Irish boys' names?

borough...

Laughter, slaughter...

Oh I think there's another one..what is it?!!

As an example of English pronouciation being nuts:

Rough
Lough
Bough

Call him Eoin - I have an Owen- (Welsh heritage won over Irish heritage - we have both), it's a great strong name,never shortened and we only know one other(but he is 12, so that may have changed).The name suited him as a baby and has just grown with him. He loves his name which I think is really lovely for an almost teenager. I have a cousin Eoin, aged 30, about to get married, who lives in Ireland, plays Hurling and is regarded by my ds as the coolest bloke on the planet!

Thanks math!

Yes, you see, I forget how English pronunciation is soooo nuts really. I shouldn't, considering my 5YO is learning to read and it's quite an eye opener realising how many different ways we spell the same sound.

So interesting!

When looking for DS1s name, I did love the site www.babynamesofireland.com as you can listen to Frank McCourt say the names for you.... I did quite enjoy listening to him...

Whoops, slender vowels make it slender, not long....

Here's an easy to follow pronunciation guide. (At least I hope it will be easy to follow )

Spelling in Irish is way more inclined to follow rules than English is. Once you know how a consonant combination is pronounced it's pretty much the same for all words. There are regional pronunciation variations as in English.

The accent (fada, = 'long') lengthens the sound of a vowel in a predictable way. (The link I posted shows how this works -- I don't know how to type a fada )

The vowels also have an impact on how the consonants are pronounced. Broad vowels (A, O, U) make a consonant 'broad', while slender vowels (E, I) make it long. Vowels from the same category must precede and follow the consonant (no mixing of vowels from different categories). So 'Oisin' has an S that sounds like SH because it has an I (slender) on either side. An S with broad vowels on either side would be 'S'. S is the consonant that is most affected by this rule, probably followed by T. With the others there's just a slight difference in pronunciation.

There's no such thing as an ignorant question

Irish is quite good in that if you know the pronunciation rules you can pronounce any word / name just by reading it iyswim - there aren't irregular pronunciations as there are in English. But there are local variations on the rules iyswim which can be confusing. In fact some of my faves vary in pron:

Luán - loo-awn
Connla - cun-la or in some places conn-la
Conall - cun-al or conn-al
Cuan - coo-an
Fionn - finn or in some places fyunn

Sorry! I just don't want to offend anyone by wading in and asking stuff that I should probably know! And technically, as I don't know, I'm ignorant of the answer .

No that makes perfect sense, thank you.

Do you ever see the names written in the "English" way so they would be pronounced correctly if there were no actual Irish links in the family? (Hypothetically of course, LOL ). Or would this just be wrong, I wonder . There's certainly a sort of magic about the way they're correctly spelt.

Stop saying your questions are ignorant! they are not at all!! - the accents are called fadas and, for instance the fada in changes the second "i" to an "e" sound - if pronounced how its spelt would be Ush-IN but with fada is Ush-EEN (sorry am terrible at explaining things .

Does that make any sense

Oh thanks barbie and math!! Crikey, I would NEVER have pronounced those names like that. . I was seeing Oisin as "Oy-Sin" which I really liked anyway!!! .

So as I didn't upset anyone with my first ignorant question, I hope I can ask another! How is the spelling worked out? (that episode on The Vicar of Dibley comes to mind where the bloke she really fancied came round and she thought he was asking her to marry him ).

But seriously, does the spelling of the language follow the same rules, therefore Irish people know how to pronounce these spellings? Does that make any sense?

Also, how do the accents change the pronunciation?

This is great - a whole new list of names to suggest to DH!

p.s. Oisin not 'Ush-een' everywhere. Some parts of Ireland it is Osh-een, some parts Oh-sheen.

Oisin and Seamus both gorgeous names.

Feilim is nice, although we did call a boy at school this Phlegm an awful lot

Cillian is another favourite.

I know Liam is popular, but I do love it.

Cormac
Fionntan / Fintan
Ruairidh / Ruairi/Rory
Teàrlach / Turlogh
Caoimhin
Lorcan
Tomas
Proinsias
Breandan
Diarmuid
Enda
Eamonn
Ardal

What about Lorcan? Like the actor from Cracker. Lorcan Crannitch. Lorcan is on the up here.

I think that would be easier in the UK than Lachlan or lochlainn.

Carrots... (I love your name btw ) Here's a pronunciation guide for my list anyway:

{Overall, CH is pronounced as in Scottish "LOCH", and the letter D is softer than the English D, more like the D in French 'dans'}

Fiach (cf mac Hugh O Byrne) -- FEE-uch
Caoilte -- KEEL-che
Moling -- MO-ling
Diarmuid -- DEER-mwid
Macdara -- Mock-darra
Ailbe -- AIL-bee
Brendan
Daithi -- DOH-he (short O sound like 'dot')
Donncha -- Dunn-u-cha
Feilim -- FAY-lim
Seathrun (Geoffrey) -- Sha-hroon
Saorbhreathach --SAIR-vra-huch
Lochlainn -- Luch-linn
Peadar -- Pa-dur
Piarais -- PEER-ish
Raghnall -- RA-null
Somhairle -- SORE-lah

Thankyou

I have not heard of anyone else with this name either, although he gets shortened to Finn, which is very common now

Finnan is gorgeous.

Thats not ignorant at all carrot! can see your point as English relations were comparing it to Roisín (girls name) as a way to prounounce.

Anyway - Oisín is Ush-een
Naoise - Knee-sha
Tadhg - Thigh-ga

What others are you unsure of?

i have a Finnan (variant of Finnian), its meaning is fair or fair haired

I quite like Tadhg with nn Tiger!

Some of the names are quite tricky. I know a Donachada pronounced Dunaka and I know a Donacha pronounced Dunuk. It can be quite 'am I getting this right or wrong?' even for an Irish person living in Ireland IMO. Chip might disagree!

Oisin looks like a girl's name to me (Brit), and a gorgeous one at that. But now it's been said to be a boy's name I can see it. Lovely.

I am really interested in these lists but would be really grateful if someone wouldn't mind saying how they should be pronounced? Sorry to be so ignorant...

Definately agree glastocat. My grandmother just bought a book on Tír na nÓg for our Oisín and I love it! - something really sweet about having the old stories for him.

Does anyone in the UK have an Oisín though? just ask because I have relatives over there (am in Ireland) and was emailing one of them to announce the birth, was chatting on phone a couple of weeks later and apparantly the whole family were trying to figure out pronounciation for aaaaggges - had never heard of it.