Roisin

Meaning of Roisin

Róisín is a feminine given name of Irish Gaelic origin, pronounced ro-SHEEN (/rəʊˈʃiːn/), formed by the combination of rosa (‘rose’) with the diminutive suffix -ín, thereby conveying the meaning “little rose.” The name carries considerable historical resonance in Irish literature and folk tradition—most notably through the emblematic figure of Róisín Dubh in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Gaelic poetry—and has been adopted in contemporary Anglo-American contexts as a marker of cultural heritage. Morphophonemically, its orthography features a síneadh fada over both the ó and í, although it is frequently rendered without diacritical marks in English-language records. According to United States Social Security Administration data, Róisín has maintained a position within the top 1,000 female given names since the mid-1960s, with rankings that have oscillated between approximately 737 and 969; in 2024 it appeared at rank 907 with 43 recorded occurrences. This enduring yet modest presence underscores its technical appeal to parents seeking a name that combines precise phonetic structure with authentic Gaelic provenance.