Girl's name
Mairéad
“ma-RAYD”
the Irish form of Margaret, Greek for 'pearl'
The story behind the name
Its short form, Peig, belongs to Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket, whose dictated autobiography became, for better and worse, the book that generations of Irish schoolchildren associated with the language.
Where the name belongs
Famous people with this name
- Mairead Maguire (born 1944) — peace activist
- Mairead McGuinness (born 1959) — Irish politician and European Commissioner
- Máiréad Nesbitt (born 1979) — Irish Celtic, Classical and World solo violinist
- Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (born 1959) — Irish singer
- Mairéad Farrell (1957–1988) — IRA activist
Irish people with an English Wikipedia article whose given name is recorded as Mairéad on Wikidata; descriptions from Wikidata.
Meanings follow Ó Corráin & Maguire's Irish Names and Woulfe; pronunciations give the commonest Irish-English form. Know this name better — a dialect pronunciation, a family tradition? Tell us. · All Irish names A–Z