When I was a young child growing up in Ireland, my two elderly neighbors who were sisters were named Pans and Violet. My sisters and I were always intrigued by their names. I remember asking my mother what sort of name was Pans and she told me it was short for Pansy. In fact, Pans’s real name was actually Hannah. I used to think she must have been the only old lady in Ireland with an unusual name like Pans but how wrong was I.

I started researching my family tree about 5 years ago. During my research I began to really focus on my ancestors’ names. As time went on my interest turned to other family’s names in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I discovered unique names that would make you wonder where did they get these names? So I started jotting them down about 3 years ago. For some reason we (the Irish) seem to think our grandparents or our great grandparents had boring, run of the mill names such as Pat, Mary, and Tom—but I found that not to be the case. Many of the Irish back in the 1800s and early 1900s were very adventurous with their baby name choices. The average family size was 10-12 kids, and sometimes you’d get a random name such as Arabella or Phoebe thrown in. So you could have John, Pat, Anne, Mary, Tom, Margaret, James, Joesph and then maybe a Cherry or Unity. It wasn’t just the Protestant families that had unique names lots of the Roman Catholic families did too.

Don’t be disappointed if you don’t find a Euphemia in your family name research as most of the time the priests would only allow the parents name the child after a saint. In my own family tree I haven’t come across anything too bizarre. I have Felix, Genevieve and an Honor. I also found some unusual Irish names in the areas where Irish was spoken predominantly, such as Aibhistín for a boy. Which is Irish for Augustine. Or two sisters called Einì & Ebhì.

Here is a list that I have found of more unique baby names from the turn of the 20th century in Ireland, 1901-1911. The numbers beside the names are the amount of people with those names at that time in Ireland.

Girls
Amy (811)
Annabella (1004)
Anastasia (1400)
Aleaa (54)
Abina (775)
Angelique (1)
Augusta (68)
Aure (1)
Adele (22)
Arabella (259)
Annielena (2)
Arimanella (1)
Aggie (718)
Alma (83)
Anchoretta (4)
Alfrina (1)
Araminta (11)
Antie (2)

Bobo (1)
Baby (68) adults called baby too
Bina (85)
Belinda (401)
Blanche (407)
Blanid (1)
Berlet (1)
Brachel (1)
Borgia (3)

Camille (5)
Cara (3)
Cissia (1)
Carly (1)
Carla (1)
Clara (1503)
Charlotta (33)
Cilla (2)
Celeste (8)
Cassie (3065)
Corina (1)
Coloill (1)
Casey (14)
Clarice (20)
Cyntta (1)
Carmelita (3)
Cesarine (1)
Canice (1)
Cherry (82)
Cara (3)
Cassie (3066)
Cavier (1)

Delia (7358)
Dillie (22)
Dinah (314)
Delphine (8)
Denis (10) for girls

Easter (290)
Eva (2852)
Elsie (1269)
Ennistina (1)
Evaline (215)
Erica (8)
Erin (17)
Elspie (5)
Enna (50)
Etta (216)
Eugenia (6)
Eirene (5)
Ena (258)
Euphemia (249)
Elsa (23)
Etheldreda (3)
Effie (87)
Elle (26)
Eathel (9)
Esmeralda (4)
Edwina (10)
Eily (618)
Emlyn (1)

Freda (103)
Fredda (3)
Frideswida (1)
Flora (406)
Fillie (3)
Ferne (1)

Genevieve (125)
Goldie (3)
Gre (1)
Giuseppina (1)
Grella (9)
Gusty (1)

Holly (15)
Hope (92)
Hedwig (8)
Honey (6)
Hester (681)
Henny (4)
Hortense (4)

Irma (8)
Imogen (1)
Inagh  (1)
Ingrid (1)

Jules (1)
Juliet (47)
Joyce (167)
Jessie (2362)
Jan (20)

Kara (3)
Kelly (5)
Kapa (2)
Kit (9)

Letty (29)
Letitia (2479)
Lila (56)
Leah (250)
Lucille (1)
Lavinia (277)
Lucila (2)
Lulu (18)
Lelitia (30)
Lora (27)
Lessy (5)
Lissey (19)
Line (3)
Lurline (3)
Libby (2)
Lorenza (4)
Lui (1)
Linny (2)

Mercedes (16)
Minnie (10,256)
Mia (11)
Mara (27)
Marron (11)
Mina (425)
Meary (86)
Muriel (956)
Meta (321)
Monce (1)
Mera (5)
Malvina (17)
Margoria (2)
Mart (10)
Maddie (7)
Menny (2)

Nadia (1)
Narah (101)
Nonie (137)
Natalie (5)
Noelina (1)
Nonnie (13)

Ottilie (2)
Octavia (4)

Pim (2)
Pleasance (5)
Polly (127)
Pansy (4)
Phoebe (336)
Prudentia (2)
Patience (64)
Penelphia (1)

Queenie (50)
Quinn (1)

Reta (114)
Reggy (1)
Remi (1)
Rynagh (5)
Roma (7)
Ronan (1)
Rebina (20)
Róis (110)
Rosetta (679)

Sidonia (2)
Shane (9)
Selina (609)
Sylvia (138)
Sonora (2)
Samia (2)
Saran (18)
Sherry (1)
Samina (3)
Siberia (1)
Sicilly (2)

Tabitha (6)
Tara (9)
Tanya (2)
Tammy (1)
Tamara (1)
Theophila (1)
Tephi (1)

Undine (1)
Unity (195)
Unnie (6)

Verity (1)
Verina (3)
Viva (1)
Vina (16)

Whilemina (23)

Xenia (1)

Yvonne (16)
Yolande (2)

Zita (7)
Zara (4)
Zena (8)
Zeba (1)

Boys Names
Alphonsus (616)
Arwood (3)
Adels (1)
Adolphine (1)
Anselm (5)
Aeneas (42)
Arpad (1)

Bede (2)
Batt (480)
Bredin (6)
Blasius (2)
Bera (1)

Callaghan (40)
Cain (25)
Carmichael (1)
Cash  (1)
Candy (10)
Cuthbert (40)
Camille (5)
Coleman (476)
Carley (1)
Chess (1)
Carthage (14)
Coman (1)
Canice (30)
Cleman (1)
Columba (196)
Cinnamon (2)
Coll (3)

Dudley (238)
Daw (2)
Dean (3)
Devin (1)
Davin (2)

Essex (4)
Elwood (3)
Edgar (386)
Eyre (10)
Erskine (4)
Ercolo (1)
Ezekiel (96)
Everard (15)
Emlyn (2)

Fray (1)
Fillie (1)
Farrel (69)
Festus (112)
Farry (13)
Ferdy (6)
Festy (91)

Gaudry (1)
Grant (6)
Guy (100)
Gustavas (1)
Greer (10)
Gaston (2)
Garrett (663)
Gwashington (1)
Gusty (2)
Grattan (5)

Herm (1)
Hillas (3)
Harper (10)
Hedges (2)
Hubeck (1)
Hamilton (1320)
Herzle (1)
Herald (3)
Henny (50)
Holy (1)

Ivon (4)
Isidore (32)
Ive (2)
Irvine (128)

Jerald (35)
Jan (58)
Jock (7)

Kim (4)
Kellar (1)
Kerry (23)

Leopold (108)
Lemaud (1)
Lazarus (10)
Lindley. (3)

Michelle (1)
Mervin (6)
Marcus (244)
Manis (4)
Mortimer (415)
Mowbray (2)
Murdock (4)

Nathaniel (779)
Norbert (7)

Oakley (1)
Otway(6)
Orlando (6)
Ohed (1)

Percival (290)
Pilsworth (2)
Pio (4)
Porter (4)

Quinn (3)

Randel (10)
Rupert (118)
Rowan (6)
Reid (6)
Redmond (390)
Rowland (130)
Rick (12)
Rubin (7)

Stanislaw (2)
Sylvester (579)
Septimus (3)
Silvestro (2)
Swainston (2)
Saoile (1)

Theobald (62)
Turlough (6)
Tissington (1)
Telford (3)
Toby (2)

Ultan (6)
Udal (1)
Uriel (3)

Volney (1)
Villers (1)

Winning (2)
Whitney (4)

Xavier (3)

Zachury (1)