Celtic names from the living traditions - Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton - Aoife, Niamh, Cian, Ronan, with the great clan surnames.
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How these names are built
Celtic naming is not one tradition but a family of them, and this bank draws from the largest living branches. Irish names carry the biggest share: Aoife (beautiful), Niamh (bright), Saoirse (freedom), Cian (ancient), Oisin (little deer), Tadhg (poet) - names whose spellings follow Irish orthography, which is why they look nothing like their pronunciation to English eyes (Saoirse is roughly SEER-sha, Niamh is NEEV). Welsh contributes the mythic layer - Rhiannon, Bran, Emrys, Gwydion - straight out of the Mabinogion. Scottish Gaelic adds Lachlan, Fergus, Eilidh and Fionnuala. The surnames are the clan names: O'Brien and O'Neill with the Irish Ó (grandson of), MacLeod and MacGregor with the Gaelic Mac (son of). Two things make these names read as authentically Celtic rather than fantasy paste: the meanings are real, and the spelling rules of the source language are kept intact.
How the generator works
Rolled from 32 + 16 real-name banks — 512 combinations — using your browser's random source. Nothing is sent anywhere: the whole tool runs on your device.
Examples
Roll
Result
Niamh + O'Brien
Niamh O'Brien
Cian + MacLeod
Cian MacLeod
Aoife + O'Neill
Aoife O'Neill
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are Irish names so hard to pronounce from the spelling?
Irish uses the Latin alphabet for a different sound system: bh and mh are v or w sounds, ao is ee, and broad versus slender vowels change the consonants around them. Saoirse, Niamh and Siobhan are all perfectly regular - under Irish rules, not English ones.
What do the O' and Mac in the surnames mean?
O' comes from Irish Ó, grandson or descendant of; Mac is son of in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic. O'Brien is the descendant of Brian (Brian Boru, the High King), MacDonald the son of Donald.
Are these names still used today?
Yes - that is the point of the bank. Aoife, Niamh, Saoirse, Cian and Ronan are all in the current Irish birth registers, and Welsh names like Rhiannon and Emrys remain in real use in Wales.