Dearbhla?

I think most people who are not Irish and haven't studied the language do find Irish spelling rules hard to understand. They are not being lazy or trying to annoy you

That's fine, why would they know if they didn't know? The problem comes when they start on with the "Irish spellings are so weird, why don't they make any sense?" (they do make sense: they just aren't the same as English spellings) and "Nobody will ever be able to spell it, don't be so mean to the kid" and so on.

If you want your English child to resent you forever, put some silent consonents in her name.

Btw I know a Dervla in the UK. She is forever moaning about the confusion it causes. She's utterly sick of the head tilts, furrowed brows and the slooooow sounding it out with a question mark at the end. "Daaaawwwwvler?"

How about Mairead? I always thought that was a lovely name.

(Pronounced like parade with an M)

We had this dilemma, Irish heritage, live in England. Coupled with some severely dyslexic family member we went decided to go simple - we choose Erin. Not technically Irish, but has links and overtones enough to satisfy us!

I think you should go for Caoimhe.... that should make interesting pronunciations

I think most people who are not Irish and haven't studied the language do find Irish spelling rules hard to understand. They are not being lazy or trying to annoy you.

This ^

I work with dc in a very multicultural City, and am quite happy to do my best with names form dozens upon dozens of countries / heritages, but I do struggle with Irish names.
As some others have said, I would have no idea where to start with Dearbhla, to my (apparently racist) English eyes, it looks like someone has run fingers across a keyboard. Before it was explained upthread, I would have no idea how to start pronouncing it if it were written down, nor spelling it if it were spoken.
It would annoy me no end to have a name like that. I grew up with a surname that I automatically spelled whenever I gave it out, but it was easy to read (just a few ways you could spell it). I used to find it really annoying and was glad to change my name when I got married. However, it would be 100 times worse if it were my first name I think.

Oh dear, if you don't live in Ireland, please don't. This is very like my name, and I spent my WHOLE LIFE having to tutor people in spelling and pronunciation, it got me bullied and teased at school, and even now as a fully grown adult it STILL causes comment/annoyance! I would have paid good money, aged about 13, to change my name to Anne, or Alice, or Emily, or anything that people could look at and say correctly, or hear and write down correctly. I beg you don't inflict this on a poor child.

I teach in a Catholic girls school. I'm not Irish but manage to pronounce Aisling, Siobhan, Aoife, Roisin, Sorcha, Saoirse etc without my tiny head exploding from the effort. The spellings may not make much sense from an English point of view but my Irish speaking friend tells me that Irish spellings are actually much more phonetic than English ones if you know the rules for pronunciation.

Yeah yeah

No I probably wouldn't say it about other countries, as the English do have a particular knack of being ignorant of the traditions of other countries and cultures, even those extremely close to them, and living amongst them.

But I'd make jokes about other countries' various idiosyncrasies too. So don't worry, the English aren't special there.

I like Irish names (and Scottish and Welsh) but I'm not a fan of this one I'm afraid

Looks like a typo

You had me wondering if I'd dreamed the Orlaith thing then! Found this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orla_(name)

I'm sure I've seen Orlaith suggested on here, (though only about once I think, compared to multiple times for Orla).

Scottish Gaelic names are confusing too though. Like Mhairi being pronounced Vah-ree and names that change with different cases.

Funny how you wouldn't say that joke against any other country, you'd be called racist. English though, we have to take it.

It's a lovely name, OP.

I also like Saoirse.

Agent sometimes I thinks it's just that the English, compared to us, are not very bright.

I dont know how to pronounce any of the names mentioned . Dervla sounds nice though.

There are some absolutely lovely Irish names, and many are popular in the UK. But I think most people who are not Irish and haven't studied the language do find Irish spelling rules hard to understand. They are not being lazy or trying to annoy you.

The names (like Siobhan) that I do know how to spell are just because I know someone with that name and have deliberately memorised them. I have worked out that 'bh' seems to make a 'v' sound, but I still don't get why 'Orla' for example is traditionally supposed to be spelled 'Orlaith' - is it?

French, German, Spanish, etc. name spellings seem easier to understand.

Aisling is nice. Dearbhla is.. Not.

Love Dervla and it's variations, I wanted to use it but was vetoed by DH. I also love Daireann.

It's a nice name.
I think people are exposed to a lot of names from all round the globe these days so they might not get it right first time but I can't see it being a big issue.