Liam and Michael - the top Irish baby names in the U.S.for 2011

Liam is William without his Wil-lie! Thus not all that Irish as was noted here about Archangel Michael. RYAN which is an irish family name went viral for a while for boys, I taught a female RYAN in University once. MICHEL is French for Michael but shows up as female MICHELLE, same spelling. Frere JACQUES in the old monastery bell song became brother JOHN in English. Americans know no foreign languages starting with English I used say, with only part of my tongue in cheek.

My grandson's name is Gavin. His sister's name is Bridget. Two great Irish names.

What about my name Patricia or even Patrick.Where do they rank.

Since when is Michael and Irish name? True it's likely the most popular boy's name in Ireland but it's not a Gaelic name- whoever wrote this article didn't to their homework! Michael is a Biblcal name-the Ark Angel Michael. Michael in English, Michel in French, Miguel in Spanish, Mikhail in Russian...the list goes on!

In upstate New York I often services in my wife's Methodist church, which are held by a female minister whose 2 grandchildren are Liam and Nora.

Mohammed is the most popular name for boys in the UK. A sign of the times?

Michael is not an Irish name. It is the English form of the original Hebrew, The Irish form is Mícheál.