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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to name my little girl this?

218 replies

lightsalive · 18/04/2015 09:16

I have two boys already and am expecting a little girl in 3 months.

I like the name Brogan as the first name. I have read this is a male Irish name but know a few girls called brogan.

When I tell people the name they do that . Oh that's nice....With a weird smile face.

Do you like Brogan Rose or Brogan Raine? Or am I being silly.

OP posts:
Roseotto · 18/04/2015 22:20

Makes me think of "bogan" and have never been to Oz… too much Christos Tsiolkas perhaps. Sorry

Flingingmelon · 18/04/2015 22:20

I know a Brogan and it's a fantastic name - she's often called Brogie :)

Flingingmelon · 18/04/2015 22:22

And she is anything but a chav!

UnalignedAnt · 18/04/2015 22:26

I know someone with a male relative called Brogan. Whenever she says it my ears flinch. It sounds ugly. Nasty mash of consonants, like belch or troglodyte. It seems to be popular, though!

villainousbroodmare · 18/04/2015 22:30

It doesn't mean 'badger'; 'broc' is the word for badger.

gointothewoods · 18/04/2015 22:33

I'm Irish and I have never met anybody with a forename Brogan, yes a surname. I don't like it as either a girl's or boy's name, to be quite honest. It sounds a bit American fakey-irishy/ scottishy.

Oh and Bróg is the Irish for shoe, I would have thought from my limited Irish knowledge that Brogan means "little shoe". Smile

gointothewoods · 18/04/2015 22:33

Oh and I think YABU.

MuddlingMackem · 18/04/2015 22:37

Round our way it's very much a girls' name, no 'h' in it though, Brogan seems to be the standard spelling. Guess it's in how you say it as it doesn't sound harsh to me, must vary according to accent.

Not a name I would choose, hadn't heard of it when we had our daughter anyway, but I think it's nice enough.

DixieNormas · 18/04/2015 22:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CuntCourtIsInSession · 18/04/2015 22:49

Brogan is definitely only a surname in Ireland.

How would you pronounce Broghan though? I would instinctively pronounce that "Brow-an".

squoosh · 18/04/2015 22:52

Yeah it looks like Eoghan.

GerbilsAteMyCat · 18/04/2015 22:55

My irish friend asks if you are out of your mind to name a girl Brogan.
That'll be a YABU.

Gimmetaytos · 18/04/2015 23:15

I am irish,living in Ireland,and Brogan is certainly not a girls first name! Bronagh (pronounced Brona) is a girls first name as is Clodagh(pronounced Cloda) but certainly not Brogan.Surname yes,first name no.Sorry op!

AuntyMag10 · 18/04/2015 23:21

It sounds hard and 'rough'. Don't like it. You are getting reactions as it is, why put that on your child.

JohnCusacksWife · 18/04/2015 23:31

Personally, I don't like it. It sounds very masculine and a bit harsh to me. But what I think doesn't matter. You have to love it and believe that your daughter will be happy with it.

MerynFuckingTrant · 18/04/2015 23:34

I love the name. I don't think it sounds harsh or "unfeminine" and I'm surprised by the number of posters who think girls names should sound "pretty".
I'd never come across Brogan before this thread but I think it's a lovely name for a boy or girl.

Sootgremlin · 18/04/2015 23:50

It's not so much that girls names should sound 'pretty', I don't like names for boys or girls that sound 'ugly'.

I think it's the long 'o' with the hard 'g', it's not a pleasant sound to me. Very hard. Like in ogre.

Bambambini · 18/04/2015 23:52

I think when you meet someone and especially if you like them, then the name is unimportant. I think if you like someone , you generally grow to like their name. It's only initial reactions to a name which can be off putting then you just get over it.

honeycrest · 19/04/2015 02:09

As others have said, this is not an irish first name, male or female. It's a surname only. I'm Irish so I definitely would never consider it as a name for my DC.

It sounds kind of american as a first name IMO, like the current popularity in the US of Cash or Brady for boys which are both traditionally last names in other parts of the world.

If you like it then go for it but dont go around telling people it's irish because it definitely isn't!

KoalaDownUnder · 19/04/2015 02:19

Oh, I'm just going to say it - it's one of the worst names I've ever heard. For boy or girl. No nice sounds in it, no nicknames ('bro' is for brother, 'brogue' is a shoe). I just find it astonishingly ugly.

After the kicking that Charmaine (dated, a bit tacky, but at least a first name with a soft sound) got on here, I'm Shock at the moderate reaction to Brogan!!

KoalaDownUnder · 19/04/2015 02:20

(And I don't think girls' names should necessarily sound 'pretty', just that names for either sex should not sound totally ugly.)

KoalaDownUnder · 19/04/2015 02:23

I agree that it sounds more Aussie/American with Irish pretensions than actually Irish. i would put it in the same camp as Morgan, Teagan, Regan, Logan, Shannon, etc which are all awful.

I can guarantee you that 99.99% of Aussies would not contemplate using Brogan. (See previous posts re: 'bogan'). Agree with you re: the rest though.

squoosh · 19/04/2015 02:28

Hugely different from the Charmaine debacle.

People can have any opinion they like about a name. They just need to realise that the only opinion that actually matters is the parents opinion. And that any attempt from an extended family member to aggressively influence the parents choice of name is weird and inappropriate

BackCrackandNappySack · 19/04/2015 04:18

Koala yes of course and I was one of the people who mentioned the Brogan/bogan thing as well!

It's just that in all other ways it has that Aussie flavour to it, ie. modern usage of a slightly celtic sounding surname used as a first name.

ApocalypseThen · 19/04/2015 07:31

Have we ascertained whether it is actually an Irish name yet?

It's a surname only. Not a boy's name, nor a girl's name. But this perplexing trend for using surnames as first names (like Kelly, for example) continues. I just don't know why Brogan. It's not a very good sound, really. And adding a random 'h' is bizarre. It changes how the word is pronounced into something even odder.