(no subject)

[elizabethtess.livejournal.com]

Howdy! This isn't really a 'baby' name post so much as a generic name quest. I was wondering about Irish naming trends in the 1600s. Mainly, I'm asking you fine people for an info dump. What names were popular back then? Were the names still in their original Irish spelling, or were they Anglicized? Thank you in advance! (Also, in the userinfo it seems to say that it's okay to talk about names in general, but it never really comes right out and says it. I'm sorry if this post isn't okay!)

Comments

[duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com]

I'd say that only about half the posts in the community are about baby names. The other half are more about names in general. Most of the veteran members are just name-lovers. Many of us (myself included) don't even have kids, nor will we soon.

Unfortunately, however, I cannot help much with Irish naming trends in the 1600s, although I would be willing to bet that few of the popular names would've been Anglicized.

[lind-saay.livejournal.com]

Can't make any promises on how accurate this website is, but it seems to have some of the information you're looking for: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-names.html

I would have guessed that few of the names would have been Anglicized in the 1600s, but I do know that Jonathan Swift, the Irish author who wrote Gulliver's Travels, was born in Dublin in the mid-1600s and, obviously, has an Anglicized name, as did his father (also Jonathan), who was also born in Ireland. So it wouldn't have been unheard of, I guess, to have an Anglicized name.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Try this page (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/irish.shtml) from the Medieval Names Archive (one of my favourite websites) There's a couple that look like they may be useful to you :)

[penguiny7.livejournal.com]

I'm not 100% sure, but I'd bet by the 1600s the majority of names in Ireland were Christian names, not Irish. At least in the less remote areas. England invaded and gained control of Ireland in 1199, and for centuries they tried to drive out the Irish language, so no way people were going about using truly Irish names. But I'm not entirely sure by which century English names would've been dominant. There was a website I came across once (man, I wish I could find it again!) that listed names in Ireland in the 18th-19th century. I don't remember seeing any names in Irish. The most common ones were things like Margaret, Mary, Bridget (Anglicized Irish name, at least), Angela, Honora; John, James, Joseph, Patrick.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I second the comment up there about the Medieval Names Archive. It's a fantastic source!

[hwar.livejournal.com]

The 17th century is when a lot of Irish surnames became Anglicized. For genealogists, the 1600s are often the last time their family name appears in its old form. The Gaelic influence was still really strong for given names at that point, too, but there was a strong Christian influence as well. I think this link will help you with what girl babies were being named up until 1650:
http://medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/1201-1600.shtml

And what boy babies were being named from 1601-1616:
http://medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/1601-1616.shtml