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Help[Opinions] Re: why do people seem to like Celtic names so much?
in reply to a message by Murasaki
I remember Dylan Moran saying something like, "The Irish have great PR now. We used to be terrorists but al-Queda stole our thunder and now we're the happy riverdance people. The Americans love us the most. They tell me, 'Oh, I'm Irish! My grandmother was from Galway.' And then they ask if I knew her. I always say yes."
He's joking, obviously, but it's not that far from the truth. Not only do people want to give their kids Irish names, they want to be Irish. I don't understand it myself. I'm Scottish, and it's the same with Scottish and Welsh names to some degree. A taxi driver in San Francisco was thrilled to find that I was Scottish, and told me that he was, too - five minutes after mistaking my accent for a German one :-D
The trend has various levels, though. Some people take a learned approach and dig up things like Iarfhlaith that even the Irish aren't using; some take the middle ground with Liam and Aidan; and others just like the sound and pick up on pseudo-Irish American names like Kaden and Makenna.
Plenty of names that have got popular have the same sound - two syllables, ending in "n" - but make no pretense of being from Gaelic. I'm thinking of Grayson, Laken, Jaden etc. I don't know whether the vogue for that sound came first, and people just realised that lots of Gaelic names fit it - or the Irish vogue came first. I suspect the former but that's just a feeling. Where's CKE when we need him?
He's joking, obviously, but it's not that far from the truth. Not only do people want to give their kids Irish names, they want to be Irish. I don't understand it myself. I'm Scottish, and it's the same with Scottish and Welsh names to some degree. A taxi driver in San Francisco was thrilled to find that I was Scottish, and told me that he was, too - five minutes after mistaking my accent for a German one :-D
The trend has various levels, though. Some people take a learned approach and dig up things like Iarfhlaith that even the Irish aren't using; some take the middle ground with Liam and Aidan; and others just like the sound and pick up on pseudo-Irish American names like Kaden and Makenna.
Plenty of names that have got popular have the same sound - two syllables, ending in "n" - but make no pretense of being from Gaelic. I'm thinking of Grayson, Laken, Jaden etc. I don't know whether the vogue for that sound came first, and people just realised that lots of Gaelic names fit it - or the Irish vogue came first. I suspect the former but that's just a feeling. Where's CKE when we need him?
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