Seamus

Today's name: Seamus
Alternate spellings that have been used: Sheamus, Seumus, Shaymus, Seamas, Shamus

Pronunciation: SHAY-muss

Potential nicknames: Shea/Shay, Shy, Sean, Shem
(who can resist a nickname like Shea?)

Origin: Irish Gaelic variant of James (which is the English variant of Jacob), meaning "supplanter," or "he who grabs at the heel." A supplanter is someone who takes someone else's place. Jacob was born grabbing at his twin brother Esau's heel, later tricking this brother into trading the place of first born son, then tricking his father into giving him the title of first born son, and he is now the famous Biblical supplanter. Despite his trickery, God favored him.

Popularity: Seamus first made it on the Social Security Administration's top 1000 list for boys in 1995, making it to #733 in 2003, and in 2010 he ranked at #878. There were 236 baby boys  named Seamus in 2010 in the U.S., 7 Shaymus, 38 Shamus, 14 Sheamus, 118 Shea and 68 Shay. There were also only two baby Seamus's born in Scotland in 2010. Then in 2011 there were 33 boys named Sheamus, 34 Shamus, and Seamus ranked at #840.

Fun fact: (1) Poet Seamus Heaney. (2) Seamus Finnigan was a Harry Potter character.

I'll ask my readers: would you put Seamus into the "spunky" category, the "vintage" category, or something else?

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