Black Night And Shadowy Names

Long popular in Ireland and England, Ciarán is the name of Ireland's first-born saint and twenty-five other saints. While this is the authentic Irish spelling, it is more familiar in the US in the Anglicized Kieran spelling.

Cole -- a short name that embodies a lot of richness and depth -- has long been associated with the great songwriter Cole Porter. It's quite popular in Scotland.

Colton is a trendy two-syllable choice, with the popular 'on/en' ending.

A distinctive alternative to Conan.

Delicate ballerina name with grace, charm, and heft courtesy of Jane Austen's Mr.

This name shares sounds with Keagan and Teagan, but has its own roots in Irish culture. Freestyle Motocross rider Brian Deegan may be partly responsible for this name's entrance into the US Top 1000.

Cheerful but laidback, surname-style Delaney is derived from the Old Irish name Dubhshláine and has become a familiar choice for girls in recent decades. Nevertheless, it has also been used for boys since the early 1900s and was equally - though rarely - given to both, right up until the 1990s.

Delaney has been a popular surname-style choice since 90s, when it joined other Irish surnames such as Cassidy, Kennedy, and Mallory on the US Charts. Buoyant, bright, and cheerful, it ranks in the US Top 250 and is given to nearly 1300 babies every year.

An Irish surname — the Anglicized form of O’Duibhgeannáin — that would make a one-of-a-kind first name, unless you count the character in Wes Anderson's first film, Bottle Rocket. For fans of the auteur, perhaps Dignan is a better name for a pet — it may be extra appropriate to use the nickname Diggy.

This Celtic surname is familiar but barely used at all as a first name.

Fresh choice that could pick up where Dylan and Logan left off.

This genial Irish surname feels much more current than Donald.

Donnelly is among the more appealing Irish surname names, less well used than Donovan. Related options include the place name Donegal and the mythological god name Donegan.

Makes Donna into a cool twenty-first-century unisex Irish surname.

One of the first of the appealing Irish surnames to take off in this country, this boys’ name has long outgrown its "Mellow Yellow" association, which came via the single from a sixties singer-songwriter named Donovan.

A common Irish surname that's seldom heard as a first name, but has an appealing meaning.

Doolish (known as Douglas in English) is the largest town in the Isle of Man. The name is though to derive from a Celtic word "Duboglassio" which means "black river".

Photographer Diane Arbus named her daughter Doon, inspired by the sand dunes she walked among when pregnant. Used this way, Doon might be considered a nature name, a refashioning of the word dune. But Doon might also stem from the familiar Scottish surname Dunn or Dunne, which means brown or dark, originally used for a dark-haired person.