View Message

1975 marked the canonisation of St Oliver Plunkett, a Catholic archbishop who was killed during the Popish Plots in the late 17th century. There are quite a few instances of the Catholic Church impacting the popularity of names in Ireland. When 1954 was proclaimed a Marian year (a year for revering Mary, mother of Jesus) the name Marian briefly became one of the most popular names in the country, with 12 girls named Marian born in 1952, 287 in 1953 (the proclamation occurred in 1953) and 4,811 in 1954. The name Mary itself only barely retained first place, with 5,021 births. The official statistics only go back to 1964, so this data is only evident from the birth index. There's another much smaller jump for Marian in 1987, as that year was also proclaimed a Marian year.