Irish American names of a certain era

[Anonymous]

Both of my parents grew up in large Irish Catholic families in the Midwest in the 40s/50s. The names have all been mentioned before but for emphasis:

Peter
Mary
John
Thomas
Jim
Daniel
Michael
Mary Beth
Sheila
Laura
Patricia
Maureen
Rosemary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patricia
Teresa
Sharon
Angela
Deborah
Suzanne

I never met an Irish-American Deborah or Suzanne or Sharon. Theresa yes, but add the h.

No “h” for my Irish-born mother named Teresa. I would strike that requirement.

H is in there. Your mother is outlier or it was spelled wrong by her parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patricia
Teresa
Sharon
Angela
Deborah
Suzanne

I never met an Irish-American Deborah or Suzanne or Sharon. Theresa yes, but add the h.

No “h” for my Irish-born mother named Teresa. I would strike that requirement.

I don't have a dog in this T(h)eresa fight but Irish-born names and Irish-American names are not the same. OP is looking for Irish American naming conventions specifically.

And she is receiving them. Earlier “h” PP is not the arbiter of Irish-American names. Frankly, I can’t take her opinion seriously if she hasn’t heard of an Irish-American named Sharon before.

Well, I didn’t meant to try to be an arbiter. But I really have never met an Irish Catholic named Sharon! I’m one of 10 from an Irish family (and yes my name and all my sisters’ names have been listed multiple times here), plus my mom has about 50 cousins (her dad was one of 9) and another 40 or so second cousins, plus she went to a Catholic women’s school that was predominantly Irish background and I know all her classmates from school in the 1950s. So those are my credentials, such as they are….I think of Sharon as being a Jewish name, actually, along with Deborah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patricia
Teresa
Sharon
Angela
Deborah
Suzanne

I never met an Irish-American Deborah or Suzanne or Sharon. Theresa yes, but add the h.

No “h” for my Irish-born mother named Teresa. I would strike that requirement.

I don't have a dog in this T(h)eresa fight but Irish-born names and Irish-American names are not the same. OP is looking for Irish American naming conventions specifically.

And she is receiving them. Earlier “h” PP is not the arbiter of Irish-American names. Frankly, I can’t take her opinion seriously if she hasn’t heard of an Irish-American named Sharon before.

Well, I didn’t meant to try to be an arbiter. But I really have never met an Irish Catholic named Sharon! I’m one of 10 from an Irish family (and yes my name and all my sisters’ names have been listed multiple times here), plus my mom has about 50 cousins (her dad was one of 9) and another 40 or so second cousins, plus she went to a Catholic women’s school that was predominantly Irish background and I know all her classmates from school in the 1950s. So those are my credentials, such as they are….I think of Sharon as being a Jewish name, actually, along with Deborah.

+1 from big Irish-American families on both sides where the fewest number of kids was 5 until my generation. Reading this thread is just reading my relatives names over and over. No Sharons or Deborahs. I definitely do not think of them as Irish-American names. But I agree that Irish names and Irish-American names are different though overlapping.

[Anonymous]

Maureen
Therese
Ramona
Lois
Colleen
Molly
Meghan
Maura
Orla
Claire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worth noting that it is traditional in the Catholic faith to name children after saints. The website https://sanctanomina.net/ is fun to peruse for those interested in baby naming of the Catholic variety!

My Irish SIL's priest initially told her he would not baptise her fourth child, because she wasn't given a saint's name.

Seriously.

Ugh. Refusing to baptise a baby who had no say in what they were named, thereby keeping them out of heaven, is definitely what Jesus would do! Ridiculous!! I hope they found another priest, permanently!

It is technically a requirement to have a saint’s name or similar for baptism. You don’t have to use it but you do have to have it for the baptism. So you get stuff like Montana Joan or whatever if you want to name your kid Montana. Also, almost all names have some saint connection-I have a baptismal naming book from 1902 from my Irish great uncle who was a priest and carried it with him to baptisms in case the parents still needed a name. Names like Faith, hope, Grace while technically not saints are acceptable, as are all the our lady derivations (Fatima, Dolores, etc.)

There are actual Irish and Irish American naming conventions, though. I think they are:
First son after father
First daughter after maternal grandmother
Second son after maternal grandfather
Second daughter after paternal grandfather
Third son after paternal grandfather if not already used
Third daughter after paternal grandmother
Etc. But they often did it as middle names (so Ellen’s granddaughter might be Mary Ellen)
And once you got down to the 4th etc. kids you were often just free wheeling it.

I’d add to the list Maura (more common spelling than Moira in 20th century America) and Grace (Grace o malley being a famous Irish pirate or something). Anne was a wildly popular name in part because Anne is the patron saint of childbirth and pregnancy so if you had a rough pregnancy or childbirth it was common to pray to st Anne and name the child after her in gratitude for a healthy delivery.

Gráinne Ní Mháille was the famous Irish pirate queen whose name was Anglicized to Grace O'Malley. She was a bad ass B and everyone reading this should go and read about her ASAP

[Anonymous]

Thomas
Joseph
Anne Marie

[Anonymous]

Dolores. (in addition to all others)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patricia
Teresa
Sharon
Angela
Deborah
Suzanne

I never met an Irish-American Deborah or Suzanne or Sharon. Theresa yes, but add the h.

No “h” for my Irish-born mother named Teresa. I would strike that requirement.

H is in there. Your mother is outlier or it was spelled wrong by her parents.

My Irish American aunt is Teresa. The saint is St. Teresa of Avila, a much older saint than St. Theresa the Little Flower, whom my aunt finds wimpy.

[Anonymous]

Are you asking to consider these for a future kid, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why

Seriously...what on earth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frances
Patricia
Pauline
Irene
Nora
Agnes
Margaret
Nellie (don’t remember what that’s short for)


Those are all of my great aunts I could remember off the top of my head besides Aunt Kath(leen) and the Mary____s. Working class - poor Irish immigrants came over 1930s-1940s

Nellie is often short for Penelope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Names from my 2nd generation Irish America family tree circa 1935-48

Dennis
Patrick
Edward
John
Michael
James
William

Margaret
Marion
Katherine/Kitty
Joan
Rose

Here are mine, 2nd generation Irish. Circa 1915 - 1940:

Edward
John
Urban
Alfred

Mary
Rose
Ruth
Violet

[Anonymous]

We have a Teresa w/o the H, plus a Sharon (though she's 40-something, so not the era we're talking about).