Origin Spotlight — Irish Names on the US Chart in 2024
The #1 boy name in the United States is Liam — an Irish short form of William. That alone signals how thoroughly Irish naming has woven itself into the American chart. But the more interesting Irish story is the one further down: a wave of Gaelic-spelled names (Saoirse, Cillian, Niamh) that an American parent in 2000 would have considered unspellable.
The mainstays
These are the Irish-origin names sitting in the modern US top 250:
| Name | 2024 rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Liam | #1 boys | Short form of William |
| Riley | #229 boys / #42 girls | From Raghallaigh |
| Rowan | #71 boys / #266 girls | Tree name with Irish surname use |
| Maeve | #75 girls | Legendary warrior queen of Connacht |
| Quinn | #497 boys / #96 girls | Ó Cuinn, "descendant of Conn" |
| Declan | #131 boys | Saint Declan of Ardmore |
| Connor | #136 boys | Conchobhar, "lover of hounds" |
| Kevin | #196 boys | Saint Kevin of Glendalough |
| Finn | #198 boys | Fionn, "fair" |
| Patrick | #221 boys | The patron saint |
| Brody | #224 boys | Scots-Irish surname |
| Ronan | #257 boys | Rónán, "little seal" |
Liam, Connor, and Riley anchor the chart from the top. Maeve and Quinn are the modern Irish girls' equivalents — both have climbed steadily through the 2010s and are still rising.
The Gaelic-spelling wave
This is the part that's actively moving. Names with authentic Irish spellings — sounds that don't map onto English orthography — used to be rare in US data. They're not anymore.
- Cillian — #463 boys ("KILL-ee-an"). Cillian Murphy's Oppenheimer Oscar in 2024 added rocket fuel; the name was outside the US top 1,000 in 2010.
- Kieran — #440 boys
- Brennan — #1,054
- Conor — #707 (the Gaelic spelling holding alongside the Anglicised Connor at #136)
- Seamus — #1,450 ("SHAY-mus")
- Niall — #1,582 ("NYE-al")
Girls:
- Saoirse — #1,036 ("SEER-sha"). "Freedom" in Irish; the actress Saoirse Ronan normalised the spelling for a generation.
- Aoife — #2,230 ("EE-fa")
- Niamh — #3,148 ("NEEV")
- Siobhan — #1,931 ("shi-VAWN")
- Ciara — #1,361
- Caitlin — #1,679 (the original spelling, where the older surge of Caitlyn / Katelyn / Kaitlyn ultimately came from)
What's driving it
Two forces:
- Diaspora pride looping back. Irish-American naming through most of the 20th century was assimilationist: Patrick, Kevin, Mary, Brigid. The current generation is pulling from Gaelic itself — names their grandparents would not have used on a US birth certificate.
- Specific high-profile bearers. Cillian Murphy, Saoirse Ronan, Aoife O'Donovan. One famous figure with a correctly-spelled Gaelic name removes the "how do I write this" objection for thousands of parents.
The two waves are likely to keep merging. Expect more Aoife, more Eoin, more Tadhg in the next decade — names that look completely opaque on the page until you've heard them once, and then permanently aren't.
For more origin spotlights, see Greek names on the modern US chart.
Data: U.S. Social Security Administration 2024 release. "Unranked" means fewer than five US births that year. Pronunciations are conventional Gaelic; American usage occasionally drifts.