Irish names starting with C

The C names in brief

• Cairbre · “KAR-bra” · Boy's name · also Carbry
  'charioteer'. Once common among the O'Farrells and O'Beirnes, and borne by four saintly bishops in the Martyrology of Donegal.
• Cáit · “KAWT” · Girl's name · also Kate, Caití
  A pet form of Caitríona. Woulfe calls it simply 'very common' — the everyday Irish for Kate, and the name half the Catherines in Ireland were actually called.
• Caitlín · “kat-LEEN (anglicised KAYT-lin)” · Girl's name · also Kathleen, Cathleen, Caitlin, Katelyn
  The Irish form of Catherine. Cathleen Ni Houlihan, Caitlín Ní Uallacháin, is Ireland personified as an old woman who sends young men out to die and is made young again by their sacrifice; Yeats and Lady Gregory put her on the Abbey stage in 1902. The name's American spelling, Caitlin, is usually said quite differently from the Irish.
• Calbhach · “KAL-vakh” · Boy's name · also Calvagh, Callough, Charles
  'bald'. Once common among the O'Connors of Offaly, the O'Carrolls of Éile, the O'Molloys, O'Donnells and O'Reillys — usually written An Calbhach, 'the bald one', with the article kept. Now generally anglicised Charles.
• Caoilfhionn · “KEE-lin” · Girl's name · also Keelin, Keeley
  Caol + fionn, 'slender and fair'. A name that survived mainly through St Caoilfhionn, and which returned in the late 20th century — often in the simplified spelling Keelin, which spares its owner a lifetime of spelling it out.
• Caoimhe · “KWEE-va (Munster KEE-va)” · Girl's name · also Keeva, Keva
  From caomh, 'gentle, beautiful, precious'. The feminine counterpart of Caoimhín (Kevin), and one of the names that came roaring back in the 1990s after centuries of quiet. Both descend from caomh, an old word for what is dear and worth protecting.
• Caoimhín · “KWEE-veen” · Boy's name · also Kevin, Coemgen
  From caomh, 'gentle, kind' — 'of gentle birth'. St Kevin founded Glendalough in the Wicklow mountains and, folklore insists, stood so long in prayer with his hand outstretched that a blackbird nested in it — and he waited for the chicks to fledge. Seamus Heaney wrote a poem about exactly that patience.
• Caolán · “KAY-lawn” · Boy's name · also Kealan, Kelan, Kyle
  'slender' — a diminutive of caol. The name of seven Irish saints, and one of the Gaelic names that came back strongly in the twentieth century.
• Caomhán · “KAY-vawn” · Boy's name · also Kevan, Cavan
  'gentle' or 'comely' — a diminutive of caomh. Borne by no fewer than fifteen Irish saints, which tells you how well the early church thought of gentleness. Sometimes Latinised as Pulcherius, by translation.
• Cara · “KA-ra” · Girl's name · also Kara
  'friend' in modern Irish. A modern coinage from the everyday Irish word for friend — cara, as in 'a chara', the standard opening of an Irish letter. It happens also to mean 'dear' in Italian, which has helped it travel.
• Cárthach · “KAR-hakh” · Boy's name · also Carthach, Carthage
  'loving'. The root of MacCarthy (Mac Cárthaigh, 'son of the loving one') the great dynasty of Desmond who descended from the Eóganacht kings of Cashel and built Blarney Castle.
• Cathal · “KA-hal” · Boy's name · also Cahal, Cathal, Charles
  Cath + val, 'strong in battle'. Cathal Crobhderg, 'Cathal of the Wine-Red Hand', was the last effective king of Connacht before the Norman tide, and died a monk in 1224. Cathal Brugha (Brugha) was the first Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil and died in the Civil War.
• Cathaoir · “KA-heer” · Boy's name · also Cahir, Charles
  Possibly 'warrior' or 'battle-lord'. Cathaoir Mór is the legendary ancestor of the Leinster dynasties. Cathaoir Ó Doirnín and Cahir O'Doherty carried it into history — the latter's doomed 1608 revolt burned Derry and gave the crown its excuse for the Plantation of Ulster.
• Ceallach · “KYAL-akh” · Boy's name · also Kellagh, Celsus
  'war' or 'strife'. Once very common, and borne by at least three saints — one of them the Archbishop of Armagh known as St Celsus, who died at Ardpatrick in Munster on 1 April 1129. The surname Kelly is built on the same word.
• Cian · “KEE-an” · Boy's name · also Kian, Kean, Cain
  'ancient, enduring, long-lasting'. In myth, Cian was the father of Lugh — and so of the god who killed Balor. In history, Cian was a son-in-law of Brian Boru who fought at Clontarf.
• Cianán · “KEE-a-nawn” · Boy's name · also Kienan, Kenan
  'little Cian' — a diminutive of Cian, 'ancient'. The name of three Irish saints, of whom one was the celebrated bishop of Duleek in Meath — the first church in Ireland to be built of stone.
• Ciannait · “KEE-nit” · Girl's name · also Kinnat, Keenat
  The feminine form of Cian, 'ancient'. An Irish virgin saint commemorated on 23 March. The masculine pair to the name is Cianán, borne by the bishop of Duleek.
• Ciara · “KEER-a” · Girl's name · also Keira, Kiera
  From ciar, 'dark' — 'dark-haired one'. The feminine form of Ciarán, and the name of a 7th-century saint of Kilkeary in Tipperary. Its spelling has spread far beyond Ireland — often to people who pronounce it 'see-AIR-a', which no Irish speaker would.
• Ciarán · “KEER-awn” · Boy's name · also Kieran, Kieron, Keiran, Ciaran
  From ciar, 'dark' — 'little dark one'. Two great saints share it: Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, who founded the monastic city on the Shannon and died at 33, and Ciarán of Saighir, one of the pre-Patrician saints of Ossory. Between them they made it one of the most enduring names in the country.
• Cillian · “KIL-ee-an” · Boy's name · also Killian, Cillín
  Possibly from cill, 'church', or ceall, 'little warrior'; disputed. St Cillian of Würzburg left Ireland in the 7th century to preach in Franconia and was murdered there for telling a duke his marriage was unlawful; he is patron of the Bavarian city still. The actor Cillian Murphy has spent a career correcting the pronunciation.
• Clíodhna · “KLEE-na” · Girl's name · also Cliona, Cleena
  Uncertain; borne by a figure of the Otherworld. Clíodhna was a woman of the sídhe who left the Otherworld for a mortal love and was drowned by a great wave at Glandore in County Cork — 'Clíodhna's Wave', one of the three great waves of Ireland. She later became a guardian spirit of the MacCarthys.
• Clodagh · “KLOH-da” · Girl's name
  From the River Clodiagh in Waterford. One of the few Irish names that began as a river and became a person rather than the other way round. Lady Clodagh Anson, daughter of the 5th Marquess of Waterford, was named after the Clodiagh, which runs through the family estate at Curraghmore, and the name spread from her.
• Coireall · “KIR-al” · Boy's name · also Kerill, Cyril
  An old name; Woulfe records no meaning for it. A saintly Irish bishop whose feast was kept on 13 June. The name is often stood in for by Cyril, which it has nothing to do with.
• Colla · “KUL-a” · Boy's name · also Colla Uais
  An ancient name; Woulfe records no meaning for it. An ancient Irish name, formerly common among the MacDonalds, MacSweeneys and MacMahons of Ulster. The three Collas of legend are the traditional founders of Oriel.
• Colm · “KUL-um” · Boy's name · also Colum, Columba, Callum, Colmcille, Columcille
  From Latin columba, 'dove'. Colmcille, 'dove of the church', was the prince-monk who founded Derry and Iona and, tradition says, went into exile after a battle fought over a copied book: the world's first copyright dispute. He is one of Ireland's three patron saints.
• Colmán · “KUL-mawn” · Boy's name · also Colman, Coleman
  'little dove' — a diminutive of Colm. The Irish martyrologies list well over two hundred saints called Colmán, more than any other name, including Colmán of Cloyne, a poet before he was a bishop, and Colmán of Lindisfarne, who argued for the Irish Easter at Whitby and lost.
• Comhghall · “KO-al” · Boy's name · also Cole, Comgall
  'co-pledge' or 'fellow-hostage'. The great abbot of Bangor in Down, whose monastery sent Columbanus into Europe — and six other saints besides. Hostage-giving between families was how peace was kept, and a child could be the pledge.
• Conaire · “KON-a-ra” · Boy's name · also Conary
  An ancient name; Woulfe records no meaning for it. Conaire Mór is the doomed high king of Da Derga's Hostel, one of the oldest and strangest stories in Irish — a king destroyed by breaking, one at a time, every taboo laid on him.
• Conall · “KON-al” · Boy's name · also Connall, Conal
  'strong as a wolf' or 'strong wolf'. Conall Cernach was a Red Branch champion who avenged Cú Chulainn's death. Conall Gulban, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, founded the kingdom of Tír Chonaill (Donegal, 'Conall's land') and the O'Donnells descend from him.
• Conán · “KON-awn” · Boy's name · also Conan
  An old name of uncertain meaning, often linked to cú, 'hound'. The name of at least six Irish saints, among them St Conan of Assaroe in Donegal, a kinsman of Colmcille venerated on 8 March. Conán Maol is also the loud-mouthed, bald-headed comic of the Fianna.
• Conchobhar · “KON-a-khoor (commonly KRUH-hoor)” · Boy's name · also Conor, Connor, Conchúr, Cornelius
  Possibly 'lover of hounds' or 'wolf-lover'. Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster in the Táin, presides over the Red Branch warriors from Emain Macha — and over the tragedy of Deirdre, which his own possessiveness causes. Ten centuries later the O'Connor kings of Connacht took his name into history; two of them were the last High Kings of Ireland.
• Conn · “KON” · Boy's name · also Con, Connie
  Possibly 'chief' or 'hound'. Conn Cétchathach, 'Conn of the Hundred Battles', is the legendary ancestor of the Connachta, and of half the dynasties of the north and west. Conn Bacach O'Neill was the first to accept an English earldom in 1542, beginning the slow end of Gaelic Ulster.
• Cormac · “KOR-mak” · Boy's name · also Cormack, Charles
  Possibly 'son of the charioteer' or 'raven's son'; disputed. Cormac mac Airt is the legendary wise high king of Tara, to whom a book of maxims is attributed. Cormac mac Cuilennáin, king-bishop of Cashel, died in battle in 908 and left behind Ireland's first known glossary — a dictionary of hard words a thousand years before dictionaries were normal.
• Criomhthann · “KRIV-han” · Boy's name · also Crevan
  'fox'. Common among the Kavanaghs of Leinster — and, Woulfe notes, the first name of St Colmcille before he took another. St Criomhthann was venerated on 23 May.
• Criostóir · “KRIS-tore” · Boy's name · also Christopher, Christy
  The Irish form of Christopher, 'Christ-bearer'. A name that arrived with the Church and settled comfortably; its short form, Christy, is thoroughly Irish.
• Cristín · “kris-TEEN” · Girl's name · also Cristíona, Christina
  From Latin Christina, 'a Christian'. From a Roman girl martyred at Bolsena in 295. It reached Scotland with Queen Margaret and Ireland with the Anglo-Normans.
• Cronan · “KROH-nawn” · Boy's name · also Crónán, Cronin
  From crón, 'dark yellow, swarthy' — 'little dark one'. St Crónán founded the monastery at Roscrea in Tipperary, where the west front of his church still stands in the middle of the town. The surname Cronin comes from the same root.
• Cuán · “KOO-awn” · Boy's name · also Cuan, Cuanna
  From cú, 'hound' — 'little hound'; also 'harbour' in modern Irish. A name of early saints that has been quietly revived, helped by the fact that cuan also means harbour in everyday Irish — so it reads as both 'little wolfhound' and 'haven'.

Also spelled with C

Listed on the atlas under another spelling, but the C form is the one many families carry — they are the same name.

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