Celtic Baby Names: Irish, Scottish and Welsh Names with Meanings and Pronunciation

Updated November 2026 · Modern Baby Names

Celtic names carry some of the oldest stories in Europe: saints who sailed from Ireland to Iona, queens who led cattle raids, Welsh princes and Arthurian knights. They also carry a famous puzzle. Parents fall for Niamh or Caoimhe on paper and then wonder how anyone gets "Neev" or "KEE-va" out of those letters. This guide walks through Irish, Scottish and Welsh names with their meanings, explains the spelling rules that make them make sense, and helps you choose between the Gaelic original and the anglicised form.

What counts as a Celtic name?

"Celtic" is a language family, not a single culture. It splits into two branches. The Gaelic (Goidelic) branch includes Irish and Scottish Gaelic, which is why so many names appear in both countries in slightly different dress: Irish Aengus and Scottish Angus, Irish Colm and Scottish Callum. The Brythonic branch includes Welsh, Cornish and Breton, and gives us names such as Rhys, Elowen and Enora.

Many names in this family also came in from outside. Patrick is Latin, Seán and Siobhán reached Ireland through Norman French, and Megan is a Welsh pet form of Margaret, from the Greek for "pearl". They are still thoroughly Celtic names, because each language reshaped them to fit its own sounds. If you want to browse further, see our full lists of Irish baby names and Welsh baby names.

The pronunciation problem: why Irish spelling looks so strange

Irish spelling is not random. It is a consistent system that was built for Irish sounds, not English ones. Once you know a handful of rules, most names become readable.

1. "bh" and "mh" usually sound like v

An h after a consonant in Irish signals that the consonant has softened (this is called lenition). With b and m, the result is usually a v sound, sometimes closer to w depending on the vowels around it and the speaker's region.

• Niamh, "bright, radiant", is said "Neev".
• Caoimhe, "gentle, beautiful, precious", is KEE-va or KWEE-va depending on region.
• Siobhán, the Irish form of Joan, is shi-VAWN.
• Maeve is simply the English spelling of Méabh, which already shows the bh-to-v rule at work.

2. "dh" and "gh" often fade away

These pairs are frequently silent or barely there, especially at the end of a word. Tadhg, "poet, philosopher", is a single syllable that rhymes with "tiger" without the r: roughly TYGE. Darragh and Clodagh are anglicised spellings, yet they keep a silent final -gh, giving DA-ra and KLOH-dah. Th can disappear too: Cathal, "battle ruler", is KA-hal.

3. "s" next to e or i becomes "sh"

Irish pairs every consonant with "broad" vowels (a, o, u) or "slender" vowels (e, i). A slender s is pronounced sh. That one rule explains Seán (Shawn), Sinéad (shi-NAID), Siobhán and Séamus. It is also why English speakers wrote the names down as Shane and Shawn, and why Sheila is the English spelling of the Irish Síle.

4. Vowel groups and the fada

The accent mark, called a fada, lengthens a vowel: á is "aw", í is "ee", ó is "oh". So Róisín, "little rose", is ro-SHEEN, and Oisín, "little deer", is roughly uh-SHEEN. The fada matters: it changes the sound, and many Irish families feel strongly that it is part of the name. Vowel groups such as "ao" and "aoi" usually point to an "ee" sound, which is how Saoirse, the Irish word for "freedom", comes out as roughly SEER-sha, and how Aoife, "beautiful, radiant", is EE-fa.

5. Some names simply vary

Ireland has regional accents, and a few names have more than one accepted pronunciation. Aisling, "dream, vision", is heard as ASH-ling and ASH-leen. Eithne, "kernel, grain", ranges from EN-yeh to ETH-nee; the singer Enya, born Eithne, chose a spelling based on its sound. Pádraig runs from PAW-drig to PAW-rig. Sorcha, "bright, radiant", has a throaty ch as in "loch", though many people say SOR-ka.

Anglicised or Gaelic spelling?

Most Irish and Scottish names exist in two versions: the Gaelic original and an English-friendly spelling created over centuries of record-keeping in English. Neither is wrong.

• Gaelic spelling keeps the name's roots visible and signals a connection to the language. Expect to spell it out for teachers and baristas.
• Anglicised spelling is easier abroad but can lose the link to the original; some anglicised forms have travelled so far that people no longer recognise them as Irish.

Some useful pairs:

• Caoimhe is the feminine counterpart of Caoimhín, which English turned into Kevin.
• Ciarán became Kieran; its feminine Ciara produced Keira and Kiara.
• Aodhán became Aidan and then Aiden; both mean "little fire".
• Ruairí became Rory, from "red" and "king".
• Órlaith became Orla, "golden princess".
• Eibhlín became Eileen and, in Scotland, Aileen.
• Diarmuid became Dermot, and Fionnuala shrank to Nuala.
• Rónán kept its shape as Ronan, "little seal", and Lorcán became Lorcan, "little fierce one".

A few anglicisations have little to do with the Irish name at all. In the past, Tadhg was sometimes recorded as Timothy, Sorcha as Sarah, Cathal as Charles and Gráinne as Grace. Those were substitutions for convenience, not translations, so if you love Sorcha, Sarah is not the same name. Watch out too for Colleen: it comes from the Irish word cailín, "girl", but it became a first name among Irish families in America, Canada and Australia rather than in Ireland itself.

Irish girls' names

Irish boys' names

Saints' names

Ireland's Christian history is one of the richest sources of names, and many of the best-loved Celtic names honour a specific saint. For more names with a Christian background, see our Christian baby names.

• Patrick and Pádraig honour Saint Patrick, the fifth-century Romano-British missionary who became patron saint of Ireland. The name comes from Latin patricius, "nobleman".
• Bridget comes from the Irish Brighid, "the exalted one". Brigid was a goddess in pre-Christian Ireland, and the name was later borne by Saint Brigid of Kildare, one of Ireland's patron saints. Brigitte is the French and German form.
• Columba, or Colm Cille, founded the monastery of Iona in the sixth century. His name, Latin for "dove", gives Irish Colm, Scottish Callum, and Malcolm, from Máel Coluim, "devotee of Columba".
• David, Dewi in Welsh, is the patron saint of Wales, which is why David has long been a favourite Welsh name. The surname Davis, "son of David", grew from it.
• Kevin honours Saint Kevin of Glendalough, a sixth-century hermit in the Wicklow Mountains.
• Brendan recalls Saint Brendan of Clonfert, "the Navigator".
• Kieran and Ciarán recall Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, founder of a great sixth-century monastery.
• Declan honours Saint Declan of Ardmore in County Waterford. The popular gloss "full of goodness" is a guess; the real meaning is unclear.
• Aidan recalls Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, an Irish monk from Iona who evangelised Northumbria.
• Finnian recalls Saint Finnian of Clonard, called the "teacher of the saints of Ireland".
• Lorcan honours Saint Lorcán Ua Tuathail, known in English as Laurence O'Toole, archbishop of Dublin.
• Winifred is the English form of the Welsh Gwenfrewi; Saint Winifred's holy well at Holywell in North Wales is still a pilgrimage site. Gladys, from Gwladys, also honours a Welsh saint.
• Cornwall adds Senara and Merryn, named after local saints about whom little is known, so treat any confident "meaning" with caution.

Names from Irish mythology

Irish legend gives a cast of names that are both ancient and very wearable today.

• Finn, "fair, white", is the English form of Fionn, as in Fionn mac Cumhaill, the great hero of the Fenian tales. Scottish Fiona comes from the same word.
• Oisín, "little deer", is Fionn's son, the poet of the Fianna, who spends centuries in Tír na nÓg, the land of youth. He is carried there by Niamh of the golden hair.
• Deirdre is the tragic heroine of the Ulster Cycle, "Deirdre of the Sorrows". That is why her name is often glossed "sorrowful", though its real meaning is uncertain.
• Maeve is Medb, the warrior queen of Connacht in the Táin Bó Cúailnge; the name is usually explained as "she who intoxicates".
• Aoife is a warrior woman who fights Cú Chulainn.
• Gráinne and Diarmuid are the eloping lovers pursued across Ireland by Fionn.
• Fionnuala and Fiachra are among the Children of Lir, turned into swans by a jealous stepmother.
• Aengus Óg is the youthful god of love and poetry, linked with Brú na Bóinne, the site of Newgrange.
• Connor recalls Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster, and Conal the hero Conall Cernach; Cormac recalls the high king Cormac mac Airt.
• Fintan mac Bóchra survived the Flood as a salmon and became a keeper of Ireland's memory.

Scottish names: Gaelic roots, Scots spellings

Scottish Gaelic follows rules close to Irish, and many Scottish names are English spellings of Gaelic originals. The clearest example is Hamish: it comes from Sheumais, a form of Seumas (James). In Gaelic a softened s, written "sh", is said as h, so Sheumais sounds roughly like "HAY-mish". Irish has the same name as Séamus.

Other Gaelic-to-English pairs include Eòghann to Ewan, Alasdair to Alistair and Alister, Lachlann to Lachlan, Coinneach to Kenneth, Domhnall to Donald, Donnchadh to Duncan and Aonghas to Angus. Many Scottish names began as clan surnames or place names: Cameron ("crooked nose"), Campbell ("crooked mouth"), Mackenzie ("son of Coinneach") and Isla, from the island of Islay.

Welsh spelling: ll, dd, f, w and y

Welsh looks intimidating, but it is more phonetic than English. A handful of rules cover most names.

• ll is a sound English lacks: place your tongue as for l and breathe out past the sides. English speakers struggled with it so much that the Welsh llwyd, "grey", produced both Lloyd and Floyd. The word llyn, "lake", is behind Lynn.
• dd is the "th" of "this". Gruffudd, the name of several medieval Welsh princes, ends in that sound, and it became Griffith and Griffin. Maredudd gave us Meredith, which is still a boys' name in Wales.
• f is a v sound, and ff is an English f. That is why Trefor is written Trevor in English, why fychan, "small", became Vaughn, and why Ffion, "foxglove", needs its double f.
• w can be a vowel, roughly "oo", as in the ŵ of Owain Glyndŵr, the most famous bearer of the name that gives us Owen. In gwen and gwyn it is a consonant, as in Bronwyn and Gwendolyn.
• y is a vowel: in Rhys it sounds like "ee" (hence the English spellings Reece and Reese), while in many other words it is closer to "uh".
• c is always hard. Cerys, "love", is KEH-riss, and Carys has a short a. Both come from caru, "to love".

Welsh patronymics also explain several surname-names. "Ap" or "ab" means "son of", so ab Owain gave Bowen and ap Rhydderch gave Broderick. The element gwen, "white, fair, blessed", runs through Anwen, Bronwyn, Gwendolen, Guinevere and its Cornish form Jennifer.

Welsh legend and Arthurian names

Wales gives the Arthurian legends many of their names. Arthur may come from Welsh arth, "bear", though a Roman origin is also argued. Guinevere is the Norman French form of Gwenhwyfar. Enid is the loyal wife of Geraint, Gareth a knight of the Round Table, and Gavin a form of Gawain. Emrys, the Welsh Ambrose, recalls Myrddin Emrys, the Welsh Merlin. From the Mabinogion come Dylan, a sea-being, and the line of names behind Bronwyn. Morgan has long been a Welsh man's name, and Morgan le Fay gave it its feminine side. Tristan and Isolde belong to a medieval tale whose roots are partly Celtic, though the exact origin of both names is debated.

Cornish and Breton names

Cornish and Breton are the smaller Brythonic languages, and both have given modern parents distinctive names. From Cornish come Elowen, "elm tree", Kerensa, "love", and Tamsin, a Cornish contraction of Thomasina, "twin". From Breton come Enora, Alan and Harvey, "battle-worthy".

Choosing a Celtic name

• Say it out loud with the spelling in front of you. If you choose Caoimhe or Tadhg, you will be teaching the pronunciation for years. Some families prefer an anglicised form such as Keira for that reason.
• Check the real meaning. Meanings of very old names are often uncertain. Brian, Niall, Cormac and Declan are all debated, and websites that give a single neat meaning are often guessing.
• Mind the substitutions. Sorcha is not Sarah and Gráinne is not Grace, even if old records treated them that way.

Browse more by letter in our boy names and girl names.

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce Niamh, Caoimhe and Saoirse?

Niamh is "Neev", Caoimhe is KEE-va or KWEE-va depending on region, and Saoirse is roughly SEER-sha. In each, "mh" or the vowel groups follow regular Irish spelling rules rather than English ones.

What is the difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic names?

The two languages are closely related, so many names exist in both with slightly different spellings: Irish Séamus and Scottish Hamish, Irish Colm and Scottish Callum, Irish Aengus and Scottish Angus.

Why do Welsh names have double letters like ll and dd?

They are single sounds. "Ll" is a breathy l, "dd" is the "th" in "this", and "ff" is an English f, while a single f is a v. That is why Welsh Trefor became Trevor and llwyd became Lloyd.

Should I use the fada in names like Róisín or Seán?

In Irish the fada changes the vowel sound, so Róisín and Seán are the correct spellings. Some families drop it for convenience abroad, but many Irish speakers consider it part of the name.

What does Tadhg mean and how is it said?

Tadhg means "poet" or "philosopher". It is one syllable, rhyming with "tiger" without the r. The surname-based Teagan comes from the same root.

Are Celtic names Christian?

Some are saints' names, such as Patrick, Bridget, Kevin and Brendan. Others, such as Maeve or Aengus, come from pre-Christian legend, and many are simply descriptive words like Saoirse, "freedom".