Origin

Irish names

Irish names carry centuries of lilting language — a music you hear before you understand it, shaped by a Gaelic phonetic system that English speakers still struggle to spell. From mist-wrapped Saoirse (pronounced SEER-sha, meaning freedom) to the warrior Cillian, from Aoife (the unbeatable warrior of the Ulster Cycle) to the modern revival of names like Niamh, Orla, and Cian, they balance softness and strength in every syllable. Many traveled to North America with the post-Famine Irish diaspora; others stayed in Ireland for a century before American parents discovered them in the 2000s. The list below pulls together every Irish-origin name in the library, with full pronunciation guidance, meaning, and a popularity chart for each.