AIBU in thinking some of the comments on the baby names threads are just plain hurtful!!

[LST]

It was my fault really.. Couldn't help searching DS's name to see what people think.

I know people are entitled to their opinion but jeeez!

arthurfowlersallotment I love Saoirse!

Saoirse - I know you must be asked this a lot but how do you pronounce it?

How do you pronounce Saoirse? I love it.

comma

I like Niamh too.

Seer-sha.

Though for years i thought it was pronounced Nim.

Saoirse would be great for Scrabble.

Seer-sha or Sor-sha depending on where you are from in Ireland.

Poor girl will be spelling it everyday for her lifetime :o

PS: thanks Rev

You're welcome Arthur . Always been one of my favorite names. Going back to the OP though, if someone had posted Saoirse on the baby name board I'd have went in with.

"Well it's always been one of my favorite names! I like it a lot."

But if I hadn't liked it, wouldn't it have been nicer to say "Well I'm not keen on it, because......." Rather than you must be an IRA sympathiser. With my fingers crossed next child I will tell no one the name until it is born.

With saoirse though - and I like the name - it might just be information giving if you are about to name your baby to say that some people might interpret it as meaning you have republican sympathies (I was never aware of this myself in the past til I met dh, but now aware some people interpret it that way).

What's the point of asking opinions if you don't want people to be honest, though? Some people do take it a bit too far, but mostly posters are quite restrained. If I loved a name I wouldn't go anywhere near the baby names board because some will love it, but some will hate it. And they'll tell you so! They don't have the friend-filter which only allows polite "Oooh, lovely, how original" through. It's more for people who are having hormone-induced musings about calling their DC Uranus or something.

I know someone who was in school (in England) with a girl called Siobhan. But pronounced it Sio- ban....

Each to their own I suppose..

No sympathy for anyone who posts in Baby Names. It's like putting your hand in a wasps' best and complaining that you've been stung.