James and Anna are the top Irish baby names

In case anyone’s interested in reading it may I recommend the BBC’s News website of today’s date? - giving 10 Christian names that you don’t see often today, if at all. Yes, it’s based around Pope Benedict’s call for Christian names to be given to new babies but it also mentions Bob Geldorf and others’ choices for their children. An amusing and interesting read.

Wou’knee, nope, Anna is a biblical name (after St. Anne) and is the version used in Russian and other Eastern Churches. I agree w/ you re modern day parents boringly naming babies after soap opera names. I have a niece called Tracey, after some soap character of the time but it doesn’t bother me as it is also a short version after St. Theresa. BTW - a friend corrected me re the lack of use of Goliath (ref my last post). He says nearly everybody has that name; how many times have you heard “Golly, I didn’t know that!”.

What's with Anna? Is there some English soap opera actress called Anna? That's where the Irish get most of their names. They didn't get it from Anna Karenina, that's for sure. The Irish think Tolstoy is the name of a vodka.

Btw – Jack (and Sean, Shawn or Shane) is short for John, after St John, Max is short for St Maxime (St Mary Magdelene’s best friend – he has a town named after him in Sth France, where you can see Magdelene’s saintly skull on display), Tom is short for St. Thomas, Hugo is (modern-Irish) short for Germanic saint St. Hubert or Italian Saint Umberto,. One of my sons is called Paul but known today as Paul-oh, shortened to Paulo, as in Italy, or Germany’s Pavul, or East European Pavlo and after St. Paul of the Epistles, just Irish in-fashion terminology but still my son Paul. Think of how a fellow called Joseph (after St. Joseph, in London talk "Geosuff" mid-east Jew/Arabic - Youssef) is called in modern Irish as Joe, Joey, or Jo-oh, or in modern text talk, Jooh, or Jew, reverting to origins of St. Joseph. Our old friend George (Dillon) or Georgieboy (or girl), is named after England’s patron saint, who was actually a Russian and Greek Saint. Andrew (or Andy) is after both an Apostle and Scottish saint, and St. David, who slew Goliath, is wee Wales’ patron saint, the biblical Da-vid. You never hear of an Irishman called Goliath, do you? Naw, you don't - 'cos he was easily defeated by a sling-shot pebble, so no point calling your son by that name.

@ IrishJets47 .. That’s very interesting of how your g/father and you etc carry the same name in America. It was, and still is to a big extent, traditional for first-born sons to be called after the father’s father and first-born girls to be called after the mother’s mother. Then you’d have second-born sons called after the father, second-born girls called after the mother. Children after the first two were/are called after aunts and uncles, depending on gender. It explains why so many of Irish descent like you retain the Irish Heritage. And why the names of saints and bible-names are plentiful in Irish communities. Like St. Kevin and St. Conor and St. Brigid. Long may your family carry on the tradition!

What ever happened to names like John or Micheal, Thomas and of cause Danny and Barry? I'm from USA, My greatfather came from Ireland He and my father and me have the same first name with is John my father and me are John Thomas my great father is John Edwards. Other names that are pretty popular here in the USA or used to be anyway are Anthony, Brian, Kevin, Jack, Conner.

Given Pope Benedict’s recent call for people to name their children after Saints and those in the Bible (because the Saint or Bible-named person becomes the baby’s patron saint), it is encouraging to see that Irish names are largely following with it ( it's a pity that Mary and Joseph don’t appear above). When you see the ridiculously laughable names that people in the Entertainment world are giving their children – ref Bono, Bob Geldorf etc - you know the world is going mad. The Pope is right, once again.

My mother was eighty-three years ahead of the naming game when she called this beautiful spalpeen--what else--James