Do you have a Sweet Irish Colleen in Your Family Tree?

All of these names (Colleen, Kelly, Erin, Kerry) may be considered Irish, but many people are surprised to hear that they are rarely found on the island of Ireland itself. They are names that became popular from about the 1920s amongst second generation Irish immigrants across the world and were often chosen by parents to proclaim a proud Irish heritage within their family.

Now, let’s have a look at the name “Colleen” – and other Irish girls’ names with an “een” at the end.

My West Cork grandmother never addressed myself or my siblings by our first names. I guess her grandchildren count was getting a little too high and she wanted to avoid mistakes. Instead, myself and my brothers were addressed as “Boy-eens”, my sister as “Girl-een” and inanimate objects like houses were “How-sheens”. Her habitual use of “een” at the end of the nouns in her life was really the Irish language of her ancestors seeping through into her everyday English conversation.

When you hear an “een” at the end of a word in Ireland, that signifies a “diminutive” that is, a small version of the word that precedes it. For example, a road in Irish is a “Bóthair” (pronounced “bow-har”) while a small road (lane) was a “Bóthairín” which is still used in the anglicised form around Ireland today – “Boreen” – to signify a small road in the countryside.

There are also many examples of the use of “een” in given names, names such as Colleen.

Sometime in the early 1900s, the name “Colleen” became one of the most popular girls’ names in the USA and other parts of the world. In Irish, Colleen is a direct phonetical translation of the word “Cailín” where the “Cail” part (pronounced “Coll”) means a “maiden” and with an “ín” (pronounced “een”) added to the end means a “young/little maiden”. This eventually came to mean “girl” in the Irish language.

That’s right, when an Irish person hears the name “Colleen” they immediately hear the Irish word for “girl”. “Hey, Colleen!” comes across as “hey, girl!”.

However, while you won’t find too many girls named Colleen on the island of Ireland, there are many other girls’ names that have an “een” at the end – all of which we have adopted enthusiastically.

We have names like:

• “Caitlín” – which has been anglicised as “Kathleen”.
• “Eibhlín” – anglicised as “Eileen”.
• “Aobhín” – anglicised as “Aveen”.
• “Pádraigín” – anglicised as “Patricia”.

and I could go on!

Are any of these names found amongst your family or friends? Maybe you have a name with an “een” at the end that I may have left out? Do leave a comment below and let me know.

Well now, Boyeens and Girleens, I think we’ll leave it there for this week. As always, feel free to share the Irish names, surnames and stories in your own family tree.

Slán until next week,

Mike.