Erin Go Bragh

When I was a kid, I hated my name. It wasn't nearly as feminine as my friend Ashley's, or as pretty as my classmate Christina's, or as up-and-coming as my classmate Devin's. If only my parents had been more creative! Erin just sounded so... boring. Dull. And SO not feminine! It wasn't pretty or cute AT ALL! When I found out my parents almost named me Mandy, until my dad changed his mind at the last minute, I wanted to cry. Mandy was cute! Mandy was feminine! And I didn't know any other Mandy's! I could have been unique, instead of sharing a name with 5 other girls in my class (Erin was a VERY popular name in 1985 and 1986!). And Mandy means "much-loved"! What could be better than that? WHY did my dad convince my mom to name me Erin instead? Why, oh why???

As I grew older however, and became more proud of my Irish roots, my name started to grow on me. Erin is a Hiberno-English derivative of the Irish word Éirinn, which is a dative case of the word Ireland(source). What better way to honor my roots, than for my name to be a derivative of the word for the very country from which my ancestors came? Of course, having the name Erin was interesting in high school, where I came across numerous friends and acquaintances who assumed that since I had just about the most Irish name a person can have, it must SURELY mean I can drink them under the table at any party, right? And the phone calls and text messages from guy friends every St. Patrick's Day declaring "Erin Go Bra-less!" was pretty amusing. But once I was in high school loved my name more and more. And now that I'm out of school and have children of my own, I love my name so much, I wish it wasn't my name so I could name a future daughter Erin. (While I understand that SOME people name their daughters after themselves, it's never been a concept I was fond of, no offense to any readers who don't share my sentiment.)

Many meanings for the name Erin are listed as "from Ireland" or simply "Ireland", although I have found a few sources who state the true meaning is "peace". Completely indisputable, however, is that Erin is an Irish name, and Erin was often used as a romanticized name for Ireland by poets and 19th century Irish nationalists. The Milesians were the first to call Ireland Erin in honor of the goddess Ériu, according to Irish folklore and mythology.

Despite the popular Irish naming trend, Erin is not a super commonly-given name in recent years, though it is at number 164 on the popularity charts for 2008 (it is also currently a top 10 baby name in Scotland, so it may experience a revival here in the US). It has been overshadowed by more up-and-coming Irish names like Saorla (SAIR-la) and Maeve. There has been much debate about the name Erin in baby naming forums, and the general consensus seems to be that it is "out of vogue"(source):

"Personally, I think it's one of the most boring names out there.... It is pretty dated in the US."

"I feel it lacks personality, like a wallflower sort of name."

 Though there are those (like me) who are still a fan (which is comforting, since it IS my name, after all):

"I think it's a lovely name.... It's a solid name that a little girl can grow with."

Whether or not Erin will make a comeback remains to be seen. With trends changing as fast as they do and the popularity or Irish names ever rising, it should be interesting to see what kind of popularity record it makes for itself.