Irish names starting with D

The D names in brief

• Dáithí · “DAW-hee” · Boy's name · also Dahy, David, Davy
  'swiftness, nimbleness'; also used for David. Dathí is remembered as the last pagan king of Ireland, said to have died struck by lightning in the Alps while campaigning — a story historians treat with caution but nobody wants to give up.
• Damhnaic · “DOW-nik” · Boy's name · also Dominic, Dominick
  An Irish form of Dominic. The Irish Dominic. Woulfe gives only one fact about it: it was in use in County Derry.
• Damhnait · “DAV-nit” · Girl's name · also Dympna, Devnet, Downet
  From damh, 'stag' or 'ox' — 'little fawn' or 'little doe'. St Dympna, a 7th-century Irish princess who fled her father and was killed at Geel in Belgium, became the patron saint of those suffering mental illness — and Geel built a tradition of caring for psychiatric patients in ordinary family homes that is studied to this day.
• Darragh · “DA-ra” · Used for girls and boys · also Dara, Dáire, Daragh
  From dair, 'oak' — 'oak tree' or 'fruitful, fertile'. Dáire is an ancient name borne by mythical kings — including Dáire mac Fiachna, who owned the brown bull that started the Táin. The modern Darragh reads simply as 'oak', which is why it suits a country whose place-names are full of doire, oak-woods.
• Dearbhla · “DER-vla” · Girl's name · also Dervla, Dearbháil, Derval
  'daughter of a poet' or 'true desire'. St Dearbhla of Mayo, whose well and church stand at Fallmore on the Mullet peninsula, is said to have torn out her own eyes to repel a suitor — and to have had her sight restored at the well. The travel writer Dervla Murphy made the name known worldwide.
• Deasmhumhnach · “DYASS-voo-nakh” · Boy's name · also Desmond
  'a native of Desmond', South Munster. Woulfe calls it an old Irish name or designation for a man from Desmond. Deas-Mhumhna, South Munster, existed as an independent territory between 1118 and 1543, and the English name Desmond comes from it.
• Declan · “DEK-lan” · Boy's name · also Deaglán, Declán
  Uncertain; possibly 'full of goodness'. St Declan of Ardmore was preaching in the Déisi country of Waterford before Patrick's mission was complete — one of the four pre-Patrician saints of Munster. His well, oratory and round tower at Ardmore are still visited on 24 July.
• Deirdre · “DEER-dra” · Girl's name · also Deirdri, Derdriu
  Uncertain; possibly 'she who chatters' or linked to a word for sorrow. Deirdre of the Sorrows is Ireland's tragic heroine: prophesied at birth to bring ruin, promised to old King Conchobar, she fled to Scotland with young Naoise and his brothers. Lured back to Emain Macha under false guarantees, Naoise was killed and Deirdre died: of grief in later tellings, and in the oldest by dashing her head against a rock.
• Diarmaid · “DEER-mid” · Boy's name · also Dermot, Diarmuid, Jeremiah, Darby
  Possibly 'without envy' or 'free man'. Two Diarmaids shaped Ireland: the legendary Diarmaid who eloped with Gráinne and died on Benbulben, and Diarmait Mac Murchada, king of Leinster, who in 1167 brought Norman soldiers to Ireland to win back his kingdom — and changed the country forever.
• Doireann · “DIR-in” · Girl's name · also Dorren, Doirean, Dorothy
  Possibly 'sullen' or 'daughter of Finn'; disputed. A name from the Fenian tales, where Doireann is a daughter of the Otherworld figure Bodb Dearg who poisons Fionn when he refuses her. Its meaning is genuinely uncertain — the older reading 'sullen' is contested by scholars.
• Domhnall · “DOH-nal” · Boy's name · also Donal, Donald, Daniel
  'world-ruler' — domhan + val. A name of high kings, and the origin of the Scottish Donald and the surname MacDonald. Domhnall Ua Néill and Domhnall Mór Ua Briain both held provincial kingship; Domhnall Ua Buachalla was the Free State's last Governor-General, who insisted on the Irish form of his name on state papers.
• Donn · “DOWN” · Boy's name · also Don
  'brown', or 'chief, noble'. In mythology Donn is the dark one, an ancestor of the Gaels and believed to be a god of the dead, who keeps Teach Duinn, the house where souls gather. As a given name Woulfe found it rare and almost peculiar to the Maguires.
• Donnán · “DUN-awn” · Boy's name · also Donnan, Donan
  A diminutive of donn, 'brown'. Woulfe counts four saints of the name. The best known, Donnán of Eigg, was a priest who tried to bring Christianity to the Picts and was killed on the Hebridean island of Eigg on 17 April 617.
• Donnchadh · “DUN-a-khoo” · Boy's name · also Donagh, Donough, Donncha, Denis, Duncan
  Donn + cath, 'brown-haired warrior' or 'strong warrior'. Borne by a son of Brian Boru and by kings of Munster and Leinster; the Scottish form is Duncan. Donnchadh Rua Mac Conmara was an 18th-century Waterford poet whose mock-epic on emigration is still read.
• Dubhaltach · “DOOL-takh” · Boy's name · also Dúltach, Dualtagh, Duald, Dudley
  'black-jointed'. A rare name made famous by one man: Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (Duald MacFirbis, died 1671), scribe, historian and genealogist, one of the last scholars trained in the old Gaelic way. Dudley was only an English substitute for it.
• Dubhán · “DOO-awn” · Boy's name · also Duán, Dowan
  A diminutive of dubh, 'black': 'little dark one'. Hook Head was originally Rinn Dubháin, Dubhán's point, after a 5th-century priest and pilgrim whom Wikipedia calls Brittonic. Woulfe records two saints of the name, with feasts on 11 February and 11 November.
• Dubhghall · “DOO-gal” · Boy's name · also Dugald, Dougal, Doyle
  Dubh, 'black', and gall, 'a foreigner'. The name the Irish gave the Danes — traditionally read as the dark foreigners, as against the fair ones, though scholars now debate it. It became a personal name, then the surname Doyle, and survives in Scotland as Dugald.
• Dubhghlas · “DOO-glas” · Boy's name · also Douglas
  The Irish form of Douglas; Woulfe gives no meaning. Woulfe's entry is a single line: Dubhghlas, Douglas. Wikipedia notes that the English given name grew out of the Scottish surname Douglas.

Also spelled with D

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

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