Baby name predictions: Irish, place name, cool nickname — will little brother follow suit?

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, Predictions, , , ,

Hi everyone! 👋 Since my last post my no. 5 boy graduated from 5th grade, which means he’s moving on the middle/high school his big brothers go to; my no. 7 boy graduated from preschool, which means he’s moving on to Kindergarten (and ending the fifteen years I’ve had a little one in or anticipating being in our school’s sweet Early Childhood program); and we took a two-years-in-the-planning Big Family Vacation with my two brothers and their wives and kids, my parents, and my sister — 21 people in a house by the ocean (my two youngest sisters, brother-in-law, and nephew couldn’t come). While there, we went to Mass at a St. Anne church, checking the box for this year’s St. Anne Pilgrimage (that links to 2020; you can read more about 2021 and 2022 here)! And also: five of my seven kids and my husband came down with a stomach bug while on the vacation, which cut our vacation short, lasted through our drive home and into the next few days as well, and, man. That’s all I have to say.

But today I have a FUN THING!! My youngest sister is due next week with her second baby — a second boy! She and her hubby don’t share their name choices ahead of time so we’ve been having fun trying to guess/predict what her littlest man will be named, based exclusively on big brother’s name: Cashel, nn Cash.

Cashel is an amazingly fantastic name for my sister’s and BIL’s firstborn because they have a super Irish last name and they *got married in Ireland* and Cashel is an Irish place name with historical and faith significance. And it has the fantastic nickname Cash! It’s pretty close to perfect in my book. (Read more about Cashel [the place] here, and the name here and here.)

So today’s question: If you knew a couple with an Irish last name, who got married in Ireland, who gave their first baby boy an Irish place name for a given name, and that name has an easy, jaunty nickname, what names might you suggest or predict for baby boy no. 2??

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14 thoughts on “Baby name predictions: Irish, place name, cool nickname — will little brother follow suit?”

  1. I predict Cillian! It means church, and there’s Saint Cillian as a patron. I would use Ian for a nickname, which I also love on its own. In fact, I wanted to use the name Cillian!

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  2. My first thought of a cool Irish place name was Skellig Michael, so maybe Michael? Lots of cool nicknames to choose from and obviously a great patron saint.

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  3. I feel like Finnian would be perfect for them. It’s very Irish sounding and has the nickname Finn which goes so well with Cash… only problem I foresee is that Finn has been very popular in the last few years and since Cashel is not common at all- I’d guess maybe they like more unique names.

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  5. * Tyrone (Irish County): nn Ty

    * Lucan (village); nn Luc, Luke

    * Desmond (Irish place name) ; nn Des, Monty

    * Navan (hometown of actor Pierce Brosnan) ; nn Van

    *

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  6. Aran for the Aran Islands: Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer. Aran (Aaron) means “mountain of strength, exalted, strong.”
    Inis – “island” pronounced in-ish. Ennis (in-nus) is a variation of Inis.
    Conall – means “strong as a wolf.” Nickname could be Wolf.
    Conor – means “lover of hounds.”
    Declan – means “man of prayer” or “full of goodness.”
    Murphy – means “sea wolf.” Murph works for a nickname.

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  7. Rafferty nn Rafe!

    Others:
    Cormac, Malachy nn Mac
    Breccan nn Breck, Beck
    Riordan nn Rory
    Callahan nn Cal
    Fintan, Finbarr, Finnegan nn Finn
    Cavan nn Cav
    Branigan nn Bran
    Brogan nn Bo
    Quinlan nn Quinn

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  9. Carrick (Place name in Ireland!)
    Casey (new saint Solanus Casey)

    Biblical/Faith place names:
    – Trent (Council of Trent)
    – Jordan
    – Jericho

    Other ideas:
    Fergus
    Blaise
    Shepherd

    My favorite pairings with Cashel/Cash are Trent, Casey, and Blaise!

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