Oisin / Donnacha / Naoise

Rian doesn’t even need a fada and historically probably didn’t have one (the surname doesn’t), though this child obviously has one and it’s his name so up to him/his family how he wants to spell it (IT systems allowing). But the fada isn’t needed to get the correct pronunciation unlike other names. Not that any of that probably helps you at all @SpanThatWorld.

We work with a family whose son is called Rian. After a while, they told us they wanted us to use a fada.

Sadly, our pathetic IT doesn't make it easy to type any diacritical marks and, if you do, it doesn't recognise the name with an accent being the same as without an accent so that means that some bits of the child's records don't join up with the others.

We are in London. We can cope with pronouncing names from all across the world but our IT systems can't.

I'd forget the fada. Pain in the backside on a keyboard. My middle name has one and I hate typing it out.
I'd go for the one that has the easiest pronunciation for spelling. Donnacha for me. I get very very tired of spelling out my Irish name and having it mispronounced.

@sonjadog , that's you. I have a name that can have various spellings and people get it wrong all the time. I find it a PITA.

It really isn't that much of a grind spelling out your name for people or telling them how to pronounce it. It takes seconds to do. I have a name that is uncommon in the country I live in, so I have experience with this. Also, people tend to spend most of their time with the same groups of people, so once those people have been told once, then they know. For random people who I meet in passing, I don't really care how they pronounce or spell my name as I won't be seeing them again. I don't think it is as much of an issue as some posters think.

Not at all, John is not the only name, but you are likely to be saddling your children with the frequent grind of teaching everyone to spell and pronounce their names everywhere they go forever. If they were growing up in Ireland- no problem. There are lots of Irish names that are lovely and that most people can pronounce. It's your kids who will be stuck with it, not you.

By the way, I'm Welsh and living in Wales but if I was raising my children in England I probably wouldn't called them Angharad or Eluned.

I love Oisin. Beautiful name.

I know two little boys with the Welsh version. No issue at all with the use of it.

But why pander to stupidity, if that's the problem?

People get names like John and Ann wrong. It's not a problem people naming a baby should feel a need to work around.

Surely English people are more intelligent than you give them credit for?

I love them all. Also Irish and living away from home; no issues in 9 years with the Irish names we chose.
I think Donnacha is my favourite.

My son's middle name is Oisín, dad is Irish, daughters middle name is Roisín...I would say that every official document doesn't use the fada (just doesn't recognise it) so I end up having to use Oisin and Roisin on their passport, school application, anything official, which is very annoying as I just read them differently then.

All lovely names but I would assume Naoise was for a girl, even though I know a lot of Irish names.

There are hundreds of thousands of Irish people in London, as well as multitudes of people from all over the rest of the world. And apart from that, there are lots of people whose horizons are broad and whose ears work well.

Yeah. It’s outrageous of us.

Caoimhín Kelleher playing for Liverpool will help people learn the name.

I know. Shock, horror. Irish people get pissy at continuing low level racism from English people. It's totally inexplicable.

I absolutely love Oisín (despite the one I dated being a bit Tim Nice But Dim). Not keen on either of the other two, although I wouldn't tell my cousins who have children with those names!

Be careful of names with a fada when living in the UK. GB passports don't have any diacritics and a lot of day to day admin don't include them either (schools, banks etc.). If you have a birth certificate with one spelling and a passport with another you sometimes have to get official verification that it's the same name. It can be a hassle.

I love donnacha. Wanted it for ds but dh vetoed it. We went with a different irish name , with silent letters . We live in Ireland and even here people aren't sure of the spelling but spelling a name honestly isn't the end of the world. I have a 5 letter, very common , biblical name and spent the whole time I lived in the UK spelling it for people. It takes 5 seconds, job done.

London, allegedly one of the most multi cultural cities in the UK and this is your take?

Donnacha is my fave out of the three, it was on my boys list (many years ago now!)

Ah sorry about getting pissy about people criticising our language. How silly of us.

I wouldn't take an English pronunciation of an Irish word/name as being valid but yeah, Ulster Irish is quite different to other dialects. I have some friends from donegal who spoke what seemed to be a completely different language to me.

The OP has explained a bit of the historical context as to why people may not appreciate that commentary but even if you leave aside the unfortunate history, imagine how irritating it would be if anytime a English person asked to choose between Charlotte and Catherine instead of choosing one people said something like “neither, they are both English sounding and we can’t spell them or pronounce them because they are english, please don’t give your child an English name, what a burden to have to live with”. It is just quite boring and repetitive, particularly as the vast majority of English people manage just fine with non English names. If you are in the small minority of English people who are confused and bewildered by non English things…just don’t comment……

Oisin is my favourite then Donnacha

I’ve always loved Oisin but Donnacha is a close second.