February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Long gone are the days of Brian and Mary. For the first Irish immigrants arriving in the U.S., many wanted names for their children that would fit in to their new surroundings. However, as following generations rediscovered their own Irish heritage, some traditional Celtic names have come roaring back.
“It really is remarkable. A lot of it is just cultural identification,” said Laura Wattenberg, author of “The Baby Name Wizard.”
Some parents are discovering, and in some cases rediscovering, names that are not even commonly found in Ireland. Wattenberg expects to see cross-pollination between Ireland and the U.S. of new names. With more than 40 million Americans identifying themselves as having some Irish lineage, there is a lot of room for these names to take off.
“Even if they are half or a quarter Irish, that’s what parents will identify with,” Wattenberg said. “It’s fun to think it’s trendy.”
Martin Sheerin, the founder of Baby Names of Ireland, a Web site that offers a listing of traditional Irish names, said he thinks the trend of Celtic influence in today’s baby names has staying power.
“Some years ago people didn’t know how to pronounce Sean until Sean Connery came along,” he said. “They pronounced it See-ann. But they’re nice names, and I can’t see why this trend wouldn’t last.”
Aidan has become one of the best examples of Celtic-tinged names becoming huge in America. In 1990, when the U.S. Social Security Administration first started to record names, Aidan barely cracked top 1,000. It has since become the one of the most popular, and in 2003 was the 39th most popular boy’s name.
Several variants of the name, such as Ayden, Aden, and Adan, have also popped up, which is the surest sign a name has become a mainstay.
“Declan will be very popular,” Wattenberg predicted. “The more common Aidan gets, the more parents will dig deeper into their Irish heritage to come up with new names.”
Said Sheerin: “I’m not sure where Declan came from. I don’t think it’s many Irish people using the name.”
For her book, Wattenberg did research on the naming trends in English-speaking countries, such as Ireland, and found that cultural reasons for resurgence in certain names is indeed under way, and has probably been a large influence on American parents.
She noted how as far back as 80 years ago, it was typical English names that dotted the Irish landscape, while traditional Irish names like Darragh, Eoin, and Oisin for boys and girls names like Aoife, Niamh and Caoimhe have become popular more recently.
Even Australia has been touched by the Celtic trend, where names like Angus and Tegan are popular.
“Baby names follow trends enormously,” Wattenberg said. “Both in ethnicity and sound.”
It is their unique sound that makes the Celtic names so popular, according to some experts.
Wattenberg has spent the last three years building a computer database of names, tallying how often they are used and that sort of thing. It also tracks the number of times a certain name shows up on “most popular” lists and divides the names into sounds.
Wattenberg said that a lot of what makes a name popular in the 21st century is a tight, punchy tone.
“It is surprising that sound will dictate names,” she said. “But in the early 20th century, the trend was softer clusters of consonants, like in Agnes, that were popular.”
“Now it is a crisp and clear sound, names with K’s or A’s, that are popular,” she said.
Celtic-sounding names fit that description well, especially for boys’ names.
“The ideal sound is a 2-syllable names that ends in an ‘n’,” Wattenberg said. “Certainly Aidan is at the height of popularity now. It fits with the sound that is very popular right now, such as Hayden, Jaden and Caden, which are all popular as well.”
Said Wattenberg: “These popular names tend to be lighter and quicker-sounding.”
“They sound good, and are easy on the ear,” agreed Sheerin. “Some of the derivatives have been very interesting.”
While female names with a Celtic twist have been less popular, it is most likely due to the fact that they are longer and don’t commonly have the same tight sound as male names.
That has not stopped American parents from improvisation, showing that anything is game for baby names. American parents have been especially creative in the last decade, looking to surnames, place names, nouns for new ideas.
One way parents have been tapping Celtic inspiration for female names while still preserving the popular sound is by using Irish surnames.
Riley and Casey are in the top 100 girls’ names, according to the SSA, and while they would not be used as first names in Ireland, they are popular surnames.
There, however, are some names that will forever be in the American consciousness as Irish. Recent trends should change that perception, but Sheerin finds that some Americans are hesitant to let go of tradition.
“I still get calls asking why Pegeen isn’t on the Web site,” he said, laughing.
Wattenberg has found that even the old standbys have undergone a transformation.
“The new number one would be Ryan,” she said. “It is also traditionally a surname, and has taken over Brian and Patrick as sort of ‘the’ Irish-American name.”
Recently, celebrity has been a factor in baby name trends. Actress Julia Roberts, who gave birth to twins earlier this year, named the boy Phinnaeus, which sounds like the Irish name Finn, but would not be considered a traditional form.
Much has been made of the odder names, such as rock star Chris Martin and actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter, Apple.
Some people wonder if it is entirely self-serving to give a name to a child who will have to go through life introducing herself as a fruit.
“It depends how the parents go about it,” Wattenberg said. “Some names are definitely more a reflection of the parent than the child.
“Overall, American parents are naming more creatively. Artistic communities, like Hollywood, are going with this trend, so it’s not so strange for them.
“Surprisingly the trend is not connected to affluent urbanites, where affluent communities in big cities are naming more traditionally than ever, such as names from a hundred years ago, like Olivia and Eli.”
The more unique and popular names, such as Hunter and Logan, can be found in rural states like Idaho and Montana.
One thing is for certain — the names will always change, along with the faces.
“Baby names follow trends to an enormous degree,” Wattenberg said. “For example, Shirley was very popular in the ’30s when Shirley Temple was a star, and 20 years later it was nowhere to be found.”
(Learn more about baby names, both Celtic and otherwise, at www.babynamewizard.com or www.babynamesofireland.com.)