Where are our traditional baby names? Come on Eileen!

Cultural colonisation takes place in the subtlest and, at the same time, the most forceful way. We are all agents of that never-ending evolution, nearly every decision we make is influenced by the predominant force in popular culture — and today that is America, or at the very least, the English-speaking world.

Yesterday, the CSO published a list of the most popular names for babies last year. Jack and Emily took the top spots and the top ten was made up of Emma, Sophie, Ella, and Amelia for girls and the persistently popular James, Daniel, Conor, and Seán for boys.

Despite the advances of multiculturalism, it is impossible to pretend that Emmas, Sophies, Ellas, and Amelias were in any way prominent in the Annals of the Four Masters, certainly not in the Book of Kells or even in Sinéad Bean de Valera’s wonderful collection of Irish fairy tales.

Where have Noreen, Bridget, Grainne, Deirdre, Siobhan, Orla, and Eithne gone? Where are Brendan, Donal and Denis? What about the man himself, Paddy? Is this Sophieisation just another manifestation of the hypocritical lip service we give to things Irish, especially the language?