Gaelic Name Generator

Irish names are one branch of Gaelic names. Gaelic also includes Scottish Gaelic and Manx, which share the same roots but spell and pronounce them differently: Irish Seán and Dónall are Scottish Gaelic Seathan and Dòmhnall, Manx Juan and Donal. This generator gives names in their Gaelic-language spelling, while most Irish name lists use the anglicised forms (Murphy, Kelly, O'Brien).

Because Ó and Mac literally mean "descendant of" and "son of", which a daughter cannot be. Women use Ní (from iníon uí, "daughter of the descendant") or Nic ("daughter of the son"), and these trigger lenition, a softening marked with an h: Ó Ceallaigh becomes Ní Cheallaigh, Mac Diarmada becomes Nic Dhiarmada. Scottish Gaelic works the same way with Mac and Nic.

Gaelic spelling is consistent once you know the rules: bh and mh sound like v or w, dh and gh are often silent or a soft y, ch is the sound in loch, and an accent lengthens a vowel. So Siobhán is shi-VAWN, Caoimhe is KEE-va, Niamh is NEEV, Ruairidh is ROO-a-ree and MacLeòid is mak-LOHJ. Scottish Gaelic stresses the first syllable of each word.

Yes, and they work especially well for druids, Celtic-inspired kingdoms and Highland or Irish-flavoured settings. If you want the texture without real-world baggage, use a first name with a byname (Aodh Ruadh, Mòrag Bhàn) or a patronymic (Conall mac Fearghusa) rather than a modern surname, and avoid the names of well-known historical figures included here for reference.