Conference oass::babynames

    We too have a daughter named Meghan, my husband had decided this
    name before she was even concieved. The name as far as we know 
    comes form the Irish decent, and seeing as we love old names thinking
    that we would never here of the name on another child we named her
    this. Her initials leave something to be desired (MGM) standing
    for Meghan Gray May. (by the way, I don't know if your Meghan is
    hyper but our's never stops)
    
    HMAY

    
    
    My name is Meaghan (pronounced Mee-gan).  The name is of Celtic
    origin. It is the Irish equivalent of Margaret, as you obviously 
    alreay know.

    Quite a while ago when I was a child, I remember a very good friend
    of mine who's name was Megara which is somewhat like Meghan.

				MEGHANN
    
    	I know a girl whose name is Meghann. ( May-gen ) It is spelled
    like that because her parents wanted her grandmothers name to be
    a part of their child's name. If it was a boy it would have been
    Andrew.
    
    						Kimberly Ann

    
    RE: .3
    
    
    My cousin-in-law's little girl is named Megara, I had never heard
    it
     before, I thinkk it's pretty.
    
    My sister i due in 2 weeks and if it's a girl, they'll name it Meghan
    Lee McHugh                                  
    I quess it's pretty popular these days!
    
    
    Loreen
    

    After looking in a couple of noted references, I discovered that
    Megan is actually Welsh....
     The addition of the h to make Meghan is later and an 'Anglicised'
    version.
     The spelling variant Meaghan is apparently of American origin and
    is not Irish at all.  Apparently there is no record of Meaghan as
    a given name in Ireland!

    
    My sister had her baby on April 10th, it's a girl!!!! and they named
    her Meghan Leigh McHugh (i spelled Leigh wrong in .5) . 
    Of course she's beautiful and already very irish looking , a mop
    of black hair and blue eyes.
    
    re. -1, 
    could you kindly take a moment to explain the differnece between
    Welsh and Irish origin's to the noters, You're the third or fourth
    person who's corrected Irish nmaes by saying that they are really
    Welsh.  My grandmother (who was born in County KilleKenney, Ireland)
    would like to know the diffference too, she says Meghan is as Irish
    as she is....
    
    Loreen
    

    re .7
    
    I'm afraid that I don't have the particular references to hand at
    the moment (had to take them back to the library) but I will gladly
    have another look:  one was an Oxford publication, the other was
    published in the USA.
    
    From what I can remember of both references though they went something
    like this:
    
    The earliest recorded use of the name was found in Wales and spelled
    Megan (pronunciation would be with a short 'e' like peg).
    
    It appeared significantly later in England and was spelled with
    an 'h' as Meghan.  (The addition of the 'h' probably serves to
    reinforce the pronunciation of the short 'e')
    
    The spelling "Meaghan" was purported to be of Irish origin but no
    traces of this spelling were found in Ireland but were instead found
    in the USA, where the pronunciation took on one of two forms:
    one as if spelled "May-gn", the other with a long e as if spelled
    "Meegan".
    
    So, from that, I would conclude that Meghan may well be widely used
    in Ireland but that it's earliest recorded references are not there,
    but in England, that Megan is Welsh, and that Meaghan is American.
    
    One of my 2nd daughter's middle names is Megan, so I did do a fair
    bit of looking into its history.

    Hope this is helpful ... please understand that I am not trying
    to deny anyone their heritage!
    
    And by the way, Congratulations to the Aunt!
    
    stuart

    

    wellll...what's Welsh/Irish/Scots ?
    
    my four Celtic grandparents [2 Irish, 1 Welsh, 1 Scots] - all native
    speakers of the auld languages - used to really have a go-round
    on this one.
    
    My grandmother, Siobhan, affirmed that her sister, Meghann had an
    IRISH name as old as Donegal, the name having been handed down to
    the eldest daughter of every other generation for, and I quote,
    "centuries without number."
    
    Her husband, Evan, would rebut that the Irish were a lot given to
    needless ruffles and flourishes and just tossed the "H" and the
    extra "N" into a good WELSH name to make it _look_ Irish.
    
    My other grandfather [Irish] said it was "too ugly a name to argue
    about."  His wife [Scots] opined that his cousin Meghann was probably
    the cause.
    
      Ann

    How is Siobhan pronounced?  Any background on that one?
    

    Siobhan is pronounced, Chifvon, close to the fabric, chiffon.
    It was my high school girlfriend's name.  Very Irish.
    
    Anna
    

    Here's another spelling for the name  - my daughter, born 2-27-87, is
    Megann Adele Finan.  Her name is a combination of her grandmothers'
    names.  Her paternal Grandmother is Margaret, her maternal grandmother,
    Adele.  My mom died a couple of years before Megann was born and
    since Megann would never get to meet her I wanted her to have her
    name.  Since I've always associated Adele with an older person,
    I didn't want it to be her first name, so we chose it as her middle
    and looked for a suitable first name.  My husband and I like
    Irish names (he's all Irish, I'm half Irish, half French - like
    Megann's name) so we came up with Erin and Megan.  Megann won 
    because it sounded better with Adele and because it was a form
    of her mother's name so she wasnt named after only one Grandmother.
    
    Since Megan seems to be getting popular we chose a different 
    spelling - my mom did the same for my name and I always liked it.
    
    Robyn Finan

    Hi!
    
    I just found this conference & have found the discussions very 
    interesting.  My sister-in-law's name is Meighan.  When her mother 
    was expecting, she was looking for a good Irish name for a girl and
    she went to the local convent and asked the nuns what some of the
    Irish names were for girls (some of the nuns were from Ireland).  
    She had seen Megan, but they told her it a was an American version
    of the name and Meighan was the correct spelling.  
    
    From what I have read in this note, no one has mentioned this spelling.
    Has anyone ever seen it before?
    
    Sue (short for Susan)

    
    We're considering that name for our baby, if it's a girl.  I was told
    that the Irish spelling was Meaghan.  
    
    I guess the nuns from Ireland should know!  hee hee
    
    Robin
    

    My husband wanted a unique name for our female german shephard puppy.
    He thought the name Meghan was german and kind of masculine - so that
    turned out to be our dog's name.
    So much for male perception!
    
    
    L