Name of the Week

^.


A name with ancient Irish ties that was once extremely
rare, only to rocket to stardom as a 90s favourite.

 

Origin:

Kieran is an Anglicised form of Ciarán, an Old Irish name derived from ciar "black, dark" and the diminutive suffix -án -- essentially "little dark one."  Completely separate, but sometimes spelt the same way, is the Sanskrit unisex name Kiran, derived from किरण (kirana) meaning "ray of light, sunbeam, dust, thread."

Usage:

According to early Irish chronicles, there were at least 26 saints named Ciarán. Some of these may well be apocryphal, but the most famous are Saint Ciarán of Saigir (Ciarán the Elder) and Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise (Ciarán the Younger), both of whom died in the 6th century and are counted among the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. Despite the fact that it appears in the early saintly annals, Ciarán wasn't especially popular. It doesn't rank at all in this study of the top 100 most popular names in early medieval Ireland (pre-Norman) and the Irish Annals only have six citations of the name from 512 to 1061. Even by the 17th century, examples of Ciaran are hard to find. This is most likely because names of the saints were for a long time considered too holy to use as a given name for children. Instead, parents wishing to reference a saint in their child’s name would often give their child a devotional name formed from that saint’s name. Parents wishing to reference Saint Ciarán would use Gilla Ciaráin "servant of Ciarán" or Máel Ciaráin "devotee of Ciarán" rather than simply Ciarán.  The anglicised spelling Kieran came into more steady (though still rare) usage at the end of the 18th century in Ireland. This coincides with a Celtic revival that took place in the country at that time which also brought names like Niall and Brian into fashion. Thanks to immigration, Kieran spread across to Britain in the 19th century, but it was quite uncommon in Victorian Britain -- even in fellow Gaelic country Scotland. The 1871 UK census lists only 7 males named Kieran, two of whom were born in Ireland.  It wasn't until the 1920s (after the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922) that Irish names were more consciously revived, and this certainly had a gradual impact on Kieran across Ireland and Britain over the preceding decades.  Sadly, there is a severe lack of data for names used in Ireland at this time. We known from Patrick Woulfe's Irish Names and Surnames (1921) that 80% of Irish male names were "foreign" with John, Patrick, Michael, James, William, Thomas, Martin, Peter and Timothy leading the way.  Births for Kieran in England and Wales however, do demonstrate the change in Kieran's fortune, especially among Irish families: 1850s: 1 birth 1860s: 1 birth 1870s: 0 births 1880s: 2 births 1890s: 2 births 1900s: 5 births 1910s: 7 births 1920s: 8 births 1930s: 16 births 1940s: 105 births 1950s: 454 births 1960s: 839 births This corresponds to Dunkling's data for the number of boys registered with the names Kieran and Kieron in every 10,000 births in England and Wales:   1925 1935 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 Kieran    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    10    16   40  Kieron    -    -    -    -    -     4    -    -     2    14     8 Kieran first entered the top 100 in 1984 at #90 and by 1994 had moved up to #34. It reached a peak in 1996 at #26 (2882 births) but after that has been on a steady decline.  click to enlarge In 2013 in England and Wales, Kieran ranked #190 (294 births), Ciaran was #489 (78 births), Kieron was #676 (49 births), and the Indian Kiran was #837 and #1291 respectively for boys and girls. With all the spellings added together, Kieran ranked #140.  In Scotland, both Kieran and Ciaran have seen even more success in the last two decades, though they are now also seeing a decline: 1998 - Kieran #17; Ciaran #77 2000 - Kieran #14; Ciaran #75 2002 - Kieran #19; Ciaran #75 2004 - Kieran #22; Ciaran #62  2006 - Kieran #40; Ciaran #76  2008 - Kieran #47; Ciaran #115  2010 - Kieran #70; Ciaran #99  2012 - Kieran #100; Ciaran #166  2013 - Kieran #101; Ciaran #167 Not surprisingly, in Northern Ireland Ciaran is the preferred spelling. In 1997, Ciaran ranked #29 while Kieran was #94. By 2004 Ciaran was #30 and Kieran #112 but both spellings have since declined to #97 and #200 respectively. In the Republic of Ireland, Ciarán has moved from #40 in 2008 to #74 in 2013.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Ciarán of Saigir (5th century–c. 530), Irish saint. * Ciarán of Clonmacnoise (c. 516 – c. 544), Irish saint. * Kieron Moore (1924–2007), Irish actor. * Ciarán Bourke (1935–1988), Irish musician. Contemporary: * Ciaran Carson (b. 1948), Northern Irish poet and playwright. * Ciarán Hinds (born 1953), Irish actor. * Kieran O'Brien (born 1973), British actor. * Kieran West (born 1977), Olympic gold medal winning rower. * Kieran Culkin (born 1982), American actor. * Kieren Webster (born 1986), Scottish musician.

Variants:

Ciarán (Irish) Kerran (Manx) Cieran (Welsh) Piran (Cornish)

Pronunciation:

KEER-ən [key]

Possible diminutives:

Keir/Ciar, Kian/Cian

Sibling Names:

Georgia     Caitlin     Amber     Leah      Millie     Erin  Callum     Lewis     Cameron     Brandon    Marcus    Brody

Name Lists:

Cosy Celtic   Lively Lads

 

If you like Kieran you may also like:   Connor, Sean, Curtis, Logan, Declan, Reece, Liam, Ethan, Aidan, Gavin

 

Thanks to Emily for requesting this post.