Irish names

I want to write a little bit on Irish names again today…
Irish names, as I’ve said in another blog, tend to be from 2 sources.  Since it was a very traditional Catholic country for a long time, children were named after saints, given traditional Catholic names.  
When I was younger, Mary was given to almost all girls, and even to some boys.   The late TV presenter Gay Byrne had the name Gabriel Mary... Because Mary was so common there were a lot of variations of the name that were used.  Girls were called Marie, Maria, Maureen (an Irish diminutive of Maire), Maura, Marian, or Anne-Marie or Mary with another Christian name such as Mary Jo, or Mary Kate. 

Other saints’ names that were quite popular were Gerald/Geraldine… Margaret, Angela, Theresa, Gemma. For boys there were names like Bernard, Michael, Raphael, Paul, Peter, Philip and Nicolas.

In the 1960s there were “Irish” names but they were usually Irish translations of common English names. Sean and Seamus were Irish versions of John and James.  Liam was a version of William.. and Garret or Gearoid was the Irish for Gerald.

From about the 1960s onwards, Irish society became more secularised and the older Catholic names were beginning to be seen as old fashioned. So parents gave their children modern names, similar to England and America….and if they chose Irish derived name they tended to be from Irish mythology and literature.

Dermot and Grainne are quite popular, and are from the story of Fionn MacCumhaill, a sort of “King Arthur” figure in Irish mythology.   FIonn was the High King of Ireland, and as an old man he marries Grainne, a much younger woman.  Like Guenevere, Grainne then falls in love with another man, one of her husband’s warriors.  She runs away with him and Fionn hunts after them.  Eventually, they both die, Grainne killing herself.  The name Grainne is probably based on the Gaelic Gra which means love...and Dermot, or Diarmuid means free from Envy. 

Another girl’s name which has been well used is Maeve, the name of a legendary warrior queen of Connaught.   The name means “She who makes drunk”.   The character may be related to the “Fairies midwife” Queen Mab... which is mentioned in Shakespeare.

More will follow….

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A “band” story set in the US, in the late 1970s.   This isn’t a romantic love story and does not have a happy ending. It’s more of a work story, about music and the life of an up and coming band.  I’ve based it on what I’ve read about country singers in the days when touring was a constant part of their lives.  It was hard work and took its toll on the marriages of many singers.   But I love the music of the 1960s and 70’s.  I love country pop, people like Glen Campbell... and I also love the Williamses… especially Hank Junior.  I enjoy Lynrd Skynrd.  So my story is all about that sort of life…   
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Y names a short post

As with Z there aren’t that many Y names and they are not that popular.  But there are a few that get used.

One is Yolande which comes from the Greek for Violet Flower.  It was occasionally used in the Middle Ages and has been used ever since. A German version is Jolanda…another variant of the name is Violante. This name has been used in Europe but the English version is rare. 

A relatively common one is Yvonne, which is from the French for Yew tree.  

Yasmin is an occasionally used name, which is a variant spelling for Jasmine, a flower name…

Another girls name is Yseult which is a variant spelling of Isolde... This name was popular in the Middle ages and has many variants such as Iseult, Isolda, Isotta.  The meaning is unclear but it is the name of the beautiful Irish princess in the story of Tristan and Iseult... who marries King Mark of Cornwall but falls in love with his nephew Tristan... In spite of the tragedy of the story, it is occasionally used by parents in search of an unusual name…

There are also a few male names.  An American one is Yale which comes from the Welsh for Fertile Upland.  It is the surname of the founder of Yale College... Elihu Yale..
York is an English name meaning yew tree - it is also used in America.
There is also the occasionally used Yves or Yvo is from the French for yew tree

Z names

There aren’t many names that begin with the last letter of the alphabet...such as XY or Z - so I thought I’d write about a few of them.   Generally they haven’t been that popular.  However one name, the Hebrew derived Zachary, has become very popular in the last years, particularly in the USA. The US has tended to use bible names more than the UK and Zachary or Zechariah is the name of the father of John the Baptist.    The name means remembered by God. It is often abbreviated as Zak.  There are other bible names but they are long and usually obsolete.

Another name which has become quite popular in recent years is Zoe.  It is a Greek name, meaning “life” which appeared in Greek translations of the bible.   It was used by early Christians because they hoped for eternal life... but it was not at first popular in English speaking countries.  Now, it is used much more frequently…
There is the name Zena, which is a re spelling of Xena, which means foreign.

Zara is the name of Princess Anne’s daughter, and was at the time a very unusual name for a royal baby.  The meaning is unclear.  It may be a re spelling of Sara, or possibly derived form the Arabic “Flower.”

Another American male name is Zane.  It is the transferred use of a surname, and was first used by the writer of “cowboy novels”, Zane Grey, who was descended from Ebenezer Grey, who founded the town Zanesville.

Zita is another royal name, the name of the last Empress of Austria.  The name comes from the patron saint of maids and servants, who lived in Tuscany in the 13^th century.

More follows!