Colleen

Colleen comes from the Gaelic word cailín, which means "girl" or "wench." Although Colleen is often though of as an Irish name, it is apparently not used as a given name in Ireland. Using it as a name there would be about the same as naming a girl "Gal" in the U.S. What is interesting, however, is the number of girls of Irish descent in the U.S. who were given the name Colleen, because it "sounds Irish" and went well with their Irish surnames. Colleen has enjoyed some popularity as a given name in the U.S., however, peaking in the 1960's. It currently is still used often enough to be a top 1000 name, but is far from common.

Shane

Shane is a variation of the Irish name Sean; basically just a matter of spelling it the way it sounds when pronounced in areas of Northern Ireland. Currently Shane is a quite popular name in Ireland, but less so in Northern Ireland--which makes sense when you think about it. It is a top 50 name in both cases, anyway. In the U.S., Shane began to be used to name baby boys in the 1950's, almost entirely due to the success of the movie Shane. Shane was a top 100 name during the 1970's and 1980's, but in the 1990's it started to slip in the rankings. It has dropped a little each year since the mid 1990's, but is still currently a top 200 name. Shane is normally a boys name, but is very occasionally (very!) used as a girl's name.

Lamont

Lamont comes from the Irish and Scottish surname, and its use as a given name has been mainly confined to the U.S. The surname is derived from Lagman which was a given name used in medieval times. Lagman comes from the Old Norse combination of log ("law") and madhr ("man"). This gives a resulting meaning for Lamont of "lawman" or "law giver." Lamont began to appear in the U.S. top 1000 names list in the 1940's, and its popularity peaked in the 1970's--though it never was a really "popular" name, at any time. Use of the name has declined steadily since the 1970's, and in 2004 the name was still in the top 1000, but barely. The first thing many of us think of when we hear the name Lamont is that it was the name of Fred Sanford's son in the Redd Foxx television show, Sanford and Son.

Donovan

Donovan is a surname which is also used as a given name for boys. The surname comes from the Irish surname, the Gaelic Ó Donndubháin, which means "descendant of Donndubhán." Donndubhán comes from the combination of donn ("brown") and dubh ("dark" or "black".) Probably the most well known Donovan is the singer Donovan Leitch, famous for such songs as "Mellow Yellow," and "Sunshine Superman." Donovan's music has recently been in the American consciousness once again through the use of his song "Catch the Wind" in a Volvo television commercial, though many people probably don't realize who the singer is, or the signifcance of the song (it was Donvan's first record.) In recent years there has been a strong trend of using surnames (such as Ashley, Reagan, and Kendall,) as given names for girls. Donovan hasn't turned up in this trend so far, and I am vaguely surprised by that; to me, at least, this seems at least as good a choice as Kendall or Reagan. In any case, if you are in search of an Irish or Gaelic derived surname to use as a first name for your new daughter, and you want one that hasn't yet been overused, Donovan is certainly worth consideration.

Fearchar

Fearchar is a Gaelic name that means "dear man," from the elements fear (man) and char (dear.) This name shows up in the early histories of Scotland and Ireland, and anyone researching their Irish or Scottish genealogy is likely to run across it. The slightly more familiar name Farquhar is the English version of Fearchar, and became a surname, so if you hit a dead end in your genealogy search with either Fearchar or Farquhar, try broadening your search to include the other.

Kerry

Kerry is a name that is used for both girls and boys. According to Ask Oxford it is a recent addition to the name pool. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Names website, however, Kerry appered in the top 1000 names for boys as early as 1934 and for girls in 1943, which isn't that recent, really. Kerry is a county in Ireland, and in most instances, that is probably what inspired the use of Kerry as a first name. It is important to remember, though, that Kerry is also a surname (as in John Kerry, whose website is the first result you get currently if you simply search for "Kerry" on Google.) Although Kerry enjoyed some popularity in the U.S. in the 1950's through the 1970's, it began to lose popularity swiftly after that, and has lately been completely out of fashion for both girls and boys. Any current lack of popularity of the name may or may not be due to the fame of John Kerry.

Cian

Cian is a very popular name for baby boys in Ireland, but is rarely seen in the U.S., at least so far--probably because the U.S. hasn't figured out how to pronounce it yet. (Hint: rhymes with Ian, and the "c" is hard, like in "color," or sometimes Cian is pronounced like "keen," leading to the English version Keane.) Cian means "ancient," which is fitting, because Cian is an ancient name in Ireland, and was borne by a son-in-law of Brian Boru.

Eva

Eva has (at least) three sources. One is as a form of the name Eve. Another other is as an English form of the Gaelic name Aoife, and another is an English form of the Irish name Éabha. Despite being a derived form of another name (in either case,) Eva has become quite popular as a name in its own right, and was particularly popular in the U.S. in the first 3 decades of the 1900's. Unlike many other names that were popular during that era, however, Eva has not become "old-fashioned" and is still in regular use. Eva is sometimes pronounced EE-vah, and sometimes pronounced AY-vah. Very occasionally Eva is pronounced EH-vah, but this is rare in English-speaking countries.

Éabha

Éabha is from the Old Irish name Eva, who was the wife of an early invader of Ireland in Irish legend. Éabha has become quite popular in Ireland in recent years. It is pronounced like Ay-va or Eh-va, usually. Irrelevant opinion of mine: I like this name a lot, and would love to see it used outside of Ireland as well, but many people, particularly here in the U.S. would have no idea how to pronounce it and would probably mostly come out with something like "Ebba."

Niall

Niall is the original Gaelic form of Neil. This spelling of the name is now quite popular in Ireland, and could possibly spread to other English-speaking countries. Niall also tends to appear in novels set in Ireland or fantasy novels with Irish themes.

Reagan

I think everyone, or surely almost everyone, knows that Ronald Reagan was President of the United States for most of the 1980's. Is this why Reagan appeared in the top 1000 names for baby girls in 1993, and for boys in 1996? In some cases yes, in others, probably not. The girl's version of the name has been climbing steadily since it debuted on the SSA's name charts, and is now in the top 200. There are actually probably several reasons for the rising popularity of this name. One is simply that quite a few names that were originally surnames and are of Irish origin are lately being used as first names for girls--Morgan is another example. In the book and movie "The Exorcist," the little girl who is possessed is named Regan, and the choice of Reagan for little girls may be partly influenced by that--though why anyone would want that association for their daughter that early is beyond me. She'll seem possessed soon enough (around the age of 13) without any encouragement from her name. There are fewer boys being named Reagan than girls, suggesting that the main influence might not be Ronald Reagan, but it could be that people are just tending to think of it as a girl's name. Those boys that are named Reagan are more likely to be named that in honor of the former president though, just because they're boys. Make sense? I think so, sort of. All I know for sure is that Reagan comes from an Irish surname that itself came from a word that meant "little king." (Yet another reason to wonder why on earth someone would name their daughter Reagan, but you know how parents are.) I also know that Reagan is a wonderful name for a dog, or at least, I know a wonderful dog named Reagan. (And he is named for Ronald Reagan--he came from California. Reason enough.)