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,

We are Gaeltacht and all turn of the century birth certs for my family are English or Latin names. As you say some use the Irish version of the English name day to day but I couldn’t find any Gaelic names at all.

Perhaps it was for economic reasons as nearly everyone from my area emigrated to US, UK etc so maybe paperwork with ‘acceptable’ easy to spell and understand common names was important for passport, jobs etc - same as the need for English language to be able to work.

That’s interesting thanks. I didn’t know the situation in Gaeltacht areas.

They’re all utterly Christian, though with discernible C of I and Catholic differences, and some local saints thrown in for good measure.

Fascinating thread. Some gorgeous names.

I'm from the north of England and in the past same names in familles were distingished this way : Bill O' Jacks = Bill son of Jack. Tom O'Dicks Tom son of Dick etc.

not mentioned yet is Nollaig - christmas man or woman
Majella, another saint
Francis Xavier
Ignatius
Goretti

This link has the top names for men and women from the 1911 census. Nearly a quarter of boys/men were either John or Patrick on their birth cert then and 16% of girls/women were Mary. No wonder there were a lot of nicknames and Irish forms used day to day.

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-1916/1916irl/people/names/#:~:text=Over%2010%25%20of%20males%20had,all%20male%20names%20in%201911.

Not unusual names though, sorry OP. Not then anyway.

My older maternal side (Protestant Irish heritage) has that habit mentioned above of using the middle name (or a shortening of it) as the everyday name. Our family lore has it that your first (Christian) name is your "Sunday name", and that's why you don't go wearing it out on every other day!

At the risk of outing myself (probably not given that it's not that unusual!) my surname is O'Dwyer - lots of O'xxx names in Ireland and they will all come from Ó, meaning of family name.
If I remember my primary school history correctly, if your surname no longer had the O' it means you "took the soup" during the famine.

That’s a longstanding myth, though. I’m another ‘O’ nane and there’s a branch of the family who took the soup, retained their O, and acquired a reputation for backsliding and unreliability in the family at large that’s still alive and rearing its head at funerals.

(I’m all in favour of taking the soup, personally. I’d have been top of the queue to renounce my Catholicism.)

I recently accompanied an elderly relative to an appointment at a hospital. It was a group session so lots of other older people were there too. The nurse had a surname that more usually comes with an O’ and was teased by one or two that her family ‘took the soup’. Much hilarity all round.
I was a bit shocked actually but she was well able.

My Protestant dad was from Craigavon in Armagh, born 1916. He was Dawson and had siblings Hampton, Robert and Grace (who married a man called Gardner). All fab names imho.

My Catholic mum was born 1924 near Dundalk in Louth and she was Margaret (known by her second name Josie) - her siblings were John, Julia, Bella, James, Molly, Michael and Theresa (known as Teasie).

I’m not from the 1920s but the 1960s and I’m an Oonagh. Which is quite the talking point.

Yes I know what you mean. It's a part of what makes family history research in the 19th century in Ireland an absolute nightmare - weird naming conventions, low levels of literacy and huge gaps in official records.
Whenever parents selected names from a very small pool - you'd think they were compelled to by act of parliament or something - they had to be inventive I suppose to distinguish their child amongst others in the neighbourhood, so 'Sarah' became 'Sadie' and 'Jane' 'Jinny' and so on.

It’s interesting that some names are quite regional, so they’re common in some parts of the country and unusual in others. For example, there are 700+ Abinas in the 1911 census. Well over 90% were in Co. Cork with most of the rest in the neighbouring Munster counties. One in Leitrim, one in Antrim and seven in Dublin (including one in prison).

Abina was used to translate Gobnait and St Gobnait was from the Muskerry area of Cork so that’s probably why the name was popular in Co. Cork I suppose. She was/is also venerated in Dún Chaoin in Co. Kerry. Abigail and Deborah are also used to translate Gobnait, and Deborah was popular in Kerry in the 1911 census. More than 40% of the country’s Deborahs were in Kerry at that time.

To add, there were 22 Gobnaits in the 1911 census. Again most in Kerry and Cork. But it was more common to use the translated form of the name at that time.
It was a name that wasn’t really revived in later years when others were, though I do know one born in the 70s.

Ok, my mum was born in 1916, so here is a list of her, her siblings and other family members
Margaret - known as May for the month that brought her
Nannette
Phyllis
Bernardette - Berna
Katharine - Kay
Dolores
William - Billy
Michael - Mick
Christopher
Bridget - Bridgie and Bridie
Mena
Philomena
Brendan
Eric
Ernest
Dympna
Sinead
Hugh
Suzie
Madge
Liam
Patrick - Paddy
Tom
Marie - both as Mareee and Mhairi
Perpetua
Ita
Clare

Hopefully that sample, will help.

Ita
Ida
Ina
Breda
Anastatia
Ellen
Assumpta
Annamaria
Imelda
Fidelma
Philomena
Winifred
Julia
Greta
Majella - St Gerard Majella was often prayed to during difficult pregnancies
Regina
Julia
Honora
Johanna
Annie
May, possibly baptised Mary
Celia
Eileen
Kay (from Catherine/ Katherine)
Dilly, short for Magdalen

Aloysius
Pius
Ignatius
Cornelius
Bernard
Terence - possibly in memory of Terence MacSwiney, lord mayor of Cork, who died on hunger strike during the War of Independence
Murtagh
Gerard - difficult pregnancy saint
Canice - Kilkenny/ Carlow area
Noel
Moses - aka Mossie, a very old neighbour of my grandparents in the 1970s. Also aka Mosey, another auld falla probably born in the 20s.
Laserian - a diocese of Kildare and Leighlin thing
Dennis, sometimes known as Dinny

The Cis/ Cissie is my family was derived from 'sister'.

Some of the old Irish names are very definitely pagan in as much as they predate the arrival of Christianity. All those names from old legends , Emer, Niamh ,Gráinne, Diarmuid , Fionn etc. Not much in use on official documents of course.
But , apart from their own reluctance , people had to deal with priests who presumably wanted the name of a recognised saint. Not to mention registrars of births and British army recruiting officers. Some of whom shortened or adapted peoples names.

Thanks to pp who mentioned Deborah above. Is there any name Gobnait doesn't stand for . Oh and Abigail too I just remembered.
Some lovely names mentioned here. Deira is one I never saw before.

Wilhelmina, Ignatius, Velma, Majella, Attracta.

We had a surprising number of Ellies in our family, even in the census’, I see mother - Ellie, daughter - Ellie, visitor - Ellie.
I was very surprised because that sounds like peak 2005 to me

@Abhannmor
St Gobnait was very much associated with bees and beekeeping. Deborah is from the Hebrew word meaning bee.
Not sure of the link to Abina and Abigail but they were often shortened to Abby/Abbey. The french for bee is abeille which sounds very similar.

Ellen was no. 4 for women’s names in the 1911 census. I had a grandaunt Nell who was an Ellen.

This is such a lovely and interesting thread.

Sister went to school with a girl called Immaculata . In the 80s . Poor girl . And my friend married a man called Pius .

Cis was for sister in my family too.