Think very hard about giving your baby an Irish name unless you live in Ireland!

Prefer Diarmuid to Dermot but probably best not to unleash the Irish version on the unsuspecting British public, hatrick!

MadameChOlet Interesting points, and agree with them to a point.

Surely though, names should'nt have to be Anglicised in order to fit in? I think that it is brilliant that people want to keep their heritage alive by giving their children names which reflect their cultural background.

Myself, brother, sisters and cousins - even my parents generation were given (boring) names such as Kathleen, Mary, John, Ann, Patrick, Kevin, Bridget etc. It is only in my generation now, I am seeing more of a trend (albeit in my family) for more Irish names to be given.

One of my oldest friends family originate from Italy, and her brothers and sisters all have Italian names. What a shame then, when my friend hit her teens in order to 'conform' changed her name from Guiseppina to Josephine which was then shortened to Jo. To this day, I still use the diminuitive of her Italian name.

This is only my opinion - but shouldn't names be given because they reflect the parents wishes/ backgrounds also? Does it matter whether an English person would know how to spell a name or not?
Surely the decision to name a child is based on a liking for that particular name - not whether the location and the population of where they live should play a part.
That's unfortunately where you end up with truly beautiful names becoming 'Anglicised' such as Siobhan becoming Shivonne, Ciaran becoming Keeran, Sinead = Shinade.

If I don't know how to pronounce or spell a name I ask. Simple as that.

snap dejags, we've got a Carys (Paris/Cerys/Karen/...) too

Gaelscoil pupils will mostly use an Irish version of their names at school though - ds has a friend called Daithi whose parents call him David. Dd1 is off to Irish college and as her surname (her dad's) doesn't translate she is taking my surname for the duration. She thinks that is cool!

Me neither.

Bronwen strikes me as fairly foolproof too. How do they mispronounce it Califrau?

I was supposed to be Declan, if I'd been a boy. Would never have thought it could be that difficult!

Yes CM. It drives me potty. I mean, surely the whole point of Anglicizing the names is that English speaking people can pronounce them. We don't have trouble with the other names, but Declan (which struck me as a marginal sort of Irish name, eg I have known it for so long I can't remember when I first heard it and I am English through and through) is constantly mispronounced.

As in Deckland, DG? Decklanders is the name given to suburban dwellers around here!

Go hAn-Mhaith ar fad, MadameCholet. Ach nach bhfuil an aimsir go dona!
My surname needed no Irish translation, it was Irish enough! They changed the Mac to Nic though!

The solution to the OP, as I am sure someone has said already, is to Anglicize the spelling. That works well for us. On the other hand, it is staggering how many people put a D on the end of Declan.

My niece in Cork had almost exclusively Irish names in her class. But she did go to a Gaelscoil!

DD2 in Cork has 3 Adams and 2 Aarons in her class...

I'm in Ireland too and have to say there are a lot more Kyles and Andrews in my ds's classes rather than Oisins!
My surname is very Irish, to the point that unless someone got an A in Irish in their Leaving Cert they have difficulty pronouncing it and if I ever go to the UK on business, people look very, very scared in case they might have to pronounce it! Having said that, we have a lot of immigrants here now, and it would never occur to me that these people should have to call their children Irish or English names to fit in. Surely most people of average intelligence can make an effort to remember how to pronounce a name after they've heard it a few times?

To the OP, I think Aoife is a really flexible name though. An Irish girl I knew when I lived in the UK just used to introduce herself as Eva. Not saying that you should do that, but your daughter always has that option. Should she want it.

Can't believe somebody has a Seamus!! That is so cool. I'd love to meet a baby Seamus.

Interesting thread and I couldn't agree more. I love names like Maeve and Clodagh, but I just don't think they 'fly' in the UK.

An English primary school teacher (and my friend) told me that she presumed any child with an Irish name would be a bit of a scamp!

Also, I might be more controversial than I want to be, but I think that the Irish people who are most successful in the UK are the ones who assimilate most and arentl inclined to name their children Aoife or Cathal.

When I was pg, my ex FIL made jibes such as, I suppose you'll be calling the poor child Seamus. I said, what, after my father Douglas and my Grandfathers Richard and william?? Em, don't really think so...

In my daughter's class of 27 children here in Ireland, interestingly, only two have Irish names. Tadhg and Oisín. Maybe it's because here, nobody is trying to make a point, even to themselves. That point being I presume, I'm not having an identity crisis, my children may haave an English accent but they're still Irish...

Often, even here in Ireland, Irish names are anglacised, eg Maedhbh is Maeve 90% of the time. So when I came across people in England who'd given their children names like Saiorse or Diarmuid or Maedhbh, I did used to think, oh ffs, blend in a bit more!!

And finally, I am Irish, I learned Gaelic, I have a tiny smattering of it, and I still have to concentrate to spell Dun Laoghaire!! So what chance has an English person got? It's just making life difficult for your child to give them a name like Caoimhe or Aoife.

Am I going to be blasted off the board for saying this??? FWIW, I like the names Tadhg, Oisín, Diarmuid, Cathal, Clodagh and Maeve. They're all nice.. HERE in Ireland.

LOL

I know someone called Shueng in Chinese, but she introduces herself as Michelle because apparantly Shueng is too taxing for the cloth-eared.

i think aoife is lovely and know a few in scotland.

Sian had a brother called Teilo (sp?)

I lived in North Wales for 5 years and love Welsh names. I really liked Ceinwen but glad I didn't use it as it's seems silly as we are neither welsh nor living in wales an longer. DH vetoed Twm (welsh Tom) which I loved!

mine was a Catholic school too...several Carmels and a Nuala

Or Deirbhile

We had a Fidelma at school
and also a Sian who was always being called Shaun by the teacher.