Irish names starting with G

The G names in brief

• Garbhán · “GAR-vawn” · Boy's name · also Garvan, Garvin
  From garbh, 'rough' — 'little rough one'. St Garbhán gave his name to Dungarvan in County Waterford — Dún Garbháin, 'Garbhán's fort'.
• Gearóid · “gar-OHD” · Boy's name · also Gerald, Garrett, Gerard
  The Irish form of Gerald. Gearóid Mór FitzGerald, the 'Great Earl' of Kildare, ruled Ireland in all but name for forty years — when told the Irish bishops accused him of burning Cashel cathedral, he replied that he would never have done it but that he thought the archbishop was inside.
• Glaisne · “GLASH-na” · Boy's name · also Glasny
  An old name; Woulfe records no meaning for it. A favourite in several Ulster families, and still in use within living memory of Woulfe's writing.
• Gobnait · “GUB-nit” · Girl's name · also Gobnet, Gobinet, Abbey, Debby
  From gob, 'a mouth'. The patroness of Ballyvourney in west Cork, whose feast is kept on 11 February and whose holy well is still visited. Woulfe found the name common in Cork, Kerry and Limerick in his day — but usually written down as Abbey or Debby, which is how a saint disappears.
• Gormlaith · “GORM-la” · Girl's name · also Gormley, Gormflaith
  Gorm + flaith, 'illustrious princess' (gorm here 'splendid' rather than 'blue'). Gormlaith, daughter of the king of Leinster, married in turn the Norse king of Dublin, the high king Máel Sechnaill, and Brian Boru — and, the sagas say, urged her son Sitric to war at Clontarf. Few names sit so exactly at the centre of a battle.
• Gráinne · “GRAWN-ya” · Girl's name · also Grania, Granya, Grace
  Uncertain; long linked to grán, 'grain', and to a grain-goddess figure. In the Fenian Cycle, Gráinne is promised to the ageing Fionn mac Cumhaill and elopes with the young Diarmaid instead — pursued the length of Ireland, which is why so many dolmens are called 'the bed of Diarmaid and Gráinne'. History's Gráinne is Gráinne Mhaol (Grace O'Malley), the pirate queen of Mayo.

Also spelled with G

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

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