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Irish Baby Names - History And Origin
By John Lynch, Sat Dec 10th

The meaning of names of irish origin lies hundreds of yearsback in the Irish gaelic language of the ancient Celts whomigrated from Central Europe before the foundation of the RomanEmpire.

The Celts Dominant

Those Celts who came to Britain, France and Ireland weredominant for a long period. With the spread of the Roman Empire,the Celts gradually were pushed back into North Western France(modern Brittany with its distinct Breton language), WesternBritain (Cornwall and Wales), Northern Britain (Isle of Man andScotland), and the island of Ireland which was never conqueredby the Romans.

As a result of Ireland's separate development from Romaninfluence, the gaelic language and way of life was much lessdiluted than in Scotland or Wales. Again the influence of theAnglo-Normans and later the English was less in Ireland becauseof the difficulty of establishing control in the country otherthan a few coastal towns such as Dublin.

The English kings' governor sat in Dublin Castle issuing edictsagainst native Irish habits in dress, custom and language, onlyto have them ignored in about 80% of the country with theexception of the areas around Dublin called The Pale where theEnglish army held sway.

Gradual English Control

This situation continued for hundreds of years until the Englishasserted an uneasy control at the end of the 17th century withthe defeat of James 11 at the Battle of the Boyne by William ofOrange (the Dutch Protestant prince who

was offered the Englishthrone by Parliament)in 1690.

So the first name origins of Irish Christian names and surnameslie overwhelmingly in this gaelic Celtic culture which wastotally dominant until the end of the 19th century. Only at thispoint do we see English culture making inroads in language,games and of course in first name origins.

In fact, this was not voluntary as primary schools wereestablished in all the major towns from the 1830's onwards whereEnglish was the only language of instruction and Irish gaelicwas forbidden.First name origins of Celtic descent graduallydeclined and English names became popular for the firsttime.

Irish Revival

By the end of the 19th century, Irish was in crisis and Englishtotally dominant in all the commercial, legal and culturalspheres of Irish life. At this time organisations to stem theEnglish tide were established such as the Gaelic AthleticAssociation(to foster the games of hurling and gaelic football),and the Gaelic League to prevent the decline of the Irishlanguage.

This brings us up to the present where the meaning of namesof most first names in Ireland are English in origin oranglicisations of native Irish names.This bilingual melange willcontinue. It remains to be seen whether first name origins ofIrish gaelic ancestry will increase as they have been doing, orwhether the sea of Anglo-American influence will predominate.

(c) John Lynch

About the author:(For a wide selection of musical instruments, arts, crafts,gifts and jewelry from Ireland go to:http://www.simplyirish.com/default.asp?idaff=3045286 )