Yes, here are four such lists. The names are separated into girl's names and boy's names. These are further separated into a "conservative" list and a more "general" list. The "conservative" list includes only names acceptable to purists, meaning that they are of Irish origin and are spelled correctly according to modern Irish usage. The "general" list includes names from various sources such as postings, birth and death columns.

The "general" list includes different variant spellings of the same name on the same line. Not all of these spellings are strictly speaking correct but they have been or are still used. I have put the Anglicised spellings last; they are, however, popular and give English speakers a clue how to pronounce the name.

Where an "equivalent" English name is given, this does not mean the Irish name is derived from or even related to the English "equivalent". It just means that the English name has been used traditionally when a translation was desired.

Irish pronunciation is difficult to work out from the spelling and Irish names are no exception. In most cases, Irish names are not pronounced the way they look to an English speaker. The most notorious case of this is "Caitlín", which is not pronounced "Kate-Lynn". See the (sketchy) pronunciation guide below.

It's also worth mentioning here that Fiona Hyland maintains a page with Irish first names at

You may have noticed that there's a fair bit of duplication above. There are anglicised spellings, Irish spellings and slight variations of the same name, even in the modern Irish spelling. Some of the variations are probably regional. This guide is, needless to say, incomplete and may contain serious mistakes.

Here are approximate transiliterations for the letters that don't exist in English. The slash above the letter is called a fada in Irish, meaning long, because it lengthens the vowel).

	á  =  aw - awe, crawl  (a - flat in Ulster)
	é  =  ay - hay, bray
	í  =  ee - feed, creep
	ó  =  o  - owe, flow
	ú  =  oo - cool, fool (more like the French word for "where")

	s  =  sh (when it is in the stressed syllable)
	bh =  v
	dh =  g
	mh =  w
	th = h

Irish spelling insists on grouping "fat" vowels and "thin" vowels when they are separated by a consonant. The fat vowels are a, o and u. The thin vowels are e and i. So if a word would have a fat vowel followed by a consonant (or several) followed by a thin vowel breaks the rule: a vowel must be inserted to balance the spelling. Thus "Osín" is wrong; it must be "Oisín"; "Sibhán" must be turned into "Siobhán". The extra letter is generally silent.

Title:	Irish Names
Author:	Donncha Ó Corráin & Fidelma Maguire
Publisher:	Lilliput 1990
ISBN:	0 946640 66 1

Title:	Irish Names for Children
Author:	Patrick Woulfe, revised by Gerard Slevin
Publisher	Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1974 reprinted 1994
ISBN:	0 7171 0697 7

Title:	An Sloinnteoir Gaeilge agus an tAinmnitheoir
Author:	Muiris Ó Droighneáin
Publisher:	Coiscéim 1995

Title:	The Book of Irish Saints
Author:	Eoin Neeson
Publisher:	Mercier 1967

(Where does it come from? What does it mean?)

You might have more luck asking in soc.genealogy.surnames. If you are interested in general discussion about researching Irish family names, you could try soc.genealogy.ireland. If you have access to the web, have a look at the Genealogy Meta FAQ at