New in print: What's in a name?

Dillon, Brad, Kylie, Jasmin, Phoebe, are not just the names of most favoured Australian and US soap stars, but increasingly there is a trend by Irish parents to name their children after such characters. Thankfully, it is not a lost cause yet; we haven't reached the idiocy level of Paula Yeats and Bob Geldolf - Fifi Trixi-Belle, Heavenly-Havana Tiger Lily

This latest guide to names joins several others on the subject including Irish Names by Donnachadh O Corráin and Fidelma Maguire (Lilliput £5.95).

The similarity of the names used in the Celtic nations is no surprise given our shared ancestry and histories and both books mentioned provide an explanation as to the origin of the name and the variations now in use today. We can even discover that the soap stars of another culture are but bastardisation of old Celtic names. Trixie Belle does not deserve a mention. As with most such guides it is virtually impossible to include every name or variation used but both authors have produced very extensive guides. Loreto Todd boasts of 2,000 in her book.

Just to let you know, among the gems of information I found was that:

``Aengus was the Celtic god of love and poetry and his words were so beautiful to hear that bees and birds were attracted to them as if they were honey''.

By Aengus O Snodaigh