Irish Girl Names: 100 Names With Meanings and Pronunciations

Irish girl names run from classics like Aoife, Niamh, Saoirse and Caoimhe to names with a fada like Róisín and Sinéad and Anglicized forms like Maeve and Orla, and this list gives a checked meaning, plus a pronunciation wherever the reference prints one, for 100 Irish names for girls and 8 Irish-rooted names used in English.

Irish names for girls come from several places. Some are native Irish names with meanings like “bright”, “freedom” or “dear” (Niamh, Saoirse, Caoimhe). Others are Irish forms of names known across Europe (Sinéad, Siobhán, Éabha), and others are Anglicized spellings of Irish names (Maeve, Kathleen, Sheila).

We grouped the names by style: classics, names with a fada, Anglicized forms, the names topping the chart in Ireland, legend and mythology, saints, nature meanings and short names, rare picks, and Irish-rooted names used in English. Then come plain notes on how Irish spelling works and how to choose between the Irish spelling and the Anglicized one.

Irish Girl Names at a Glance

Every usage label, meaning and pronunciation here was checked against the name’s own entry on Behind the Name in October 2026. Where the reference calls a meaning unknown, uncertain or only possible, we say so, and where it prints no pronunciation, the cell is left empty.

Start with the classics. Behind the Name’s glossary notes that Gaelic-derived given names are common in Ireland, that saints’ names are common too, and that a name can be spelled in the traditional Irish way or in an Anglicized form. This page follows the same three threads. For ideas beyond Ireland, see our main list of baby girl names.

How to read the pronunciation column: the symbols between slashes are the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) line printed on the entry. The letters in parentheses are our plain reading of that line: capitals mark the stressed syllable, uh is the neutral vowel at the end of “sofa”, and kh is the sound at the end of “loch”. The respelling ignores the difference between broad and slender consonants (explained further down), so treat it as a starting point.

Several of these classics are younger than they sound. Per Behind the Name, Niamh has been used as a personal name only since the early 20th century, Aisling and Saoirse date from the 20th century, and Clodagh was first used as a given name by Clodagh Beresford (1879 to 1957), a daughter of the Marquess of Waterford.

Irish Names for Girls With a Fada

The fada is the acute accent on á, é, í, ó and ú, and it is part of the spelling: Róisín, Sinéad and Gráinne are written with it on their entries, and so is every name below. Many of these Irish female names are Irish forms of names known across Europe: Éabha is the Irish form of Eve, Máire of Maria, Mairéad of Margaret, Síle of Cecilia and Sinéad of Jeannette.

Per its entry, Gráinne was also the name of Grace O’Malley, a 16th-century Irish landowner and seafarer whom later tales sometimes portray as a pirate queen.

Anglicized Irish Names: Maeve, Orla, Kathleen and More

An Anglicized form is an Irish name respelled the English way, and many Irish girls names that feel familiar in the United States belong here. The third column prints what each entry says the name is an Anglicized form of. The pronunciations are the English ones the entries give.

Bridget has the longest story. Per Behind the Name, the name belonged to a goddess of fire, poetry and wisdom in Irish mythology, and to Saint Brigid, who founded a monastery at Kildare in the 5th century and is a patron saint of Ireland. Because of the saint, the name was considered sacred in Ireland and did not come into general use there until the 17th century. If you like the vintage feel of Kathleen, Maureen and Eileen, our old lady names list has more in that style.

The Most Popular Girl Names in Ireland Right Now

Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) publishes Irish Babies’ Names every year. Its report on names registered in 2025, released on February 27, 2026, puts two Irish-language names in the top three for girls, Éabha and Fiadh, with Croía also in the top 10.

• Éabha: ranked 2nd, the same place it held in 2024. Per the CSO, it was the most popular girls’ name where both parents were Irish, and the top girls’ name in Munster.
• Fiadh: ranked 3rd, up from 5th in 2024.
• Croía: ranked 9th nationally, and was the top girls’ name in Kerry.

One counting rule matters for Irish spellings. The CSO has included the síneadh fada (the Irish term for the fada) since 2018, and it treats a spelling with a fada and the same spelling without one as two separate names. It counted 5,488 different girls’ names registered in 2025.

In the United States, the Social Security Administration (SSA) says different spellings of similar names are not combined, so an Irish spelling and its Anglicized form (Caoimhe and Keeva, for example) are ranked separately. None of the SSA’s top 10 girls’ names for babies born in 2025 appears on this page.

Irish Mythology Names: Queens, Goddesses and Legends

Old stories supply some of the best-known traditional Irish names. The first table holds names that Behind the Name labels both Irish and Irish Mythology. Each legend is described only as the entry describes it.

Per the entries, Deirdre was rarely used as a given name until the 20th century, when plays about her by W. B. Yeats (1907) and J. M. Synge (1910) made it popular. Étaín is turned into a fly by a jealous rival and later reborn, and Maeve, in the Anglicized table, is the queen whose war against Ulster is told in the epic The Cattle Raid of Cooley.

The second table is different. Behind the Name labels these names Irish Mythology or Old Irish only, not Irish. Several are the older forms behind names in the first table.

Traditional Irish Saint Names for Girls

Early Irish saints left a set of old Irish girl names that are still in use. The table gives each saint only as her entry states.

Damhnait and Dymphna are two forms of one name: per Behind the Name, the 7th-century saint commonly called Dymphna also bore the name Damhnait. Bríd, in the fada table, is the modern Irish form of the name behind Brigid and Bridget.

Pretty Irish Baby Girl Names: Nature Meanings and Short Picks

Looking for pretty Irish names with a nature meaning? These six get there through the meaning their entries state: a swan, a lily, a rose, the sea, a group of islands and an alpine flower.

Names in other tables belong here too. Fiadh may mean “wild” or “deer”, Róisín is a diminutive of the Irish word for “rose”, Clodagh comes from a river, Damhnait means “calf, fawn” and Úna probably comes from a word for “lamb”. For more botanical ideas in any language, see our flower names.

Short Irish names for girls are easy to find. Each of these has four or five letters.

Úna, Bríd, Íde, Ita, Orla, Neve, Cara and Erin from the other tables are just as short. Shea and Aran are listed for boys as well as girls; for more names like that, see our gender neutral names.

Unique and Rare Irish Girl Names

These are uncommon in the United States, and each one has its own entry in the reference. The table keeps the word “possibly” wherever the entry uses it.

Rare in the U.S. does not always mean rare in Ireland: Croía ranked 9th there in 2025, according to the CSO. To see how common a name is in the U.S., use the name search on the SSA baby names page. The SSA leaves out names with fewer than 5 occurrences to protect privacy, so a very rare name may not appear at all. For more ideas in this style, see our unique girl names.

Irish-Rooted Names Used in English

These names come from Irish surnames, places or words, but Behind the Name labels them English, not Irish, so that is how the table labels them. Several are listed for both girls and boys.

Per the entries, Shannon became common as a given name in America after the 1940s, and Colleen has been used there since the early 20th century. Erin, in the classics table, has a similar history: it was first used by people of Irish heritage in America, Canada and Australia, and was rare until the mid-1950s.

How Irish Spelling and Pronunciation Work

Irish uses the same alphabet as English but follows its own spelling rules, which is why Aoife and Niamh are not said the way they look to an English reader. An Introduction to Irish Orthography, by the linguists Sandra Chung and James McCloskey of the University of California, Santa Cruz, sets out the main points:

• The fada marks length: the acute accent shows that a vowel is long. Compare Síle with Sheila, or Órlaith with Orla.
• Consonants are broad or slender: every consonant except h comes in both versions. The vowels beside it show which: a, o and u go with broad consonants, e and i with slender ones. Some vowel letters are there only to do that job and are not sounded.
• A slender s sounds like sh: which is why Sinéad, Siobhán and Síle all begin with a sh sound.
• An h changes the consonant before it: bh and mh are said like w, or like v when slender; th and sh are said like h; ch is the sound written /x/ in our tables; and fh is silent. That is the v in Caoimhe, the w or v at the end of Niamh, and the silent fh in Caoilfhionn.
• The letters ao can spell a long ee sound: as in Aoife, Caoimhe and Saoirse.
• Dialects differ: the handout describes the Irish of Donegal and notes that pronunciation varies between dialects. Behind the Name prints three variants for Niamh and four for Siobhán.

A note on two search terms. Gaelic girl names usually means names from the Irish language, which Behind the Name calls Irish Gaelic in several entries. Celtic girl names is wider: Encyclopaedia Britannica lists Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton and Cornish as the modern Celtic languages, so a Welsh or Scottish name is Celtic without being Irish. This page keeps to Irish.

Irish or Anglicized Spelling? How to Choose

Families outside Ireland often weigh Aisling against Ashling, Caoimhe against Keeva, or Niamh against Neve. There is no wrong answer, and what follows is our opinion, not a rule.

• The traditional spelling: keeps the link to the Irish language. Expect to spell it and say it for teachers and customer service lines, and expect your daughter to do the same.
• The Anglicized form: is easier for English readers, and it is a real name too: Behind the Name labels Keeva, Neve, Orla and Ashling as Irish.
• A middle path: use the Irish spelling in the middle name spot, or the Anglicized form first and the Irish one second. Our middle names guide covers flow, rhythm and initials.

A few practical checks before you fill in the birth certificate form:

• The fada: it is part of the Irish spelling, but U.S. forms and records do not always carry accent marks. Ask your hospital or state vital records office what can be printed, and decide early how you will write the name day to day.
• Say it out loud: with your surname, the way you would call it across a playground.
• Short forms: check what the name shortens to. Fionnuala has Nuala and Caitríona has Cáit.
• Siblings: if you are naming a sister and a brother, keep the spelling style consistent: both traditional or both Anglicized. Our companion list of Irish boy names uses the same reference.

Pairing ideas, not rules: Aoife Róisín, Niamh Clodagh, Saoirse Maeve, Fiadh Bridget, Éabha Caoimhe and Clodagh Sorcha. Comparing traditions? See our French girl names and Italian girl names.

Related Betteroo Guides

• Irish boy names
• Baby girl names
• Unique girl names
• French girl names
• Italian girl names
• Middle names

The Bottom Line

Irish names for girls cover every style: classics like Aoife, Niamh and Saoirse, names with a fada like Róisín and Sinéad, Anglicized forms like Maeve and Orla, legend names like Deirdre and Clíodhna, saint names like Íde and Gobnait, and rare picks like Cadhla and Síofra. Shortlist three to five, check the meaning, learn the pronunciation, choose between the Irish spelling and the Anglicized one, and say each name out loud with your surname.

Once the name is settled, sleep is the next project: our newborn sleep schedule week by week is a gentle place to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Betteroo Guides

• names that mean beautiful
• fairy names
• girl names that start with E
• girl names that start with C