Aoife - if not Irish?

They sound completely different to my ears - and I’m not Irish!!

@KirstenBlest As a Scot, I’m perfectly aware of all that but should the actions of the British government in the 19th century really prevent Tom and Jessica from Slough from ever using a Scottish, Irish or Welsh name? Should every English person called Isla, Niamh or Sian change their name by deed poll? Names like Siobhan, Fiona, Catriona, Ciaran/Kieran, Callum and Aiden have been around for years - it’s really not a new thing.

I personally love that people want to use the correct spellings and pronunciations (hopefully!) as opposed to Anglicising them. Fancy wanting to name your child Eilidh and being told that unless you can prove some sort of Scottish ancestry, you have to call them Helen because you’re English😂

@mathanxiety , I thought that Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and part of the British Empire, so I'm not sure that Irish was ever British.

@BridaBrida , on my part it's to do with the way the names were not used until fairly recently, the spellings were altered to be more acceptably English, even in my grandparents' day. Some of my grandparents were born in the 19th Century.
Registrars would write the anglicised or English version of the name.
Even the surnames were originally anglicised.

An example might be parents way back when wishing to call their baby Huw or Elin, and the registrar recording the name as Hugh or Ellen, and now someone choosing to name their child Huw or Elin but saying them as Hugh or Ellen, when they could just use Hugh and Ellen.

I'm aware of all that history. I'm Irish myself. To add to your post, Ireland has only been independent of the UK for a hundred years. Up to the 1920s, the UK was the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the entire island, where hundreds of thousands of people spoke Irish.

What I want to know is how, therefore, is using an Irish name any different from using a name from an English language edition of the bible, a name originating in another culture altogether?

How is the Irish name less British than Sarah or Rachel or Maria?

I'm Irish and have no problem with anyone using Irish names, although I'd assume some Irish heritage - no issues with that not being the case though.

Aoife is a lovely name but it does rather blend in with all the Eva/Evie/Avas.

I do find the mumsnet aversion to Irish, Scottish and Welsh names utterly tedious.

@mathanxiety , nothing to do with being 'foreign'. Irish is a language of part of the UK.
There is history of attempts by the English to stamp out Gaeilge, Gaelic and Welsh languages in the UK, and the anglicisation of names was part of it.

A link to pronunciation for anyone wondering forvo.com/word/aoife/

I think it's fine as long as you spell and pronounce it correctly.
I'm not Irish and (as far as I know) have no Irish heritage but both my girl's names have Irish connections.

I think what's objectionable in all this is the implication that anything Irish is so foreign it's unimaginable for an English child. So foreign it's pretty much as alien as a Japanese name.

Such an odd viewpoint.

My DCs have names that are French, Hebrew, Irish, Italian, and Greek.

As a pp said, Irish people have been settling seamlessly in the UK for hundreds of years - and the traffic goes both ways.

I am Irish and have several English and Scottish ancestors on one side. I have Irish relatives and friends living in England and Scotland.

Spell and pronounce an Irish name right if you choose it for your child, is all Irish people ask.

Completely different from using Maria, Rachel and Sarah, @polkadotclip .
Rachel and Sarah are names from the English version of the bible, and Maria has been in use in the UK for centuries.

I'm Irish and i think go for it. It's a lovely vowely name, i love the sound of it.

I really like the name. I wouldn’t personally use it without Irish heritage because it’s in a different language. Do you speak that language? If not it’s a bit odd to use the name and you’re unlikely to pronounce it correctly.

Also Irish and think it’s fine, but I would wonder if someone I met with that name had an Irish connection if I met them abroad.
It is still very common in Ireland, there are 3 in my 8 year olds class.
And it’s not pronounced the same as Eva.

No different than using Maria, Rachel, Sarah.

Go for it if you like the name, OP!

I think it's fine. There a lot of names with Irish or any other heritage that have been blended into other cultures and countries and people use the names without thinking twice. Aoife's gorgeous, so if you love it, use it!

have no issue with anyone using Irish names as long as they spell and pronounce them properly.

This. How will you pronounce it?

A friend chose a very simple name and then pronounced it as if it were a completely different name. I love her, and her DD but find the name thing tedious.

Oh and we do have a version of the name Eva in Ireland, if you find Aoife complicated you are going to love it, it is spelt Aoibhe.

I'm Irish and would have no problem with anybody using Irish names as long as they spell and pronounce them correctly (and don't always trust the rubbish on some baby naming sites).
Aoife is lovely and is easy to say once you know how, unlike some other Irish names.

I'm irish, and I'm Aoife so I give you full permission 😆

Seriously though, it's fine. If you love the name use it.
And to those saying 1) use Eva, it's pronounced the same - it's not! and 2) it's too hard to spell, no one will know it etc..... - expand your minds just a teeny, tiny little bit. You'll learn something new, and you never know you might even like it!

Yes Aoife doesn’t sound like Eva to my ear. Use it away. There are tonnes of non Irish Liams in the UK now.

Dermot O'Leary, Steeve Coogan and Kevin O'Sullivan and Siobhan Conaty and Tony Slattery and so on.
Many of those names are anglicised forms of gaeilge names, and the anglicization of names and place names is not about just making it easier to spell.

I wouldn't use it without a connection. I also think that it blends into all the Eva, Ava, Evie, Ivy type names.

And Aoife is not pronounced like ‘Eva’.