Cool Irish Names for Babies

Tap the Luck O’ the Irish to Name Your Little Lass or Lad

Before all the diaper changing, feeding, and spit up cleaning, parents are tasked with the honorable duty of giving their little bundle of joys a name they will use throughout their lifetime. When it’s stated that way, it sounds a little daunting, right? And with thousands of names to choose from, how does a mom or dad-to-be sift through the reams of literature written about names?

Great friends Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz have a suggestion – why not start with your heritage or even a place of beauty that offers endless inspiration? The writing duo, who authored the baby name book, Cool Irish Names for Babies ($10, amazon.com), note that you don’t have to have a Celtic family lineage to appreciate Irish names – and that many celebrities are taking a cue from the Emerald Isle.

“Irish names have been very trendy for a while with everyone,” Rosenkrantz tells CelebrityEverything.com. “From kings and queens names to Irish surnames, any Irish or non-Irish parent will find lots of research in the book you can’t find anywhere else,” Satran adds. “Plus there are lots of Irish Americans who have ethnic pride but wish to go beyond Patrick and Shannon, and thousands of names do. If you’re interested in unique names that are out of the ordinary, this is the source to find hundreds of names.”

You may have noticed some glitterati highlighting this trend, sprinkling stardust on such names as:

• Ava (Reese Witherspoon’s daughter and Aidan Quinn’s as well)
• Connor (Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise’s adopted son)
• Darby and Sullivan (Patrick Dempsey’s twins)
• Ireland (Does it get more Irish than that? Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin chose it)
• Liam and Stella (Tori Spelling’s children)
• Milo (Liv Tyler, and Ricki Lake chose it)
• Quinn (Sharon Stone’s son)
• Rowan (Brooke Shields’ daughter)
• Shea (Kevin James’s son)
• Tallulah (Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, Damon Dash, Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s daughters)

Ava and Aidan were among the top names chosen across the United States last year. “The state results we reviewed saw these names, which barely cracked the top thousand a decade ago, become hugely popular,” noted Satran. Other winning names included: Isabella, Sophia, Logan, Caleb, and Jacob, which has been No. 1 for several years now. However, in New York, Daniel is No. 1, so it has “shown a lot of staying power for boys,” she adds.

Back to celebrity trends – are we really going to see more of Sunday (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s daughter) and geographic destinations like Brooklyn (Victoria and David Beckham’s son) and Bronx (Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz’s son)? “Bronx was such an extreme choice,” notes Rosenkrantz, “I don’t think many people will pick up on that one.” And days of the week? “I like Sunday,” Satran chimes in. “It’s original and peaceful, without being unfamiliar.”

More trends on the horizon include:

• Flowers: “Absolutely,” Rosenkrantz declares. “Lily, Daisy, Rose, and now more unusual ones like Lotus are becoming more common.”
• Gem names: “Ruby, for example, was popular a century ago and is now coming back, just like Matilda (the late Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams’ daughter) and Josephine.”
• Nicknames: “Names like Adam Sandler’s daughter Sunny are also catching on, as are those from antiquity like Juno and Atticus.”
• Names with “V” in them: “I love Violet, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s daughter’s name,” Satran says. “Ava, Olivia, Ivy, and Vivienne (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter) are all on the rise.”
• Super feminine names: Two examples are Isabella (Matt Damon’s daughter) and Seraphina (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s second daughter).
• Softer biblical names for boys: Keep your eye on Asher, Ezra and Joshua coming into style

Satran also offered some tips for expecting moms and dads-to-be: “Be aware of others’ perceptions. There are class divisions among name. If you love the name Brandy, studies show that people, in general, will expect her to be not that bright and not that classy and parents need to be aware of that.” So take your time and really think about this decision. “There is wisdom in waiting to meet the baby to see what his or her personality is like before you make the final choice.”

Don’t forget to enjoy the process! “Choosing a name is one of the most fun and positive aspects of expecting a baby,” she adds. “It symbolizes a lot about people, such as their family backgrounds and their own experiences, and recognize you’re not just talking about what you like and how to come together to resolve it. It’s much more important and deeper than that.”