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 had a Bina over in West Mayo who would have been born before the 1911 census - I will have to look it up to see if she was local to the area or if she came to work at the big fancy hotel as a teenager from Cork!

Just checked 😁
Never thought of looking for Bina!
There were four in Mayo including two children. No listed Abinas there.
84 Binas listed countrywide.

My family had lots of Patrick's.. Patrick and Dominick seemed to alternate. Also had Sean James, Joseph but eldest boy was always Patrick or Dominick. Girls were Agnes (usually called Ness) Cissie, Maureen, Philomena, Dymphna, Margaret known as Peggy and if course Patricia.

@Weligama
The ones in Mayo may have been Sabinas though? There are 440 Sabinas in Mayo in the 1911 census — nearly 50% of all the Sabinas in the country then were in Mayo.

Madeline was used around the 1920s too. I’ve seen a good few listed on headstones in our local graveyard,

Have you got a link for the 'top census names' thing? Would be interested to see that.

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

Yes and Gubby was a pet form. Perhaps shortened to Abby and on to Abina / Bina / Abigail? There's a lovely stained glass window of Gobnait in the Honan chapel UCC. With bees of course!

Thanks for that. I see that Ellie was number 27, so a name in its own right and not necessarily a nickname for Ellen

Yes, though I wonder was it Ellie on the actual birth certs or Ellen? Nellie is also listed in the top 40. Catherine, Kate and Katie are also listed separately as are Elizabeth and Lizzie, Margaret and Maggie and Anne and Annie. Also Patrick and Pat.

So I don’t know if the names given on the census matched the birth cert records, or did people sometimes just write down the name the person was known as? Were shortened forms of names widely used on birth certs then? I wouldn’t have thought so as they were pretty keen on using saints names for baptism purposes, but I’m only guessing really.

I know my own granny’s name has a spelling mistake on the census records 😁

My grandad was Aloysius (said Alowishus) which I’ve never heard before or since!

Some of my gran aunts and uncles who would have been born in the 1920's in the Kilkenny/ Waterford area:
Imelda
Ita
Josephine
Maria
Eileen
Anna
Patrick
Elizabeth
James
Roy
Sean
Delia
Nellie
Risteard (sorry, can't get fadas on my phone)
May
Theresa
Francis
Carmel
John
Donal

Thank you!

'Delia' is a surprising inclusion - I've never heard of anyone called Delia apart from D Smith.

And also surprised that 'Martha' isn't on the female names list - I think every Irish branch of my family tree from that time has a Martha on it, unless it was short for Mary under the Weird Names Rules.

Delia Murphy was a famous Irish singer, probably born about 1900? I also knew an older lady Delia growing up. So there were quite a few about.

My grandmother, born about 1900 in a very Irish Catholic community in Lancashire, was called Tadeline. No one has any idea where it came from. She hated it and called her own daughters a much more conventional Mary and Margaret.

Interesting. I just checked for Martha on the 1911 census and there were thousands of them, a higher number than many of the names in the top 40 list I linked earlier. A closer look showed the majority were in what is now Northern Ireland. So although the census was obviously all island at that time, that top 40 list must just be for the republic.

That is unusual! There are no others in the 1911 census data.

Several Delias in my family.

Mary Therese (T)
Sean
Kathleen
Finbour
Martie
Joseph
Paulous
Maura

Gobnait

We had great aunts Bridget, Kate and Mary.
And nine great uncles - Pat, John, William, George, Colman, Mikey, Eamonn, Barry and Kevin.

Anyone have any male relatives/ ancestors who had Mary as a middle name?

I have an uncle with Mary as a middle name. He was a difficult birth, so my very devout Granny included it to thank the Virgin Mary for her intervention.

Dervla (Murphy) was a travel writer born 1931. I presumed it was an Irish name.

Not a relation but Joseph Mary Plunkett is obviously the famous one