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The pattern of Irish names over the last 150 years is very interesting. I used to work in a job that had me looking at old title deeds and it was common turn of the century to see catholic Irish people named George, Harry, etc names that are relatively unusual now
Ethically Irish names were very unusual. You’d never really see a Conor. Post- independence those names came in but often they were names with obvious counterparts in English ie Micheál or Pól. In turn those names became much less common (I can’t think of many Póls my age)
*i have no problem with any of these names, it’s just interesting, no insult intended* now people tend to give your their child a very obviously Irish name, and it’s notable how that’s become quite a south side thing so there’s obviously some status element to it
Having said that i know some who named their kid Harry not to long ago so perhaps trends are moving on already. On top of that immigration + Irishness is re-emerging as an embarrassment to a certain type of Irish person will presumably drive change
*all names are good- call yourself and your child whatever you like for whatever reason- there’s lots of reasons to use any name and they’re all good -no offence intended*
My grandfathers on either side were William and John for example. William came from a bilingual household per the census but was Willie, not Liam, to his family so it doesn’t seem to have been a case of involuntary anglicisation
