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"A name that a shame never has been connected with."

That's Harrigan — according to the old George M. Cohan song. Though it might just as easily be Murphy, Kelly, O'Brien, Ryan, Byrne, O'Connor, Walsh, O'Sullivan, McCarthy, Doyle — the 10 most common Irish surnames, according to IrishCentral.

Names — no less than music, poetry, shamrocks and soda bread — are part of the Irish legacy in this country. And rest assured that those names will be well represented at the 42nd Annual Bergen County St. Patrick's Day Parade, kicking off 2 p.m. on Sunday March 10 in Bergenfield, hosted by the city's Council of Irish Associations of Greater Bergen County.

"You just run into so many people growing up named Murphy," said Brian Murphy, one of this year's parade marshals. "Everyone would always ask me if I was related to this Murphy, or that."

This year, once again, the parade will launch 2 p.m. from South Washington Avenue and East Englewood Avenue in Bergenfield.

This year, again, it will travel north up Washington Avenue for one mile, ending up at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church. (You can watch the parade in person, or live on northjersey.com/watchparade, where we will livestream it. There's also a QR code with this story that will take you right to the video).

And as always, the fun and music will continue afterwards at Tommy Fox's Public House on South Washington Avenue.

Once again, you'll see green derbies, green bowties, green beer, green hair, green costumed leprechauns, green-accessorized dogs and babies.

Once again, there will be vintage cars ahh-OOO-gah-ing down the street, courtesy of Restored Rusty Relics Antique Auto Club.

Once again there will be the grand old tunes — "Garryowen," "Dawning of the Day," "The Minstrel Boy" — played by the grand old masters: the Bergenfield High School Marching Band, The New Milford High School Marching Knights, The River Dell Marching Band, The Dumont High School Marching Band, Rockland County Firefighters Pipes and Drums, Tri-County Irish War Pipe Band, Bergen County Firefighters Pipe Band, Clan Na Vale, Fusion Core, Police Pipes and Drums of Bergen County, The Bergen Irish Pipe Band, and Ninemile House.

Once again, newcomers will mingle with the old lineup: The Academy of the Holy Angels Gaelic society from Demarest, and the Ramapo Saints Youth Hockey Club. And leading the parade, a brand new set of grand marshals: Sally and John Roche of Bogota.

And once again, there will be the names. Always, the names.

Storied names

Irish names have history, tradition, and pride — above all, pride — connected with them. They are names of places, names of saints, sometimes transliterations of Gaelic words with specific associations.

O'Connor, for instance. From the Gaelic "Ó Conchobhair" — "descendant of Conchobhar," meaning "lover of hounds." An important Irish clan.

"There's a great sense of pride, definitely, around our name," said Maureen O'Connor of Clifton, who wouldn't dream of missing the Bergenfield parade this year (for one thing, her brother James — a Cullen — is a volunteer helping to organize).

"We had a shield in our house, a family crest, with the name O'Connor, and where it came from," she said. "My father was very proud of being an O'Connor."

The O'Connor roll of honor is an illustrious one. From Sinéad to Flannery to Donald to Sandra Day, the list is long. That's the one drawback to any popular surname. You have to share.

"There are a lot of O'Connors," she said. "There used to be a Facebook page just for Maureen O'Connors. There were a couple of hundred women on the page."

O'Connor is a common name in Galway, where her father Morgan was from — though it's even more associated with County Kerry, she said. "There were a lot of O'Connors where he was from," she said. She herself married an O'Riordan, and her two children, Bridget and Owen, dropped the "O." They are Riordans.

But what's one O'Connor, more or less — when the county is swimming in them?

"There was another Maureen O'Connor growing up in Dumont, and she was a year younger than me," she recalled. "She only lived a couple of blocks away from me. She was a very bright student. One day I came home to some mail that was for 'Maureen O'Connor.' Two of the letters were almost full scholarships — one to Seton Hall, and I forget what the other school was. I had to go to the high school and tell them they had the wrong Maureen O'Connor."

And her sister didn't have it any better.

Her name was Eileen O'Connor. The other Maureen O'Connor also had a sister named Eileen O'Connor.

Kith and kin

It all comes with the territory — especially in this part of Bergen County.

"In Bergenfield, Dumont, New Milford there's always been a big Irish population," O'Connor said.

Which means there are also a lot of Murphys.

The name has its roots in the Gaelic "Ó Murchadha." That's "descendant of the sea warrior" to you.

It's such a quintessentially Irish name that it's almost become shorthand. "Murphys," in 19th century England, were potatoes. A popular song of the same era asked, "Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?" And if you want to let people know you're a Celtic punk band, what better name than The Dropkick Murphys?

And then there are all the celebrity Murphys who keep the name green: Eddie Murphy, Cillian Murphy, Brittany Murphy, Audie Murphy.

"It's like being part of a little club," said Murphy, a Westwood resident. "Its a funny thing about having a name that's so common. I grew up in Dumont, and I lived on a street with only 13 houses, and on that street there were three different Murphy families. None of them related."

He himself is a first generation American — his parents were both from Ireland — so he's unlikely to be kin to any of the American Murphys who periodically ask if he's their long-lost cousin. But he's proud to bequeath the family name to his wife, Christa Murphy (born a Maloney) and his children Emma Murphy, 14, and Charlie Murphy, 12.

"In her grammar school, there's another Emma Murphy in another grade," Murphy said. "[My daughter] was the older one. So they always had to say 'Emma Murphy, 6th grade, 'and 'Emma Murphy, 3rd grade' — or whatever it was."

Of course, it's possible to be Irish through and through, even with a less common name. A name like — oh, say — Spollen.

In her case, says Deirdre Spollen-LaRaia, president of the Council of Irish Associations of Greater Bergen County, which sponsors the annual Bergenfeild parade (both her parents are from Ireland), the first name more than makes up or it.

"Deirdre is a very, very common first name in Ireland, and also in the U.S.," she said. "And my two siblings are named Kathleen and Colleen. If that's not Irish, I don't know what is."

For more information...

Visit bergencountyirish.org.

To watch a livestream of the parade, go to northjersey.com/watchparade, or scan this QR code with your smartphone:

After six years, Zai’s Dessertery, a macaron bakery that began life in Dumont and then moved to Bergenfield, has closed.

The bakery, owned by Zainab Illyas, a native of Sri Lanka, announced its closing on social media.

In 2020, the business was doing so well that a second, smaller location opened in Cresskill and soon after another on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. All are now closed.

"I really tried," Illyas said on her Instagram post. "I gave myself and my business a second chance but after 6 years of being in business with many losses, especially from the other two locations and going through too many downs than ups. I decided it’s time for me to move on."

She went on to say that the business was sold to "some friends, who will be taking over the space and running their own Café and Bakery."

Illyas could not be reached for comment.

The mother of three was quite active on social media. Indeed, she often could be seen dancing — the merengue, free-form, slow — in her Bergenfield bakery, wearing her customary black hijab and black chef's coat. Sometimes she'd use baking equipment as pretend instruments.

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"I love to dance," she has told The Record. "And people love the posts. They tell me I'm an inspiration to them."

A self-taught baker, Illyas sold her popular macarons, as well as bubble waffles, homemade crepes, and a wide selection of cupcakes and specialty coffees.

Fans wished her well on Instagram as they lamented the closing.

"We will miss your joy and delicious treats!" wrote one fan. "We love you and can't wait to see the next chapter of your story."

"You brought such joy as well as delicious sweets... What a great legacy. Wishing you well in the next chapter," wrote another.

Still another: "We all love you Zai. You have the best food and you truly were incredible."

Zai's was located at 108 North Washington Ave., Bergenfield.

It was a loss — but hardly a defeat — for Bergenfield magician Anna DeGuzman, who blazed a thrilling trail through four months of "America's Got Talent," only to come up just short of votes on Wednesday's season finale to finish in second place.

It was Adrian Stoica with his dog Hurricane, one of the other 11 acts that competed in the finale, who will walk away with the $1 million cash prize and a one-off slot at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.

But being on "America's Got Talent," she says, is itself a win-win.

"I don't think there is losing," DeGuzman said. "I think I've already won."

Not only is she part of a franchise that has racked up over 3.8 billion video views, and 26 million YouTube subscribers to date, but the contestants have a history of doing well — win or lose.

Magician Shin Lim, a previous AGT winner (and Guzman's idol) parlayed his fame into his own show in Las Vegas. But so did another AGT magician, Piff the Magic Dragon, who didn't win.

That's the magic of television — and DeGuzman has finessed it as neatly as she does the playing cards that she uses to perform astounding tricks of numerology and prognostication.

On Tuesday's decisive performance — the one viewers voted on — she astonished again. She made the Queen of Hearts, chosen randomly by host Terry Crews, appear not only in the sealed envelopes of judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Sofia Vergara, but also in the envelopes of every audience member.

She topped that by lining up the seemingly random cards Crews had chosen — two of hearts, six of diamonds, nine of spades, two of diamonds, three of hearts, 10 of clubs, and 10 of spades — to form the exact date and moment of their broadcast: 26/9/23 at 10:10 p.m. "Check the clock, because it's exactly 10:10, America!" she told the TV audience.

"I wanted to have everybody involved, including the people at home, to make it one of my biggest performances ever," she said.

The real magic of her performance style, she says, is in making something as small and intimate as cards "read" big — for an audience of thousands in a theater, or millions on a broadcast. She's not the kind of magician who makes the Statue of Liberty disappear. Nor does she want to be.

"I specialize in close-up," she said. "That's how I started. Doing street magic for people. Stuff with coins, money. Literally any small object you can think of. I love that kind of magic because it's intimate. I always felt that big stage illusions have a disconnect with the audience. When it's some big unfamiliar object on stage that [the magician] is doing something with, they're suspicious. But when it's an ordinary object that people are familiar with, they can appreciate it."

Certainly, DeGuzman's residency on AGT is a big win for female magicians — underrepresented in the field.

And it's a big win for DeGuzman on a personal level. It's brought her closer to her mother Tess, an emigrant from the Philippines who brought up DeGuzman as an only child in a single-parent household. During the broadcasts, she was shown in the audience.

"This has been very bonding," DeGuzman said. "My mom doesn't really know this world. She's always been a very normal conservative woman. She would never do anything like what I do. She's not a performer. She's not a singer. For her this is so new, being on TV. She's never been on TV in her life. I'm used to being on cameras, on social media. This is the first time I feel she's kind of been brought into my world."

The 25-year-old Bergen County native finished in second place on "America's Got Talent" after dazzling viewers and judges with her array of impressive card tricks and devil-may-care attitude.

Judges praised her cardistry while also relating to how nervous she got when it was time for her big reveals. Tricks included her flashy shuffling and card balancing and being able to somehow make it so audience member and judge had the same card in an envelope. When her tricks worked, she jumped up and down and seemed as surprised as the audience.

Growing up with a single mother, DeGuzman shuttled from home to home but she found comfort in magic tricks and cardistry, rewatching the tricks of magicians like David Blaine and teaching herself how to do magic.

Before going on "America's Got Talent," DeGuzman had achieved an impressive following, appearing on "Penn and Teller: Fool Us" and wowing people on TikTok.

DeGuzman said she had planned to buy her mother a home if she won the $1 million grand prize.

"She's never had her own place," DeGuzman said. "She's so proud of me and I want to make sure she's taken care of. She's my #1 fan. When she saw her daughter with Simon and Terry Crews, it's starting to become real. Her daughter is now becoming a star."

@annadeguz

I will never forget today for the rest of life #agt

♬ original sound - Anna DeGuzman

DeGuzman did not reveal what was next for her, but said this is only the beginning.

"This has already changed my life, so thank you for making me feel like a winner already," DeGuzman said before the results were announced. "I will never forget today for the rest of my life."

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NORTH JERSEY, NJ — Bergen County native Jack Antonoff — who just won a "Producer of the Year" Grammy for his work with Taylor Swift and other musicians — has landed the cover of next month's New Jersey Monthly Magazine. In a new interview in the magazine, he talks about Swift, Bruce Springsteen, the "heavy" academic pressure in Bergen County towns, and more.

"[Bergen County towns] can be really heavy in terms of expectation, and there’s not a lot of space...for people who have a different concept of what they want their life to be," he says in the interview, when talking about college pressures. "I was really lucky because I didn’t give a s--- what anyone else thought, because my family was cool with what I was doing.”

Antonoff was born in Bergenfield and raised in Woodcliff Lake and New Milford. He attended Solomon Schechter Day School in New Milford before commuting to New York City to attend the Professional Children's School for high school.

The story notes that the Bleachers frontman and former guitarist for fun. will turn 40 next month. Besides Swift, he has produced Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Sara Bareilles, Tegan & Sara, Grimes, St. Vincent, and more.

"A few miles away [from MetLife Stadium], that song was made in this tiny little space,” he says about Taylor Swift's "Getaway Car."

Find out what's happening in Ridgewood-Glen Rockwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He also talks about his marriage last year (in New Jersey) to Margaret Qualley, about relationships in general, and about dealing with his sister's death at 13 from brain cancer. And he reveals that he used to go to Jersey diners alone on Christmas to people-watch.

The issue hits newsstands on Feb. 27. Read more of the interview here.

Read a previous story about Antonoff's recent wedding in Patch here: In Swift-Studded Wedding, Bergen County Boy Jack Antonoff Gets Married