A thousand names and counting: the Mayo calligrapher keeping Irish stories alive

There is something special about seeing your own name written down. It is one of the first things we learn to recognise, a word that belongs entirely to us. But for Maggi Geraghty, finding her name on a personalised mug, keyring or little keepsake was never quite so easy.

Her name is Maggi, spelt with an ‘i’, and the shops were full of Maggies and Margarets, but rarely one quite like hers.

“I could never get anything that was personalised for my name,” she recalls.

It was a small frustration, but one that would eventually inspire a collection of more than 1,000 names, each beautifully presented in Celtic calligraphy and accompanied by its own story.

The Vault of Irish Names, created by Maggi through her Ballintubber-based business Mayo Calligraphy, passed the 1,000-name milestone in October. Fittingly, the landmark entry was not the name of an ancient king or a saint, but Johnny.

And that, as Maggi explains, is really the point.

“It is what the child has actually been called,” she says.

The collection began with just 18 names, based on some of the most popular baby names in Ireland, but requests soon began to arrive. Before long, the list was growing at a remarkable pace.

And it is not just traditional Irish names that feature. While there has been a renewed interest in older Irish and Celtic names, Maggi also researches names from other cultures that are popular with Irish families today.

“I started the whole thing because I could never find a Maggi anywhere,” she says. “The big names are all in now, so we are getting round to the names people are actually called.”

The origins of Mayo Calligraphy

Maggi’s own journey with calligraphy began long before the Vault. She first learned the art at the age of 18 in Catholic school in Ballycastle, where three teachers – Sisters Marie, Loretta and Camille – introduced her to the craft.

She has kept it up in one form or another ever since, founding Mayo Calligraphy in 2011. Much of her early work involved individual commissions and handmade pieces, alongside computer-generated calligraphy.

The idea for the Vault came after a particularly exhausting Christmas season. Having spent so much time producing individual pieces, she began wondering if there was a way to share her work with more people without having to physically create every print from scratch.

The solution was to design each name once, combining the calligraphy with research into its origins, meaning and history. Customers could then purchase a digital download or a fine art print, making the work available to families wherever they might be in the world.

Each design uses the distinctive uncial lettering associated with early Irish manuscripts, framed by Celtic knotwork. Beneath the name is a short account of its background, presented in an easy-to-read style.

But it is the research that makes the collection particularly interesting to Maggi. She wants people to know more than simply how a name looks on a page.

That means checking sources, consulting books and being willing to revisit information when something does not quite stand up.

“We don’t make any claims that we cannot stand on,” she says.

Where there are different scholarly opinions, these are acknowledged, and the sources are published on the website so that customers can check the information for themselves.

It is an approach that reflects the care Maggi puts into the collection, but also her understanding that names can be deeply personal. A spelling that might seem like a small detail to one person can be hugely important to another.

That is something she has seen through requests for different versions of Irish names, including spellings that may not follow traditional rules but are the ones families have chosen to use.

In Ireland and abroad

The connection is especially meaningful for customers living abroad. Orders are going to Irish families in Boston, Sydney and London, with partner printers helping to fulfil orders in the US, Australia and the UK.

Maggi has noticed how names can help families maintain a link with Ireland, even generations after leaving.

In America, surnames such as Kerry and Sheridan are being used as first names, sometimes carrying on a grandmother’s maiden name. In Australia, she is increasingly hearing from Irish grandparents who want to send something meaningful to grandchildren growing up far from home.

“You feel that these children are going to grow up in Australia,” she says. “As their grandparents, you want to send something that brings them back to their heritage and reminds them of who they are.”

For Maggi, that is one of the loveliest aspects of the work. A name print can become a little piece of family history, something that might prompt a child to ask where their name came from or who in the family carried it before them.

Maggi’s new project

Her latest project, The Irish Year 2027, has a similar purpose. The wall calendar brings together Irish names, mythology and folklore, with a different story for each month. Fionn and the Salmon of Knowledge and Méabh and the Brown Bull of Cooley are among the tales featured, accompanied by Maggi’s own hand-drawn ink illustrations.

She hopes the short stories will encourage children to become familiar with these pieces of Irish heritage simply by seeing them every day.

“The stories are short and engaging, with little ink sketches to illustrate the tale,” she says. “Children will pick up the gist of the saga as they pass by the page for the 30 or so days.”

Now, with more than 1,000 names in the Vault, Maggi is already thinking about new possibilities, including turning some of the designs into metal wall art for family homes and nurseries.

“It’s just nice when the pieces that you put so much work into, especially the handmade pieces, are still on display 20 years later,” she says.

It is a long way from searching shop shelves for a personalised gift with the right spelling of her own name. But perhaps that is what makes the collection so special: behind every name is a person, a family and a story that deserves to be remembered.

The list of The Vault of Irish Names can be found on Mayo Calligraphy website.