Neutral Northern Ireland names

Zombie thread oops

,@JumpinJellyfish this is a dopey question perhaps, but how do you know which camp the taxi driver might be in,? Or is it just sensible caution.

Not assuming that anybody is being overly cautious btw. I went up to see the titanic exhibition 8 years ago and a lot of people had either a tricolor phone case or a union jack phone case. We stayed in a air b n b that had neighbouring houses with union Jack's and the English host stopped just short of saying why here, why this street. But I hadn't a clue. And excessive tribalism is a bit unsettling, not the particular side.

I love Cora!

On the one hand you're overthinking but on the other hand, I get it and it seems like a good idea to me.

I love Cora but I've no idea how it sounds.

Love Anya, Zara, Leah, zoe and they seem similarly neutral. But I'm from Dublin so not that well tuned in to how names might land.

I know what you mean OP. I’m from NI, live in England now but when we go back home I notice heads turn when I call my English-accented children their very Irish names. When we go to certain parts of Belfast I avoid shouting their names out and I know my mum won’t say their names to eg taxi drivers. It’s shit but it is what it is.

But there are loads of names that are neutral in NI - basically any of the popular names in England. I’m a 90s kid and I had both Protestant and Catholic friends called Claire, Sarah, Catherine, Laura, Jennifer. The equivalents today would likely be Olivia, Evie, Isla, Ava etc.

Best laid plans though. I gave dd a totally non-Irish name. She now goes by a nn which people often misremember as a classic Irish name. You can only try…

I don't think you realise how alive it still is unless you live it!

I'm also in Glasgow. Have a neutral first name and quite a "protestant" maiden name...and now a very Irish surname. Before I got married I would have thought it was nonsense if someone said that you'd be judged for having an Irish name or vice versa.

However, I've now last track of the amount of comments I've had about how I "obviously must be catholic". Im not, but neither am I offended by the assumption - I couldn't care less about religion or what people think. Im more surprised about the number of people who jump to that conclusion based on a name, then feel like it's okay to make a comment on what they have presumed my religion to be.

A few years ago I flew into londonderry and was hiring a car to drive to Donegal. Guy at the car hire was quite grumpy and made a derogatory comment about my surname. I joked that it was my married name and I was in the process of divorcing H and my name would revert to [maiden name]. How whole attitude and personality changed in a slot second!!

OP,
I'm in Glasgow and I understand what you mean, I have a catholic sounding name (I am catholic) and some of the abuse I was given when younger and out in town as a young adult was ridiculous.

My partner is English so both my kids have neutral names but with Irish middle names as I have Irish grandparents.

I don't want them to have to be involved in the sectarianism I suffered.

I'm living in Belfast, I do think you're getting yourself a bit worked up, pick a name you want, you won't be able to please everyone as I'm sure you know living here. My son has a more Catholic associated name while my Daughter is more neutral, this is purely because I liked these names. I'm an atheist and send my children to an integrated school where there is a mixture of kids from all sides and different countries. If you like an Irish name go for it, the people who care that much will make it a point to find out someone's religion anyway. If you like Cora what about Clara? Claire? Caitlin?

I still probably wouldn’t give my kids Irish names in NI, just because I think it’s nice not be defined by your name. But I agree it’s not (usually) a huge deal these days. You could give them an Irish middle name?

If you like quite classic neutral names with some Irish history (either they’ve been used for a while or a famous Irish woman had the name) -

Catherine
Elizabeth
Rose
Anna / Hannah (or Susannah I guess)
Sarah
Emma
Rosanna
Cara
Clara
Clare
Grace (Grace O’Malley a cracker to be named after)
Lilian (Lilian Bland is another great one)
Jocelyn (J Bell was cheated out of a Nobel prize!)
Eleanor / Ellen / Helen/a
Constance
Molly

I think of Nora as quite an RC name so not sure about that one

The people I know from NI deliberately picked neutral names for their children, but this was some time ago now.
They used names like Sarah, Catherine, Anne, Lily.
No Irish language names were used (they are Catholic) and nothing too English like Beatrice or Arabella.
Hopefully things are changing but it'll take a while yet.

I have to admit I still feel conscientious calling out my nephews very Irish names in parks- which is silly nothing is going to happen. It’s just a learned feeling
Conscientious seems the wrong word there, but I agree about being aware of the names being called out.
I live somewhere multicultural, and the names I hear a lot of tend to be the OT names like Noah. The names that are closely linked to the ethicity tend to stand out.

How about going for a Jewish name?

Miriam, Esther, Sarah, Eva, Niomi.

Or virtue names, Hope, Felicity, Sage, Joy, Blythe, Temperance.

Sorry I don't know if those count as 'too English'. I've lived my whole life in England, I went to school with a Philomena, an Oona and a couple of Kathleens and a handful or Marys.

This was my experience but in reverse (Irish names, inadvertently going to the Strandtown during a bloody orange march).

On the playground, at school etc it's not going to be a problem as everyone will know that everyone's from the same area, same background etc, but out and about, you're always going to get assumptions from arseholes.

We have the same last name as a very well-known Irish terrorist so I gave the kids more neutral names. We nixed most of the very Irish ones due to our last name. I think you do need to take it in context of the whole thing. And also where you live. It's very different in Derry to Belfast, people are more chill IME the further west you live but the tiny pockets of anger that are left are really strong (I've lived in both).

Don't forget with the jobs situation there's a good chance they end up doing what me and most of my friends have done and moved to England/Australia/America at their first opportunity for work where all this stuff is meaningless.

For a girl, what about Emilia? Or Robyn? Or Faye? Something with warmth but not too obviously anything one way or another.

I'm guessing that it all depends where you live , where you intend to send your kids to school etc etc. Only you know your local area well enough to know what kind of reception irish names would receive. Or how irish you can go , there are irish lite names like Sean or Connor or you could go full hog and use saoirse ?
I'm in the Republic so it's totally different down here because irish names are very popular these days.

I think it’s obvious that user1492757084 doesn’t live anywhere near Northern Ireland if they are suggesting that Gerald, Saoirse, Patrick or Mary fit the bill for what the OP is looking for.

user123whathaveyou names I would reckon as mostly Catholic, as Benzo’s. I wonder if people commenting here are from NI or Ireland?

To some extent, unless you send them to an integrated school it’s a bit moot. The names you see at St Brides are not the names you get at Fullerton and the first question they’ll be asked after their name is where do you go to school 🙄

I grew up in NI during the troubles. I had school friends who were Protestant called Maeve, Orla, Siobhan and Nuala. I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah, it’s not dead, and won’t be yet awhile. I’m from south of the border, but spend a fair bit of time with friends in Armagh, and my ‘couldn’t be more Irish if it tried’ Irish-language first name still places me.

Most of @salamithumbs ’ names code as pretty Protestant to me, though.

I love Nora

Tamara

I don’t think you’re over thinking things. My kids have very Proddy names and we went to the Andersonstown leisure centre. When I called out for my son you could have heard a pin drop. Sadly, it’s still a very real thing in NI. Add in some good old fashioned classism and it’s a nightmare.

Everyone likes to think of themselves as above all this kind of nonsense but unconscious bias runs deep.