Our latest book, Cool Irish Names for Babies, will be hitting the bookstores in a few weeks and we’ll be offering you a few hors d’oeuvres (that doesn’t sound very Irish) before then. The book contains lots of undiscovered Irish baby names drawn from myth, legend and history, cool celebrity and popularity stuff, and a history of Irish names in America. And for Celtic-pronunciation-phobic American parents, we give the pronunciation of every problematic name–every time it’s mentioned.

　　To bring it up-to-the-moment and not just rely on national popularity lists, we scoured the birth announcements in newspapers to find out what Irish baby names real parents in Dublin and elsewhere are actually using today. Here are some that are in the book, and others added just this week. With pronunciations, but, unfortunately, not the accents.

　　GIRLS

　　AILBHE (ALL-bay)AISLING (ASH-ling)AISLINN (ASH-len)AOIBHINN (EE-veen)AOIFE (EE-fa)ARABELLA

　　BAY HERMIONE

　　BERNADETTE

　　BLATHNAID (blaw-nid)CAOIMHE (KEE-va)CARAGH (KAR-a)CAROLENA

　　CLARA

　　CLODAGH (KLO-da)–very popularEABHA (AY-wa)EITHNE (EN-ya)FAY

　　FIA

　　GRAINNE (GRAWN-ya)HAZEL

　　IONA

　　LARAGH (la-ra)LULU

　　MAEVEMUIREANN (MWIRR-an)NESSA

　　NIAMH (neev)–very popularNORA

　　OLIVE

　　ORLA

　　ORLAITH (OR-lee)ROISIN (ro-SHEEN)SADHBH (sive–rhymes with five)SIOBHAN (shi-VAUN)SIUN (shoon)SORCHA (SOR-ka or SOR-ra)TAMSIN (TAM-zin)

　　BOYS

　　AILBHE (ALL-bay) unisexALFIE

　　ARAN

　　CALLUM

　　CIAN (KEE-an)CILLIAN (KILL–ee-an)CONN

　　CORMACCUAN (koo-AWN)DAIRE (Da-ra)DECLAN

　　DIARMAID (DEER-mid)EAMON (ay-mon)ENAN (EE-nane)EOIN (OH-in)FIONN (fin)GARVAN

　　HARVEY

　　JARLATH

　　LOCHLAN (LOK-lun)MURROUGH (mur-ah)NIALL (NEE-all)ODHRAN (OH-ran)OISIN (OH-sheen)OSCAR

　　PADDY

　　RIAN (REE-an)RONAN

　　RUADHAN (ROO-an)SENAN (SENN-an)TADHG (TYEg)TIARNAN (TEER-nan)