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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Non-ugly Irish girls' names

219 replies

skidoodle · 22/07/2009 13:22

I'm looking for suggestions of Irish names (broadest interpretation of same OK) for a girl that are not hideous.

Irish boys' names are easy, but girls are way trickier as so many of them are just not very attractive IMHO. Others are lovely when pronounced properly but very lumpen in the mouths of non-Irish speakers, and DH (and family) are English.

So, what am I not considering? The more unusual the better here.

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Hi there - this thread is a little old. [[https://www.mumsnet.com/baby-names/most-popular-irish-baby-names
If you’re looking for an Irish baby name, find inspiration here]]. MNHQ

OP posts:
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Tortington · 23/07/2009 14:23

i think all irish names are great - just bloody great

watsthestory · 23/07/2009 14:23

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Caitni · 23/07/2009 11:51

Haven't read this whole thread but I (probably) will as am Irish married to an American and living in the UK and if it's a girl we'd like an Irish name.

Clementine Cliona is one of my favourite names but I've heard it pronounced Clee-ner by English people too many times. It would annoy me too much and I'd feel so bad saddling a daughter with a name people prounounced like cleaner...

My DH is very taken with Dearbhla at the moment. He loves the "bh" as "v" (we have nieces called Sadbh and Aoibhinn and he thinks it's very cool when people know how to pronounce it).

And please, dear god, no more Saiorses. I work with one (she's Scottish) and it's just so "Up the Ra". And it reminds me of Braveheart whenever she explains to people what it means .

Otherwise, am liking Muireann and Eimear too (though have friends who are sisters called that and they'd think it was super strange if I called a daughter Muireann Eimear ).

The pronouciation thing is a bit of worry for me as one of my old friends from Ireland who also lives in London is called Padraig and you'd be amazed how many of his English friends just cannot pronounce it...

Clementine1 · 23/07/2009 11:34

Cliona

Buda · 23/07/2009 11:31

I only ever met one Sibeal - she replaced me in a job I left and we overlapped by a week. Years and I mean YEARS later a friend in Bulgaria mentioned a Sibeal there and I asked her if she ever worked at X. It was the same Sibeal! Small world.

Original poster
skidoodle · 23/07/2009 11:27

I love the name Sibéal, but we have a lot of them in my family already.

DH think we're all nuts to have so many people all called the same name, so he will say no.

PMSL @ Concept A. DH might go for that as a middle name.

For a boy he wants to use the saint's name Alfred the Great

OP posts:
ohfuschia · 23/07/2009 11:16

My sister's middle name is Concepta and when she tries to enter her details on some websites they can't cope and it ends up as Concept A

I'm a Fionnuala, wasn't the easiest name as a child but genuinely wouldn't want to be anything else - glad it grew on you

donttrythisathome · 23/07/2009 10:58

Yeah, Saoirse sounds a bit too "Up the IRA" for me IYKWIM.

re Iseult.

Sibeal? (hard to pronounce maybe but somehow "like" Iseult).

ludog · 23/07/2009 10:50

Skidoodle I know at least 5 Jacks under the age of 10! It has got very popular in the last few years. I wanted it for dd1 (had she been boy obv.) but MIL really didn't like it. It would be a very popular name in my family, although they were all christened John and then known as Jack!

donttrythisathome · 23/07/2009 10:49

Immaculata. Ok I'll go away now.

Original poster
skidoodle · 23/07/2009 10:49

donttry

No, it really would matter to me if the name was mispronounced, which reduced the choice of names considerably.

Most English people could manage Saoirse I would have thought - no tricky sounds. I just don't like it much as a name - Freedom? really? It's just like Seoirse gone wrong and for the wrong gender.

Unlike say Loinnir, which I love, but the narrow n is too hard for many Irish people to get right, never mind further afield. Also the first vowel sound has to be said properly for the real beauty of the name to be apparent and it's so subtle it would be lost in English.

Thanks for your lovely name suggestion. I've already got one of those

OP posts:
donttrythisathome · 23/07/2009 10:49

Assumpta or Concepta

Feel ashamed now for mocking...

donttrythisathome · 23/07/2009 10:48

My mother is Marie, aunt Maura, sisters both have Mary as a second name. Interestingly I wasn't at school with a single Mary though (70s/80s). Maybe it is due a revival!

Sixer · 23/07/2009 10:46

Attracta?

Buda · 23/07/2009 10:45

skidoodle - I think it was number 57. I don;t have any auntie Mary's actually. Nor is my mum Mary. We are a deprived Irish family obv! I have 3 sisters and we all have Maria as a second name though!

donttrythisathome · 23/07/2009 10:38

Seriously, I've just been re-reading the thread and so many of the people who think they know the correct pronounciation are totally wrong (no offence, if you can't speak the Irish language, how would you know?)

Maybe this wouldn't matter to you though, but would be a PITA for the kid.

Original poster
skidoodle · 23/07/2009 10:37

In the top 50!

Still, I've never heard of an Irish baby being called Jack and it's been the most popular boys' name for 10 years or so.

thumbwitch all Irish people have two auntie Marys, unless their Mum is called Mary and then they have one.

It was pretty much an unwritten rule for years that every family would have a daughter called Mary. There was the odd family with no girls, of course, so there are some exceptions...

OP posts:
donttrythisathome · 23/07/2009 10:33

Iseult is nice I think - an Irish princess.
People might possibly be able to get their heads around it as well.

In general Irish names don't sound nice to me (I'm Irish so they hold absolutely no exotic appeal at all).

And for god sake don't pick anything impossible for the non-Irish to pronounce like Sadh or Saoirse.

Buda · 23/07/2009 10:27

I just had a look on a Top 100 Irish Girl's names site and it is in there! Number 50 something I think. But when did you last hear of a baby in Ireland being called Mary?

thumbwitch · 23/07/2009 10:25

true Skidoodle! DH has 2 aunts called Mary and another of his aunts has a best friend called Mary - it needs another 30 years yet to graduate from being a frequent middle name (it's mine, it was my mum's and my great-gran's too) to a first name again.

Original poster
skidoodle · 23/07/2009 10:20

Máire is my Mum's name, so will probably be the second name if a girl.

There's no way we are ready for a revival of Mary. Every second woman of 50+ is called Mary.

OP posts:
Buda · 23/07/2009 09:58

Well Mary is prob due a revival tbh! There used to be millions of them.

watsthestory · 23/07/2009 09:42

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Clementine1 · 23/07/2009 09:24

Well Máire would be the Irish for Mary. Úna is indeed Irish - OOHNA.

watsthestory · 23/07/2009 09:10

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