Hi everyone,
DH and I are expecting DS1 in February next year, and we're doing some thinking about names. He's Irish, I'm half Scottish (my family are Gaelic speakers from Mull/Coll), so we were keen to choose an Irish or Gaelic name. We live in the SE of England, though.
We've gone for Padraig as a middle name: this is FIL's name, and DH insisted on it being used. DH wanted Paddy as a first name instead, but I'm afraid I said no for a number of reasons. Using it as a second name is a compromise but we're both happy with it.
I came up with a lot of suggestions for first names, most of which were vetoed, but we do have a short list of three which DH "could live with, I suppose" [tongue-in-cheek long-suffering husband emoticon]! They are:
Eoin
Seán
Aidan (ok, this isn't actually Gaelic/Irish...)
My personal favourite is Eoin, and DH hasn't expressed a preference for any of the three, beyond saying that they're all fine by him. I'd love to hear what people think, or if you think I'm way off track! 
The vetoed names, by the way, were along the lines of Ruaraidh, Cillian, Ciarán, Liam (I actually vetoed that one myself as our surname begins with L, and I didn't like the alliteration).
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Baby names
Names for DS1 - trying to narrow it down!
florilegia · 05/11/2010 13:09
Yes, Eoin is indeed pronounced like Owen, but it's the Irish/Scots Gaelic spelling rather than the Welsh.
BlueChampagne: it's funny you should mention Alasdair: I was mulling it over today on my way into work. Hasn't been vetoed by DH yet, either! 
I have an Owen (and a Kyle) and i'm expecting another boy in 6 weeks time. Really like Sean, but quite like Aidan too, both were on our list, so i like all 3 of those names
Thank you all for the congratulations, and the same to all the other expectant mums!
Emilie, he never actually gave me a reason for disliking Cillian, just said it was a no-go. I'm assuming he knew a really horrid Cillian in school or something, and it's tainted the name for him. It was the same with Ruaraidh, which I really liked...
Malachy's an interesting one: DH was asking me about family names on my side, and got very keen on the idea of Lachlan, which was a great Uncle's name. They're pretty similar, so he might go for it! The trouble is, I think the "ch" might cause pronunciation problems, as it seems to be a hard sound for a lot of English people: it already sets my teeth on edge when people say "Loch" as "Lock", so I don't know if I could cope with people doing that to DS's name!
As regards spellings, though, my mum deliberately gave me a very simple, short, phonetically-spelled name istead of the Gaelic name she wanted to use: despite this, I've gone through my life having to constantly correct people who come up with the most bizarre spelling variants. You can't win...
skippingturtle: I'd always heard it pronounced as it's spelled in English, but according to DH, it's actually said more like "Usheen". Ferdia is phonetic as far as I'm aware: I really did like it as a name, but I wondered whether the "a" ending might make too feminine sounding (even though it's derived from the Irish for "man"!).
Greenwing: I had though that about Sean too, which was putting me off a bit. It's a shame, as it's such a nice name...
elliphant: wow! What a list: I like a lot of those suggestions, especially Cormac and Ross (also Niall is my uncle's name, so I'm impressed to learn he was the King of Tara). DH is actually from Louth, so Ultan might be a bit contentious, though!
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