Aisling (name)

Common card · No. 492236

Aisling is an Irish language feminine given name meaning "dream" or "vision". It refers to an aisling, a poetic genre that developed in Irish poetry during the 17th and 18th centuries. There is no evidence that it was used as a given name before the 20th century. The name is included in Reverend Patrick Woulfe's 1923 collection of Irish names, with the comment that the name was in use in Derry and Omeath. There are many variant anglicised forms of the name including Ashling, Aislin, Aislinn, Aislene, Ashlyn, and Ashlynn. Pronunciation of the name also varies, with the most common pronunciation being ASH-ling; other forms acceptable to Irish speakers are ASH-lin and ASH-leen. Others, such as AYZ-ling, ASS-ling, and AYSS-ling, do not follow the Irish pronunciation. Aisling held steady in the top 20 girls' names in Ireland from 1984 to 1996 and is therefore often linked with the millennial generation in Ireland, most notably in the Oh My God What A Complete Aisling novels. Aisling was...

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