Irish names starting with N

The N names in brief

• Nainsí · “NAN-shee” · Girl's name · also Nainseadh, Neans, Nancy, Nance
  A popular variant of Ánna (Anne). The Irish Nancy. Woulfe spells it Nainseadh or Neans and calls it a popular variant of Ánna, which is where the English Nancy came from too.
• Naoise · “NEE-sha” · Boy's name · also Neesha, Noise
  Uncertain. Naoise was the young warrior who fled to Scotland with Deirdre against the king's will, and was killed by treachery on his return to Emain Macha. One of the great doomed lovers of European literature, and a name only recently revived.
• Naomhán · “NAY-vawn” · Boy's name · also Nevan
  A diminutive of naomh, 'holy'. An Irish saint whose feast was kept on 13 September, says Woulfe. The Latin form he gives, Sanctanus, simply translates the name.
• Neasa · “NASS-a” · Girl's name · also Nessa, Neassa
  Uncertain; borne in legend by the mother of a king. Ness was the formidable mother of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster — and unusually in early literature, he is named for her rather than his father. In one telling she extracted a year's kingship for her infant son by sheer negotiation.
• Neasán · “NASS-awn” · Boy's name · also Nessan
  Woulfe gives no meaning. Woulfe counts five Irish saints of the name, and says the best known is St Nessan, the deacon of Mungret.
• Niall · “NEE-al (Ulster NYAL)” · Boy's name · also Neil, Neal, Nial
  Possibly 'champion' or 'cloud'; disputed. Niall Noígíallach, Niall of the Nine Hostages, is the 5th-century king from whom the Uí Néill dynasties, and thus the O'Neills and O'Donnells, claimed descent. Genetic studies have found a Y-chromosome signature carried by a remarkable share of men in the north-west, consistent with one very prolific early medieval lineage.
• Niamh · “NEEV” · Girl's name · also Neve, Neave, Neeve
  'brightness, radiance, lustre'. Niamh Chinn Óir, Niamh of the Golden Hair, rode out of the western sea on a white horse and carried Oisín away to Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth. He stayed three hundred years, thinking it three; when he came home and his foot touched Irish ground, he crumbled into an old man.
• Nioclás · “NIK-lawss” · Boy's name · also Nicholas
  From Greek Nikolaos, 'victory of the people'. The legend of St Nicholas of Myra made it universal. Woulfe says it was one of the commonest names among the early Anglo-Norman settlers and still kept its popularity.
• Nóinín · “no-NEEN” · Girl's name · also Nóirín, Nonie, Daisy
  A pet form of Nóra — and also the Irish word for a daisy. Woulfe gives it as a pet form of Nóra and lists Daisy among its anglicisations — because nóinín is the Irish for a daisy, so the flower and the name are the same word twice over.
• Nollaig · “NUL-ig” · Used for girls and boys · also Noel, Noelle
  'Christmas'. The Irish word for Christmas, used for children born at that season — the exact equivalent of the French Noël, and used for boys and girls alike.
• Nóra · “NOH-ra” · Girl's name · also Nora, Onóra, Honora, Norah
  From Honora, Latin honor — 'honour'. Norman-French Honora became Onóra and then Nóra, and by the 19th century it was among the commonest names in Ireland. Nora Barnacle of Galway, who met James Joyce in June 1904 and first walked out with him on 16 June, the day he set Ulysses on, carried it into literary history.

Also spelled with N

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

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