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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Irish Baby Names- it doesnt spell right!

56 replies

Takingbabysteps · 06/08/2011 21:46

Recently, my fiancé and I were discussing baby names, due to alot of our friends being pregnant and beginning to have babies.
When the topic came up of what we would name our babies, I suggested a couple of Irish names for a girl. Being Very proud of my Irishness (I should be the poster girl of Dublin- bright red hair, pale skin, cute freckles on the nose) I realised that when I moved to Surrey for my English partner, my Irishness came out multiplied by 100!
So I suggested Caoimhe. My fiancé liked it......until he asked the spelling. Unfortunately I dashed his idea that it was spelt K E E V A. It didnt go down well. He believes that his (english) friends would find our name very bizaare, especially because we would have to spell it phonetically.

Has anyone else gone through this dilemma. If so, who gives in?!

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Bandwithering · 07/08/2011 12:42

Sparkle, you have managed to spell Clodagh correctly but not Caoimhe!! so imo, that is a vote for clodagh.

Maryz · 07/08/2011 12:30

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Bunbaker · 07/08/2011 12:00

"Clodagh, whilst beautiful, will be pronounced Clod-ag"

I don't think so. We are used to words ending -gh. Anyway, when I saw the name my first thought was of Clodagh Rogers.

I agree that it would be a shame to mangle the spelling of a name so that us ignorant forriners can pronounce it correctly. The consensus seems to be that many Irish names are just not phonetic enough for English speakers.

sparkle12mar08 · 07/08/2011 11:47

Clodagh, whilst beautiful, will be pronounced Clod-ag by most english people on a first try I'd have thought. Caiomhe is gorgeous. I'd definitely go with that.

Bandwithering · 07/08/2011 11:27

Another issue with Caoimhe is that it is sometimes pronounced Kweeva and sometimes Keeva.

Bandwithering · 07/08/2011 11:22

I like Clodagh Maeve /Roisin Anya (Aine) ?? and I think most English men could cope with those.

Caoimhe is too much for a 'forriner' imo. You're pushing too much there imo. Caoimhe is nice enough but there are so many in Ireland now. When you come back to Ireland and shout out "Caoimhe, time to go home now" in the park, about 5 girls' heads will all turn round.

I'm Irish myself by the way and I'm going to shove you out of the way, jump in front of the camera and say i'm the poster girl for Ireland with my moussey brown hair and blue eyes. [ponders] I hardly know anybody with red hair and green eyes and freckles...

somewherewest · 07/08/2011 11:13

I'm Irish living in England with a Welsh/English DH and I struck Saoirse (pronounced seer-sha) off the list pretty early on because I didn't think it was fair to give a child a name everyone would mangle. My DH feels the same, which is fair enough. I don't think I could ever use an anglicised spelling because it would look really weird/wrong to me and my Irish family/friends. At least we're double-barrelling so they'll have one very Irish surname! We'd also consider giving a DC a better known Irish name and keeping the unusual one as a second one.

"People would learn. This country is full of people with all different backgrounds and all sorts of weird and wonderful names. Should they all change their spellings to accommodate people who can't be arsed to think outside of Peter and Jane? It's a lazy, tired argument".

You'd be surprised. I have endless trouble with the fairly unchallenging Irish surname of O'Brien, which is frequently spelt O'Brian, O'brian etc etc.

wrigglerstea · 07/08/2011 00:18

I have a very English name but it is very old fashioned and not at all "normal" and no one can spell or pronounce that either, even though it actually is spelled phonetically (people don't like z in the middle of a name). Spend half my time explaining that actually, no, it isn't foreign, but why would it matter if it was?

I don't think it matters what you do someone will have an issue with it, you might as well give your daughter a beautiful name, spelled right, and let everyone else get on with it...

Maryz · 07/08/2011 00:12

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SinicalSal · 07/08/2011 00:08

Yes stick to the authentic version.

SevenAgainstThebes · 07/08/2011 00:07

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BoosMaw · 06/08/2011 23:48

It's worth considering that most kids can't read or write well enough to spell each others names until after they've started school, and at say 5 yo they have a fairly limited life experience, so Caoimhe won't be any more unusual to a home counties kid than ,any other more common names, and plenty of british names are non-phonetic anyway, just in a different way.

e.g. my 5yo DD misspelt Isabelle on a friend's birthday card, but she can spell Ruairidh as we have one of those in the family. We're not in Ireland, or the Scottish Highlands, and neither is Ruairidh, he seems to cope OK with his name!

SinicalSal · 06/08/2011 23:44

Spell the name in the correct way, people get used to all sorts of funny forrin names and spellings.

MelanieWiggles · 06/08/2011 23:35

Cross post Maryz !

MelanieWiggles · 06/08/2011 23:34

Caitlin is pronounced Cawtch-leen in Ireland. The english translation is Kathleen.

BluddyMoFo · 06/08/2011 23:32

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Maryz · 06/08/2011 23:31

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MrsOzz · 06/08/2011 23:29

Oh actual Cat-Lin sounds like a better story. Or maybe I just need to learn to read those funny phonetic spelling symbols properly.

MrsOzz · 06/08/2011 23:28

I just googled stand think the poster may mean it should have a 'th' sound instead of the 't'. So maybe more like Caithlin rather than Catelin. Could be barking up the wrong tree though (I am as English as they come! Sorry)

Nagoo · 06/08/2011 23:26

Caitlin Moran says cat-lin.

MrsOzz · 06/08/2011 23:22

Out of interest, how would you say Caitlin? I thought it was Kate-lin, like Katelynn, Katelin, Catelynn, Caitlynn etc erc. Sorry for my ignorance!

Bunbaker · 06/08/2011 23:22

"don't name her Caitlin and pronounce it Kate-Lynn (a real bugbear for me)."

So, how do you pronounce Caitlin?

MaryMotherOfCheeses · 06/08/2011 23:20

See, I don't know how to pronounce Caitlin if it's not like that.

Maryz · 06/08/2011 23:16

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Maryz · 06/08/2011 23:15

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