Irish first names in 1864

Historic studies suggest this is because some priests would refuse to baptise a child unless it was taking the name of a saint. While Ireland has a vast number of saints, their names are repeated over and over again, so it is no wonder that the selection of names given to infants followed this same pattern.

While modern trends in Irish first names are published every year, I had never come across any similar enquiry into mid-19th century Christian names in Ireland. Birth records from the civil registration indexes had recently gone online so I decided to carry out my very own research.

Having made a selection of surnames from the indexes – they included Cleary, Connell, Minihane and Kennedy – I had a pool of more than 1700 birth records. I then simply counted the occurrences of each name, ignoring spelling variations ie Denis or Dennis was accepted as the same name.

I accept that my methods would probably not pass too much expert scrutiny but I stand by them as a kind of 'vox pox' of first names in Ireland in the year 1864.

Below are the findings. The number beside each name gives the count of entries for that name.

Top ten Irish first names for girls in 1864

1. Mary (232)
2. Margaret (120)
3. Catherine/Kate (81)
4. Bridget/Biddy (62)
5. Ann/Anne (54)
6. Ellen (48)
7. Eliza/Elizabeth/Betty (22)
8. Johanna (20)
9. Sarah (19)
10. Julia (15)

Also in double figures were Hanora/Honora and Jane.

What is most surprising about these figures is the proportions of baby girls given the name Mary. If my sample was truly representative, nearly one little girl in three was called Mary. Since then, the name has almost completely fallen from favour (although you can bet it still features highly as a middle name). In 2008*, there were just 60 baby girls given the forename of Mary.... less than one little girl in one thousand.

Top ten Irish first names for boys in 1864

1. John (143)
2. Patrick/Pat (142)
3. James (90)
4. Thomas (89)
5. Michael (86)
6. William (67)
7. Martin (18)
8. Peter (16)
9. Timothy (16)
10. Denis/Dennis (15)

Also in double figures were Robert, Daniel, Francis, Hugh, Edward, Mathew, Maurice and Richard.

The top names for boys show a much more spread out numerical pattern than those for girls. Less than one boy in six would have been called John. The same is true of Patrick.

(The popularity of John has continued to this day. In 2008*, if the variants of Jack and Sean are included, John remains the most popular Irish boys name. *Republic of Ireland statistics.)

Find out more

• Take a look at modern trends for Irish first names for boys in the Republic.
• See how modern Northern Irish names differ.
• Find out more about Ireland birth records.
• How to use the Irish civil registration system to find your ancestors.
• Return to the full Irish names menu.
• Go to Irish Genealogy Toolkit Home page.