AIBU to give my child an Irish name in the UK?

[FolkSongSweet]

Posting here for traffic. I’ve seen a few heated debates on this on baby name threads recently. I’m considering giving my child an Irish name where the pronunciation isn’t obvious from the spelling. We live in London. Will this be a huge burden to the child when they grow up/a mild annoyance, or not an issue?

(NB this issue could obviously theoretically apply to lots of names, not just Irish ones, but Irish ones are what I’m considering)

YABU - don’t give your child a tricky name
YANBU - it’s not a big deal, people will learn

YANBU

Oh and just to say, I am Irish but DH is English and child will have an English surname

I'm in the west of Scotland and it wouldn't be an issue here. I don't know about London though.

Dd is an adult now and still loves hers. She does have to help people learn how to say it. She's fine with that.

For all the assurances by MNers that it would be a terrible thing to do and cause immense suffering, none of my children have had any problems so far from having Polish names. I think people forget there is wide variance in the accepted spelling of many well known, mainstream English names and so having to correct a spelling is not confined to foreign names at all (Anne/Ann, Clare/ Claire, Jonathan/ Jonathon, Phillip/ Philip...)

YANBU

Someone was talking about BAME names (I know not the same), but they said that people manage to teach their children how to say Beethoven and Tchaikovsky and the surnames of foreign footballers, so it's just ignorance and laziness on the part of adults if they claim they're so confused about a non 'native British' name.

It stuck with me.

Names linked to parental heritage are important and nobody should feel they should avoid their heritage to appease a minority of people's ignorance.

Thank you! I’m less concerned by the spelling aspect as I agree - lots of Jon/John, Catherine/Kathryn/Katherine, Sarah/Sara type issues here. It’s more the pronunciation that I’m worried about - if someone sees say Muireann/Ailbhe/Caoimhe written down and doesn’t know how to say it - will it be annoying to get called “murian”, “ail-be”, “cayomy” etc?

If people have genuine difficulty pronouncing a name, that’s not a problem. If they make an issue out of it, such as i the bigot I worked with who insisted on calling a patient Gerard, because it was a ‘load of nonsense’ for them to an Irish version of the name. That’s racism.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong wrong with giving your child an Irish name. Be proud of your heritage.

I live in a tiny village in Scotland. There are at least two children at the village school with Irish names and no one seems to have any issues however my dd is named after dh's great aunt, it's a name primarily found in continental Europe and some people just can't (won't) get it right despite being told many times.

I think you'll get some people who just won't try but I think most do.

My dad has a very unusual Welsh name and has always lived in England. I would say it isn’t a huge burden but it is a mild annoyance. His middle name is John and occasionally he has used it instead. But generally he sticks with his real name.

It also has advantages though - eg email addresses - no “[email protected] for him! Presumably the mix of Irish first name and English surname will be fairly rare so that will make life easier.

Londoners will hear names from all over the world - they'll cope.

YANBU

If you like a name, use it. If people don't recognise it first time, they'll learn.

Hmm I know several DC with Irish names and they spend their lives telling people how to pronounce them. Sabdh and Tadgh (I think! Can't even remember myself now), cause particular problems and even after being told many forget or struggle to get it right. Personally, I'd go with an Irish name that's well known and that most people will know.

In most London schools, you will find classmates with a huge variety of names, and it will be most unlikely to be an issue. She might have to prompt them over spelling or pronunciation on first acquaintance, but as
unmarkedbythat has already pointed out, that could apply equally to more "mainstream" names.

It doesn’t bother me what others name their children. I always think of Una from the Saturdays when I think of Irish names- her two kids have very lovely Irish names. I have a name that’s often misspelled and I’ve cursed my LO with a name that also has others spellings but I’m not too worried about it. Causes aggro when you get personalised gifts spelt incorrectly though 😂

My favourite name (which I don’t want to say as it’s a bit outing) isn’t one of the well known/easier ones unfortunately.

It’s easy to say for an English speaker, but the spelling doesn’t make that obvious.

As long as you're Irish then go for it 😁. If you haven't seen Catastrophe yet you should watch the episode when Muireann is born.

DD2 has an Irish name that we didn't think was that unknown here when we chose it. We are constantly surprised at the number of people who don't know how to pronounce it. However it isn't a problem as long as you're alert when in places like doctors surgeries when they call you by name - and are basically making a wild guess which doesn't sound anything like the correct pronunciation.

My DD is perfectly happy with her name, most people will just ask if they don't know how to say it and then once they know her it's fine.

We're not in London but we are in Southern England - I would say go for it, certainly won't be a burden for her.

Oh and I knew a Caoimhe at uni. No one could spell it. It was even spelt wrong or as Keva. Your choice, of course, but just be aware that many, many people struggle with spellings anyway and your DC with an unusual name is likely to face a lifetime of it being misspelt and mis-pronounced.

Speaking as someone with an Irish Mum and an English name: do what you feel comfy with but ...

I have an Irish name living in England. It's arguably one of the trickiest to say and spell. It's a great conversation starter, and everyone comments it's a beautiful name. Never had an issue with it. People generally put a lot of effort into learning how to spell it ime.

I’m in London and it’s very diverse here it wouldn’t be a problem. Of course there will be people who don’t know how to pronounce it but that’s true of a lot of names now.
Saying that I thought I was quite good with Irish names but I’ve never heard of the last two you posted!

I've an irish name and lived in America for some time, no problem once people were told how to pronounce it, maybe once or twice people mispronounced it but not so much that it was unrecognisable from my own name. Also did a year studying with a group of students from various nationalities. Aware that it might be even harder to pronounce if you had no knowledge of irish names I said I was happy to go by a nickname. They all insisted that they would learn the correct pronunciation and they did.
I'd go for it.
My DS has an irish name and will give future children irish names also. It's really important to me that they have some our heritage no matter where they are in the world.

YANBU, people cope. It’s important to keep using these names, especially outside of Ireland.

I have a Sadhbh in Northern Ireland, so 50% of strangers are like “Oh beautiful name!” and the other 50% wonder why I’ve called my child Sieve.

I think as long as you accept that some people WILL get pronunciation and spelling wrong until you politely correct them, it’ll be fine.

YABU

It's fine for adults who don't go around with a name identified with another culture saying it's ok for their children but they are not the ones who have had to live with it day-to-day for decades. Also as a child in London it won't cause you issues but as an adult you get fed up with it.

Your child will get fed up of having to spell their out to everyone for their entire life. (Well unless they move to Ireland.) I know plenty of Polish people and others who as adults have Anglicised their full first name to avoid this. I use a nickname but always have to spell out my full name. On the other hand my DD has 2 common spellings of her name in England, and 90% of the time I don't have to spell it out to people as they guess the correct spelling.

Also if you move out from London or any big city to a little town in England before they become an adult as it will cause problems. Mainly as there are still racist people around who target people who don't have Anglicised names even if they are white English or won't employ them. My DP changed his Irish first name because his parents moved out of London to some small town in the NW.