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,

And of course Sr. Michael from Derry Girls - full name Sr. George Michael

We had Sr. Consulata! I’ve also heard of Anselm. My mums family are from Cork and they are all called by the second name on their birth certificate! Have to be careful with official documents like passports and drivers licenses.

Lots of Hughs in my family too…if you go back further in the family tree they were called Aodh (pronounced Ay).

Cornelius shortened to Con or Neilus, which I’ve heard pronounced as both Nail-us and Neel-us.

Jeremiah pronounced Jer-miah, or younger Jeremiahs (in their 50s) known as Diarmuid, know a few of these.

Hanora, Ellen, Abina, Johanna, Julia…grand aunts and great-grand aunts.

Also know a few Conceptas, Attractas from school. A Gobnait or two (or ‘translated’ to Abina or Deborah).

None of these were unusual really though, they were of their time.

I always thought he got that wrong. He was Gobnait, but isn’t it a woman’s name?

😂

No, lots of Abinas in Cork around then.

I'm Scottish but have researched family history back to Ireland and the best names I came across were Aeneas and Sergius.

Absolutely brilliant to research when everyone else is James or Thomas.

In my Family History group, you would be identified as Protestant immediately.

I knew a Catholic man called Aeneas.

When I was a child I had a neighbour named Packy, I'm guessing he was born in 1930s. It was short for Packenham (not sure of the spelling).

The family came to Scotland in the 1840s along with thousands of others, Aeneas married in the RC church in Glasgow so assuming Catholic. I also did some work with a friend whose family name was Mulholland with given names of Rodger and Isaac repeating through the generations which again was nice and easy (they were Catholics from Co Tyrone if I recall)

Packy Bonner was a very famous Celtic goalkeeper in the 80s.

Unless a mixed marriage I suppose? I don’t know the family history of the Aeneas I knew at all, but surname was a very Irish one. Possibly some COI rellies though, I don’t know.

We had Phyllis, Hannah, Eilish, Mary, Carmel and Theresa called Teasy. All our Sheilas were actually named Sarah.

My favourite nun at school was a Sr. Bruno.

We have no Patricks or Patricias! Not a single one going back over 100 years.😮

Sure Francie is just Francis / Frances.

Multiples in our family - including a teenager and a toddler.

Interesting!

I think it's the nicknames really for me:
Winnie, Cissie, Birdie, Baby, Nan, Ginny/Jinny, Maisy.
Foncie, Bert, Neily, Teddy.

These were all names of older people I knew growing up, relatives or neighbours. Born around the twenties.
Also local Irish saints names were popular, like Fechin.

I kind of love Foncie/Fonsie for Alphonsus. A few Mamies in my extended family, short for Mary Ann.

We have a scattering of Fachtnas, which I like.

Which names struck you as pagan @Owlmoonstar? Some of the names mentioned are old and became associated with a Catholic name, eg Jeremiah was used to translate the Irish Diarmuid, and Hugh to translate Aodh. And the Irish version probably predates Catholicism. Gobnait is the name of an Irish saint, but probably the name predates the person. I don’t know.

But the fact is that most names used on birth certs in the timeframe OP is talking about weren’t the Irish language ones, though the Irish form may have been used day to day in some cases. At least not where I am and in my family names. We had Hughs not Aodhs then, though there were earlier Aodhs. And Daniels on birth certs though some were called Donie (dough-nee) from the Irish form of the name (which has a completely different root to Daniel). And Abinas not Gobnaits in my family.

It may have been different in Gaeltacht areas though, not sure. And things changed in the 60s and 70s and lots of Irish names were revived. Lots of Deirdres and Gráinnes then.

Is Abina pronounced Abyna or Abeena?

Abyna

I know someone who is called Isolde. Now to me that's a VERY unusual and lovely name. The legend of Tristan and Isolde obv a feature!

My cousin lives in a place called Chapelizod in Dublin and its name apparently comes from the Irish for Isolde's chapel.

I think a different (maybe in Irish) version of Isolde is Iseult, another lovely name. IMO!

My grandmother was a Mamie - short for Marion.

I'm not sure how unusual they are, but here are some of my ancient Irish relatives names:

Agnes
Pegeen
Aileen
Cuthbert
Sloane
Padraig
Finbarr
Donal
Eithne
Gerald
Euphemia