A bit of McDonagh family lore: I wasn\u2019t meant to be called Laura. I was supposed to be called \u00c9ilis. I\u2019ve often imagined what happened after my mother announced her intentions in the delivery suite at Sunderland General Hospital: a \u201cthat\u2019s nice\u201d from the midwife followed by frowns at the mention of fadas. Elsewhere, the reaction was similarly lukewarm. It generally went something like \u201coh, lovely\u201d, followed by queries about how the name is actually pronounced. \u201cAy-lish,\u201d Mam would say, keeping the opening vowel light and open.<\/p>\n
Except the long \u201ca\u201d sound in northeast England<\/a> is flat and deep, foghorn-like and the spelling made it doubly confusing. Over the next three weeks, my poor mam endured every possible interpretation of the name she\u2019d chosen for me, including \u201cEllis\u201d, \u201cEe-i-lis\u201d, \u201cEye-lis\u201d and \u201cEe-lish\u201d. Despite the best efforts of their teachers, my parents<\/a> left school with only a handful of Irish phrases. Uncertain in England, their resolve began to slip.<\/p>\n Almost a full month after my birth, they settled on Laura instead. I can imagine their reasoning. They would have thought it was better to go with something straightforward. This was 1983, after all, a less-individualist era. Out of 150 girls in my school year group, I was one of 10 Lauras. <\/p>\n Despite attending schools where Irish surnames were common, I didn\u2019t meet anyone English-born with an Irish first name until I was well into my teens. I can still recall the moment I was introduced to her \u2013 R\u00f3is\u00edn \u2013 on a diocesan pilgrimage in Lourdes. I remember being astounded by her broad Geordie accent and the conflicting fact of her unapologetically Irish name.<\/p>\n Decades later, Irishness is having a bit of a global moment. There\u2019s the green wave of actors and musicians dominating screens, radio waves and awards lists. Then there\u2019s the hipster obsession with stout \u2013 or \u2018Guinnaissance\u2019<\/a> \u2013 a satisfying portmanteau if ever there was one. Irish baby names are also on the rise \u2013 perhaps symptomatic of revived interest in the language. In Ireland, parents are going gaga for Gaeilge, with R\u00edan knocking long-held favourite Jack off the top spot last yea<\/a>r. <\/p>\n There are signs of a shift here in Britain, with Irish names scattered across these lists. In 2024, Maeve was the 26th most popular girl\u2019s name in England and Wales \u2013 a meteoric rise from 891st place three decades ago for the mythological Irish warrior queen. For me, a would-be \u00c9ilis in England, it gives me pride but also a strange feeling somewhere between envy and regret.<\/p>\n I\u2019m coming across more parents in Britain choosing obviously Irish names for their children, including third-generation Irish. <\/p>\n One friend told me about her determination to call her son Paddy, despite an English family member\u2019s misgivings it \u201csounded like a drunken sailor\u201d. It honoured her Mayo grandparents, who faced enormous prejudice after arriving in England. Another friend with Muslim heritage and her Kerry-born husband gave their children Irish first names and Asian middle names. \u201cI love their names,\u201d she told me. \u201cBut I won\u2019t lie \u2013 I also think their paths through the world will be easier with Irish names.\u201d<\/p>\n Because, as my friend rightly points out, names can be political as well as personal. Almost exactly a year to the day before my birth, two IRA<\/a> bombs exploded in London parks. Four months after my parents rejected \u00c9ilis in favour of Laura, an IRA car bomb exploded outside Harrods on one of the busiest Christmas shopping days of the year. Perhaps on that awful day, Mam and Dad breathed a sigh of relief about my name change.<\/p>\n [\u00a0We left Ireland for a rambling palazzo in Italy and a life of simple pleasuresOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n When I met English-born R\u00f3is\u00edn, I didn\u2019t consider the politics of her parents\u2019 decision; mainly, I was struck by how pretty it sounded. I certainly wasn\u2019t thinking about the challenges I\u2019d have been likely to face moving through monocultural northeast England as an \u00c9ilis in the 1980s and \u201990s.<\/p>\n In 2026, things have changed. When Megan, a London-based Irish writer I know, called her firstborn M\u00e9abh, she considered it a privilege to give her child an Irish first name \u2013 one denied to previous generations in Britain. <\/p>\n Despite knowing it would lead to a lifetime of repeating herself, she also opted for the modern Irish spelling \u2013 inspired, she says, by The Birth Name, a poem by Warsan Shire which urges readers to \u201cgive your daughters difficult names\u201d. <\/p>\n I\u2019m reminded of the scene in The Wind That Shakes the Barley where M\u00edche\u00e1l \u00d3 S\u00failleabh\u00e1in is executed after a hurling match. \u201cM\u00edche\u00e1l was killed because he wouldn\u2019t say his name in English,\u201d says Damien, the young doctor played by Cillian Murphy \u2013 who, like my friend, gave his London-born children Irish names, Malachy and Aran.<\/p>\n [\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m the most Irish person you will meet with an English accent\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Raised by Irish parents in Britain, I sometimes feel like an impostor in my second generation-ness.<\/a> Would a Laura by any other name feel more sure of herself? Possibly. However, context is powerful. For now, I\u2019m taking heart in the fact that, whatever the reasons \u2013 honouring a complex heritage, perhaps, or because Fontaines DC<\/a>\u2019s Skinty Fia is a banger \u2013 today\u2019s Irish in Britain<\/a> feel increasingly able to opt for \u201cdifficult\u201d Irish names. More power to us.<\/p>\n Laura McDonagh is a second-generation Irish writer living in northeast England. Her first book, Commonplace \u2013 a memoir about growing up Irish in Britain, memory and belonging \u2013 will be published by New Island Books in spring 2027<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bit of McDonagh family lore: I wasn\u2019t meant to be called Laura. 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