Calling Irish name afficionados - and Eoghan and an Aidan?

[Turniphead1]

Our second DC is called Eoghan (as in - now! - of Xfactor fame apparently. Pronounced Owan).

We are expecting DC3 in 4-6 weeks. Have a girls name sorted but stuck on a boys.

The one we really like is Aidan (although may spell it Aodhan the traditional way). But DH is worried too like Eoghan (starts with a vowel ends with an "an")

My friend says she has cousin siblings with both these names and shes never even thought about it being confusing.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Many thanks.

[potoftea]

I wouldn't think they are too alike at all.

But they do go nicely together. They are easy to say together in a sentence.

[Turniphead1]

A sentence like "Eoghan and Aodhan get down here NOW and stop killing each other..." (screamed at top of voice in harridan type way from bottom of stairs...

Thanks Potoftea!

[Buda]

I think they sound fine together but I prefer the Aidan spelling. Makes it more different from Eoghan too.

[Turniphead1]

That's a good point Buda! One of my main reasons for wanting "Aodhan" is so daft you will think I am nuts...

But my DD has a tricky to spell Irish name, Eoghan has a tricky to spell Irish name and I kind of feel in the interests of equality, so should DC3. Is that mad?

[Buda]

That's mad!

[Turniphead1]

I know! It's a thing from my Mum. She always had to be absolutely equal in all things with me and my sis - down to doing some ironing for one of us in our houses when we were grown up. Daft! Can i really imagine DC1 and 2 saying "how come Aidan's name is easier to spell than ours . Not fair?". probably not.

[TheNewsMongrel]

I like them both, but even though I'm in Ireland I'd speell them Owen and Aidan.

Eoghan is problematic even in Ireland. AOdhan more so. If you're in UK, Owen and Aidan make more sense.

[TheNewsMongrel]

Oh sorry, sorry, I didn't read your post properly. You have an Eoghan already! Ifeel silly now.

[GrapefruitMoon]

Both my ds's have Irish names (as does dd). They don't sound remotely alike when pronounced correctly but I had an incident at the GP's where they managed to mangle ds1's so much it sounded like ds2's!

If you spell it Aodhan, technicaly there should be a "fada" over the last "a" and it would be pronounced Ay-dawn rather than Ay-dan and so would be more similar to Eoghan... I would stick with Aidan, imo.

BTW ds1's name is not very common here yet, but there are a couple of others with his name at school. Ds2's is very common but he is the only one!

[Turniphead1]

Don't worry at all. Though in Ireland most people I know would spell it Eoin or Eoghan at very least! Owen is welsh.... But I agree that in Ireland Aidan is mostly spelled the easier way!

[galwaygirl]

TheNewsMongrel - don't know where you are in Ireland but I would find Owen weird for an Irish person rather than Eoghan!

Turniphead, I think they sound nice together and are both lovely names. GrapefruitMoon is right about Aodhán though (both spelling and pronounciation), so if you want to pronounce it Ay-dan I'd go with spelling it Aidan

[SoupDragon]

I think they'll be fine.

One word of warning, I have an Aidan and by god he's fiery...

[WotsThatSkippy]

I think they go together beautifully. Prefer the Gaelic spelling Aodhan, personally. If you've got an Eoghan already, the spelling shouldn't phase you

[DumbledoresGirl]

If you like the "an" ending, and much as I am loathe to give away my son's name to another, but what about Declan? Difficult Irish spelling is Deaglan

[TheNewsMongrel]

Lorcan?

V.pop here though.

[zazen]

No no don't go for Declan, or Deaglan. I have a cousin called Declan and it really gives me the willies!!

Here within the Pale, Owen is Ok galwaygirl but tigím that Eoghan is more frequent where you are. I have another cousin Eoin an Uncle Owen. I always preferred Owen spelling tbh.

I prefer Aidan, and to be honest it can be spelled Aiden also so there will still be enough confusion for him to make it fair!! you crazy OP lady!

[TheNewsMongrel]

I'm in 'The Pale' and being such a Jackeen I though Owen was Irish!

I thought Eoghan was for Irish language types!

My cousin called his daughter Maeve and my Mum said,

"oooooh lovely, love that name, well I love it spelled the englihs way, looks so mad the irish way, all those Bs, or is it all those Ds. How are you spelling it btw?".

Funny thing is, his wife is Spanish, so we put it down to her trying to assimilate and overdoing it!

[TheNewsMongrel]

She spelled it Maedhbh btw.

[zazen]

you mean they didn't spell it Medb? Blimey that's newfangled!

[DumbledoresGirl]

Gee thanks for that zazen.

That is my PFB's name you are slamming there!

[Cryptoprocta]

i was about to post a new question about something similar to this - excuse the hijack.

DD's official name is a mad gaelic spelling, but we figured that the easy-peasy phonetic spelling could be used in school, etc. Is this going to cause problems for her? Does anyone have experience of this kind of thing?

[TheNewsMongrel]

I think that's WHY I'm in favour of even Irish people in Ireland feeling free to use the English spelling. There is more than one accepted Gaelic spelling for Maedhbh. There is only one accepted English spelling.

Jmo. I like Irish names by the way. But quite often they don't look attractive written down.

[Turniphead1]

Thanks for all the thoughts, guys. On all the other name suggestions - we have friends here in London with DSs with all of them (Irish ex-pats tend to got for Irish names. Our friends still in Ireland all seem to have taken the Emily/Lucy route )

Crypto - hmmmm I am a bit confused as to why you went for the mad gaelic spelling at the start and not the phonetic. Personally, I would stick to the actual spelling on the birth cert - as having both will be confusing for official purposes. I have no problem with teachers, school and the DC themselves spelling their confusing Irish names. It's character building

Dumbledore we love Maeve (or Maedbh) its second on our list of girls names. We probably would spell it Maeve though. But it's all personal pref

[Cryptoprocta]

Turniphead - because I'm a mad Gael
I'd like everyone to use the Gaelic spelling really. My maiden name was always a bugger to spell/pronounce, but god I miss it now.