparents siblings were ever known by their given names. Lots of middle names, diminutive of middle names and pet names in use. I know an awful lot of eldery Bernies, mostly female.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar isn't an anchorite a nun?

I'd have to dig out all Mum's research which was done pre internet but mostly recall lots of Franks and Hughs. All the women seemed to be called Bridget.

Among the pages of stuff I found a charming letter from a parish priest she'd written to, trying to locate a townland. It was about three pages long and very friendly but the actual answer was no, sorry not a clue. It was a nice letter though!

We have a Farrell (m). which I think is lovely

I've seen the Irish man's name Proinsias written down, but I have no idea how it's pronounced.

Prunn-SHEE-us, roughly.

Yes, my Concepta friends are all born on December 8th, or ‘culchie shopping day’ as one refers to it as.

Thanks - my guess it was something like that, but I know some Irish names sound very different from how they are written by Anglo standard.

I guess my family equivalent of this is Yiddish names!

Yes! Can’t remember if it was from Cecilia? Probs an important saint.

@TeaAndStrumpets It could be that she was named for that concept, although it's not a typical naming convention for Church of Ireland, no Conceptas, Noels or Pascals and the like. We'll never know as she died ages ago so can't ask her. She never had DC but I do know some of her relatives (because Irish Protestants really do all know each other ) and they don't know how she got her name.

That’s an interesting observation that there seem to be few uniquely Gaelic names given on birth certificates from those days but many used the Irish derivative of their ‘English’ given name day to day - so many that were officially John, James, Mary were known as Sean, Seamus, Maureen.

I love this generation of seemingly random and exotic / grand names and pleased to hear there is a revival. My own son has Cornelius as a middle name after my grandfather - I wasn’t brave enough to use it as a first name (we don’t live in Ireland) but he loves it and has chosen to use it professionally.

Are there any Francies about these days?

Yes mine was Sarah also

We have Cornelius - shortened to Neil/ Neilly.

Also Murtagh with the surname McStravock - sounded like he should have been in a murder mystery somewhere!

Yes to an Aunt Cassie too and even a few called Phoebe. Fair few called Roger/ /Roddy in the 1800s too.

And a lot of Hughs.

Well having read some of the baby name ideas on MN it doesn't seem really out there! Maybe it just had ring to it...

Assumpta
Ultan
Gobnait

Had a great Aunt we called Francie. Men of that name seem to be more common especially in Ulster , North Connacht , north Leinster? Again not one you hear for younger folk

We also has a Muckle in the family - Gaeltacht area so not sure if was nickname for Michael or another name?

There is a sort of Gobnait convention every year at her church in Ballyvourney , Co Cork ,so her name is actually reviving if anything. Presumably on or near her feast day in Feb ..iirc.