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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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marialuisa · 23/07/2009 08:57

DD has a friend called Una (accent on the U) who is very definitely Irish but I'm not sure if the name itself is?

thumbwitch · 22/07/2009 22:52

As an English person (with a half Irish DH) I was going to suggest:
Aisling - not too hard to get your head round
Roisin - ditto
Finola
Katriona (friend of mine from Kerry is called that) - nn Nina
Orla
Sinead - I think most people know how to pronounce that now from Sinead O'Connor

It took me ages to work out how to pronounce Grainne, Aine and similar and no doubt I still get them wrong
I don't like Sorcha, Niamh, Maeve, Siobhan, Dervla or any of the -een names ("ugly" sounds to me)

HTH

Original poster
skidoodle · 22/07/2009 22:50

Ha ha or sean Connery saying lisa

OP posts:
ludog · 22/07/2009 22:48

"Erin reminds me of Oxtail Soup." Me too!

boodleboot · 22/07/2009 22:42

Laoise -Leesha - sounds like a drunk person trying to say Lisa to me....

Saoirse is gorgeous tho....

Clementine1 · 22/07/2009 22:39

am giggling here at the way some of you are phonetically spelling names and they don't come near to how they really sound. Erin reminds me of Oxtail Soup.

Original poster
skidoodle · 22/07/2009 22:34

Some Irish American names have made it to Ireland in recent times, so you occasionally hear of katelyn, when most people can work out that the correct pronunciation is cotchleen.

OP posts:
macana · 22/07/2009 21:45

Erin definitely not a soup here (not sure where other mners live).

And funny you should say that about not being common in Ireland Bunny, I know 4 Irish Erins. Cheesy is your opinion, but IMO, nothing wrong with Caitlin either. Each to their own....

PuppyMonkey · 22/07/2009 21:13

I bet nobody's going to suggest Oonagh.

Are they?

maggievirgo · 22/07/2009 21:08

oh god! brianna! oh that is yuck.

maggievirgo · 22/07/2009 21:07

Yeah, awful packet soup. In the same aisle as pot noodle. That puts me off it I'm afraid.

bumptwitknocker · 22/07/2009 21:06

Rhiannon is Welsh. But a very nice name.

Original poster
skidoodle · 22/07/2009 21:05

Erin is a brand of soup.

OP posts:
BunnyLebowski · 22/07/2009 20:58

Macana - Erin isn't actually an Irish name. It's the historical poetic name for Ireland and has never been commonly used as a name in Ireland.

To me it's one of those cheesy American-Irish names that 4th generation Irish Americans give their kids, see also Caitlin and Briana.

macana · 22/07/2009 20:46

My favourite girls' name is Irish, but unfortunately doesn't go with our surname at all so I can never use it (at least with this DH!!!).

It's Erin.

For me, that's as pretty as it gets for a girl

BunnyLebowski · 22/07/2009 19:34

teamcullen - why is the child called Aoife pronounced Ether? That's completely incorrect. Why choose a name and then totally mispronounce it??

AnybodyHomeMcFly · 22/07/2009 19:32

Came on to say Aoife and would have chosen that for dd but our surname begins with E so sounds too like "E for... "!

renaldo · 22/07/2009 19:27

aoife is pronounced ee faa

teamcullen · 22/07/2009 19:13

we have a Ciombhe (pronounced Keeva) in our family. We also have an Aoife (pronounced Ether) in the nursery where we work. Shes such a cute little thing that I cant think of the name without thinking ahhh

teamcullen · 22/07/2009 19:10

we have a Ciombhe (pronounced Keeva) in our family. We also have an Aoife (pronounced Ether) in the nursery where we work. Shes such a cute little thing that I cant think of the name without thinking ahhh

mumzy · 22/07/2009 19:04

Aine (On-ne-ah)

Grainne (gra-ne-ah)

Aisling (Ash-ling)

renaldo · 22/07/2009 18:47

we have a cousin Muireann and we used to call her worm
I love Grainne - its the irish for grace
aisling pronounced ash ling
means beautiful dream or vision

Deemented · 22/07/2009 18:22

I like Irish names, and i have a dd who's Brogan.

TOK · 22/07/2009 18:03

How about Erin, Aoibhlean (Ave-leen), Caoimhe (pron Keeva), Triona (shortened version of Catriona), Nuala??

maggievirgo · 22/07/2009 17:58

Prefer Muireann (mwirren)

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