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The first name 
Ireland

Ireland is a first name typically given to girls, but in rare cases also used as a boys name.

Ireland is a well-known but special name!

Ireland is a well-known name in the US, but is still special. It is currently only given to every ten thousandth girl, and therefore ranks at 1,067 in the SmartGenius statistics. This means there are 1,066 girls names that are more common, but also tens of thousands that are much rarer. If you polled the whole US population – children, adults and seniors – you’d find less than one in 10,000 to be named Ireland.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Ireland

What does the name 
Ireland mean?

The name Ireland was taken from the name of the country. The word developed from the Irish Gaelic Éire which probably stands for ‘abundant land’. Ireland is also a common surname.

As a first name,... Ireland was originally invented for boys in the 1910s. However, it was rarely used until it was given to girls during the 1990s.

Ireland -
keeping with the times

Ireland is a fairly recent phenomenon. In the past, the name wasn't really on the radar of expectant parents. Then, unexpectedly, Ireland cried out for attention, reaching its peak in popularity at #755 in our SmartGenius statistics in the year 2009. People over 50 probably didn't have classmates named Ireland, for there were many years in which not a single parent chose this first name for their daughter. Although it also has never been in the top 100 of most popular first names, Ireland seems to have been in vogue for a while, especially since the beginning of the new millennium.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Ireland was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Ireland in 2022 – for some parents the most beautiful name in the world

157 babies were named Ireland in 2022 - that's 1 in 981,668 newborn girls. With this number, the girls' name Ireland ranked 1,288 in our SmartGenius first name statistics in 2022, the most recent year for which records are available.

Ireland -
special, but at home in many states

You may not know anyone named Ireland, but there’s a good chance you live in the same state as someone with that name. In fact, 39 states are home to women and girls named Ireland. (To be fair, a given name is only included in a state’s official statistics if there are at least five people with that name living in that state – so it’s entirely possible that there are still a few women and girls named Ireland living in one state or another. If your name is Ireland and you live outside of the states highlighted on the map, please let us know so we can refine our statistics even further). And while the first name is present in many states, it is still not one of the popular ones. In Utah, which has the most people named Ireland relative to the population, you still have to ask 6,674 women and girls their names before you hear Ireland as an answer just once.

Ireland has 7 letters 
and begins with an I

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter I is pretty rare as an initial letter for girls' names: only 1.7% of all common girls' names in the US begin with an I. The most common first letters of girls' names, by the way, are A, S and M, while U, X and Q are the least common initials of girls' names.

With seven letters, the name Ireland has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that since 1.7% of all girls’ names begin with an I, this initial occurs only about half as often as the other letters on average. Nevertheless, there are of course single names that begin with an I, which are quite popular

Other names with 
I, r, e, l, a, n and d

If you take all the letters in the name Ireland – I, r, e, l, a, n and d – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Erlinda or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Ireland

If your name is Ireland and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Ireland

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Ireland, you can simply say:

Igloo

Rocket

Elephant

Lion

Apple

Nut

Dinosaur

This is how the name Ireland is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Ireland in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Ireland

Ireland

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Ireland

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Ireland is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

I
R
E
L
A
N
D

Have you ever waved the name Ireland

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

I
R
E
L
A
N
D

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Ireland sounds like this: