Fáilte!

Do you have Irish heritage that you’d like to honour by giving your baby an Irish name? Or perhaps you have no connection to Ireland and you simply like the idea of giving your baby a unique name from one of the oldest languages in the world!
I’m a fluent Irish speaker from Ireland and I’m thrilled at the idea of spreading knowledge of our beautiful names to countries outside of Ireland. On this website, you’ll find over 50 Irish boy’s names and 50 Irish girl’s names.
You may or may not know that Ireland has its own language, commonly known as ‘Irish’ or ‘Gaelic’. Irish is one of the oldest written and historical languages in the world.
The rules of the Irish language are completely different from those of the English language. This means that unless you’re an Irish speaker or you grew up in Ireland, it is very difficult to know, just from reading an Irish name, how to pronounce it correctly.
There are many wonderful resources online where you can find lists of potential Irish baby names and their meanings. However, if you don’t speak the language, you have no way of knowing how to correctly pronounce the name just by reading it. Here, however, we provide an audio file with the correct pronunciation of the name, alongside its spelling. This ensures you are getting the correct and authentic pronunciation.
You may notice that we have listed more than one way of pronouncing certain names. This is because various parts of Ireland have various dialects of Irish, meaning that sometimes the pronunciation of the name varies from region to region. You can choose whichever pronunciation appeals to you the most.
You may also notice that some names have a right-slanting line placed above a vowel. This is called a ‘fada’. The presence of a fada in the Irish language changes the pronunciation of that vowel and, at times, completely changes the meaning of the word. Take, for example, the boy’s name, ‘Seán’. The fada above the letter ‘a’, changes the pronunciation of the letter from ‘ah’ to ‘aww’. Without the fada, the word ‘Sean’ has a different pronunciation, and means ‘Old’.
This may sound a little complicated, but don’t get too hung up on it! Simply have a listen to each name and see if the sound appeals to you.
Bain taitneamh as agus go raibh míle maith agaibh!