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Baby names

Robin or Fynn

20 replies

Rhodescarson · 27/10/2016 18:53

Baby boy arrived 4 weeks ago and this is our short-list? We have to decide next week....what do people think? Grateful for your perspectives.

OP posts:
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Sophronia · 27/10/2016 19:01

Robin

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iisme · 27/10/2016 19:01

I really like both Robin and Finn. Not sure about the spelling Fynn - never seen that before.

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ThroughThickAndThin01 · 27/10/2016 19:04

Robin

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SpeckledyBanana · 27/10/2016 19:05

Finn, not Fynn, and only if it's Finlay on the birth certificate.

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Quiddi · 27/10/2016 19:11

Finn, as a full name. It's so much nicer than Finlay.

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FuckThatToOneSide · 27/10/2016 19:13

Robin by so many miles! I love it!

Finn is a bit nicer than Finley IMHO and is a full name on its own (Finn is an old Irish name - Finley is Scottish I think).

Flynn is a nice alternative maybe.

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Sugarpiehoneyeye · 27/10/2016 19:43

Robin.

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Chinlo · 27/10/2016 20:12

Finn.

Not Fynn though, not for me.

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MitzyLeFrouf · 27/10/2016 20:18

Finn. Not Fynn. No need for Finlay as Finn is very much a proper name in its own right and I bet much older a name than Finlay.

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Bear2014 · 27/10/2016 20:20

I like Flynn or Finn but not Fynn.

Robin would be my pick

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florascotianew · 27/10/2016 20:58

Finlay is old. It comes from Scottish Gaelic words meaning 'fair warrior'. In modern Scottish Gaelic it's spelled 'Fionnlagh', so the 'y' spelling looks wrong.

In Scottish (and I think Irish) Gaelic, 'Fionn' (pron Finn) means 'fair' or 'white'. Think of the famous myth about magic hunter/warrior Finn MacCool (anglicized spelling). Finn was his nickname, after his hair turned prematurely white.

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Chinlo · 27/10/2016 21:34

florascotianew ...So which one is older?

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rainbow99 · 27/10/2016 22:00

Definitely Finn, spelled that way

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ShmooBooMoo · 27/10/2016 22:03

Robin but if you go with your other suggestion, I think Finn is much better.

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DramaAlpaca · 27/10/2016 22:32

Finn, spelled like that.

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stonygreysoil · 28/10/2016 09:20

Much of a muchness, but if you go with the latter spell it Finn. Or even better Finlay and give the boy some options in the future.

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OutragedofLondon · 28/10/2016 09:29

Finn. Not Fynn.

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Inthenick · 28/10/2016 09:37

Fionn is not pronounced Finn.

I like Finn. I would constantly misread Fynn as Flynn.

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florascotianew · 28/10/2016 11:22

Chinlo - hard to say, because I think that the use of both names as first names has only become widespread since the late 20th cent.

Regarding the age of the words themselves:

Finlay seems originally to have been a descriptive surname - it appears in written records from the 1400s, but very few systematic surname records survive in Scotland from before that time. The patterns of naming were different from today, as well. The Gaelic words 'fair' and 'warrior' are much, much older, of course.

Finn is best known as a descriptive nickname, eg for the Irish mythical hero, Finn MacCool. (His 'real' first name was something else.) Many legendary early Irish kings had the same nickname. All their stories were first written down by Christian monks between the late 11th-15th centuries. They are hundreds of years older, although it's very hard to tell how far the monks shaped and changed the traditional tales.

One legendary early Irish king was listed as 'Finn Mac Blatha'. Traditionally he lived in the first millenium BC. So perhaps it's possible to count that as the first use of the name? I don't know.

In more recent times, Finn has sometimes also been used as a short form of Gaelic names such as Fintan and Finbar. These are old names, too, and were recorded very early; there was a St Fintan who lived around AD 650, for example, and a famous Bishop Finbar who lived around AD 550.

Innthenick - I honestly think there's a regional spectrum, from 'Fyonn' and 'Fiown' to 'Finn' and even 'Feen'. This is illustrated by these examples, all by native Irish speakers: forvo.com/search/Fionn/ It's a self-selected sample, of course...Probably I should have said 'sometimes pronounced 'Finn''.

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squoosh · 28/10/2016 11:24

Finn is nicer than Finlay. He won't need 'options'!

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