Alastair
This is the Gaelic form of Alexander meaning defender of men.

Alice
From the Old German word for nobility. It originally had the form Adelice or Adelise.
A number of forms remained popular from the Middle Ages until the 17th Century when it went out of favour. It was revived again in the 19th Century.

Aaron
In the Old Testament, Aaron was the brother of Moses and the first High Priest of Israel. The traditional interpretation links this name to the Hewbrew for high mountain, but like Moses, Aaron is probably an Egyptian name.

Abigail
From the Hebrew meaning father rejoiced. It was the name of one of King David’s wives and was much used in England during the 16th and 17th centuries when many Old Testament names were popular. Short forms include Abbie, Abbey and Gail.

Adam
From the Latin meaning red, possibly referring either to skin colour or the clay from which God formed the first man.
The name was adopted by the Irish as early as the 7th century when St Adamnan, Little Adam, was Abbot of Iona.

Alexander
This comes from the Greek meaning defender of men. It was made famous in the 4th Century BC by Alexander the Great and was very popular in England in the Middle Ages.

Aiden
An ancient Irish name which means little fire. It was the name of a 7th Century Irish missionary who founded the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria.
The name was revived during the 19th Century and is popular at the moment in Ireland. It is sometimes spelt Aidan or the English version of Edan is used.

Ant(h)ony
A Roman family name. Its most famous member was Marcus Antonius, the Mark Antony of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.
It was very popular in the Middle Ages as a result of the influence of St Antony the Great and St Antony of Padua.

Andrew
From the Greek meaning manly.
Andrew is the name of the apostle who is patron saint of Scotland, Russia and Greece and first appeared in England in the Domesday Book.