Did you know that the first Irish immigrants that came to the United States, mostly spoke Irish Gaelic as a first language? If you check through the immigration records of the 17th and 18th centuries, you'll see long lists of Irish Gaelic names, complete with their Irish accented lettering. Most of these names were immediately converted into an anglicized version, as the United States record keeping was and is done primarily in the English language. Despite the Anglicization of these names, many of the first Irish immigrants kept their Irish names, as the American communities that they generally lived in were primarily driven by the Gaelic language. It took many generations for the language to mostly die out in the United States, however there are still to this day a handful of Irish Americans that retain some small understanding of the Irish Gaelic language, as it was continually passed down through the many generations.
