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

I'd do it if I was in your position and had access to one of those names! I knew someone who started telling people her name was Kiva, just to simplify things - I think it got to be a bit of a pain for her with the constant mispronunciation and spelling out. But that was 25 years ago - I think/hope the world has moved on a bit since then.

8m irish. I say go for it. We all have scottish names in my family. Not sure why.

Is it something which she could anglicise, (absolutely not saying she should have to), for things like Starbucks if she wanted to? Something like Meadhbh which she could say is Maeve. Again, not that she should, but if she didn't like spelling it all the time, could she anglicise it sometimes, just for convenience?

@DanDean

How do you spell Ava in Irish? Ava in Irish is Eábha.

SWIM?

I can see why that looks confusing to a non irish person but im wondering at what point people have enough exposure to itish names to see patterns emerge. It's phonetic to us.

Now I am curious, how do English people pronounce Cathal? Doesn’t seem like a hard one not to mess up...

I have an Irish name and have lived my adult life in another country with completely different names. I always introduce myself as «x, spelt xxx» It is so automatic that I do it even when I am back in Ireland, which makes people stare at me like I am an idiot. Doesn’t bother me much, but I will answer to anything that is similar to my name. If you are worried, why not give your daughter a common English name that she can use later if she prefers?

DC at catholic school. Loads of Irish names as well as all other nationalities. There seems to be a rule that you have to have an a Aoife and Niamh sibling pair though

Eabha/Éabha/Eábha = Ava

@BigBlondeBimbo

Is it something which she could anglicise, (absolutely not saying she should have to), for things like Starbucks if she wanted to? Something like Meadhbh which she could say is Maeve. Again, not that she should, but if she didn't like spelling it all the time, could she anglicise it sometimes, just for convenience?

Yes absolutely. It’s a little like Caoimhe in that there is an anglicised spelling (“Keeva”, assuming you pronounce Caoimhe the Ulster way, which I do!). If she told someone her name they would almost certainly spell it in the anglicised version. I guess another example would be Ciara - assume they get a lot of Keira/Kieras if people write down their name having only heard it.

The Irish spelling is just so much better!

@sonjadog the pronounce it ka hal. think there is a footballer named cathal and it drives me wrong hearing the pundits pronounce it wrong when himself watches telly

Cathal - Co-hull?

I used to work with a Colm but he said it Co-lum, I think.

@FolkSongSweet don’t want to share it but it’s a name that’s been mentioned on this thread.

DH is Irish and is pleased that his name is an Anglicised version of a typically Irish name. As a result the DCs have Gaelic middle names where they won't have to worry too much about people mangling them. A good call for DS1 in particular. Between being strongly dyslexic and autistic, he does not have the optimum personality to politely and patiently correct people all the time or overlook people garbling it.

His cousins have gaelic but fairly straightforward names. They're much more involved in the Catholic/ Irish disapora and half the names at their birthday parties are Irish.

For our DCs at a very homogenous school/ area, they would be much more unusual.
Name trends can be very localised.

In the family, the cousins with Irish families in Ireland don't have Irish names at all, the mixed race/ UK families have used more strongly Irish names.

My name is German, and no one is able to pronounce it properly. It drove me scatty as a child so when I was 11, I shortened it (think Adelheide shortened time Heidi) I now use my full name for one side of my business, and my shortened name for the other. Makes it so much easier to identify people on the phone!

I have a very common name I think so anyway and people still manage to get that wrong! I wouldn’t worry about people not being able to pronounce it. Call them the name that you want. My daughters is a shortened version of a name and people call her the full version. It’s not her name, just be prepared for the myriad of spellings you’ll get in class Christmas cards x

Go for it.
I have a very Irish name, not spelt the way it’s pronounced and nearly 40 and still have to correct people regularly in London.

Yes absolutely. It’s a little like Caoimhe in that there is an anglicised spelling (“Keeva”, assuming you pronounce Caoimhe the Ulster way, which I do!). If she told someone her name they would almost certainly spell it in the anglicised version. I guess another example would be Ciara - assume they get a lot of Keira/Kieras if people write down their name having only heard it.

Well then! That gives her options, doesn't it? Hopefully she'll just love it and be proud to tell people the irish spelling, but maybe, if she travels or is in Starbucks and in a hurry etc, she might just want to use 'Keeva', for her own convenience.

My maiden name was very irish and could be a pain to spell out. I tried using a boring surname when booking a cab in England (Brown), but in my Ulster accent, the ow sound made it just as confusing 😂. They thought I said Brian, so I became "BigBlondeBimbo Brian" for taxis etc. Not because I was shunning my heritage, but just for convenience.

If I’m ordering coffee I just give my intials

@BogRollBOGOF

DH is Irish and is pleased that his name is an Anglicised version of a typically Irish name. As a result the DCs have Gaelic middle names where they won't have to worry too much about people mangling them. A good call for DS1 in particular. Between being strongly dyslexic and autistic, he does not have the optimum personality to politely and patiently correct people all the time or overlook people garbling it.

His cousins have gaelic but fairly straightforward names. They're much more involved in the Catholic/ Irish disapora and half the names at their birthday parties are Irish.

For our DCs at a very homogenous school/ area, they would be much more unusual.
Name trends can be very localised.

In the family, the cousins with Irish families in Ireland don't have Irish names at all, the mixed race/ UK families have used more strongly Irish names.

This is interesting re family patterns. In my family everyone has Irish names, except for me and my siblings. But that’s because we were growing up in NI during the troubles and my parents didn’t want our names to identify us as catholics too obviously. Given our surname and where we lived, went to school etc it was probs extremely obvious anyway 🤣

Anyway I always felt jealous of all my cousins’ beautiful names and that may be influencing my decision here.

I grew up in London with an Irish name, never caused me any problems.

My daughter Niamh was born in borough of Camden. When I was registering her name in 2003, saw a list of top 10 baby names - Niamh was in the top 5 for the last 5 years.

People couldn't spell it, but there were lots of names I got wrong initially too. I wouldn't let that stop you naming your child with your favourite name ! After 20 years in London I'm back in Ireland and there's hardly any Niamhs of her age group.

@Sassy31

If I’m ordering coffee I just give my intials

Yes, that probably would have been more sensible than what I did. Where were you all those years ago ?

Irish names are lovely, I know lots of people who have them, usually people who are Irish or of Irish origin. Ciaran, Sinead, Maeve, Gerard, Sean, Johanna are fabulous names and not 'out there'.

There's a fada technically, but we never get around to writing it or typing it.

Go for it, we did it with our kids. They get used to correcting people and most remember it perfectly after the first time of being told. Besides, who knows, you or they just end up in Ireland! Makes a change from all the Sam’s and Noah’s and Stans and Amelias -‘d Daisys anyway...

I haven’t read the full thread so don’t know if this is going against the grain, but my (adult) DC have said to me they don’t like having an Irish name . Admittedly they grew up in a very mono cultural area in England, but they’re quite introverted and struggle with having to answer questions about their heritage every time they introduce themselves. I personally wouldn’t have an issue with that - I think people are genuinely just interested where the name comes from as it’s not hugely common in England - but they do struggle with the attention it brings.

I think they also feel culturally very ‘English’ and perhaps don’t identify as strongly with being Irish as their name prompts people to assume (they also have a v Irish surname).

They do objectively like their name though - it is lovely (even if I do say so myself ). But I think as names are so closely aligned with identity, it must be difficult constantly having to answer questions on being from a certain culture that you don’t necessarily identify with.

With hindsight, I think I would have gone with a more common Irish name that people are more familiar with, so that DC wouldn’t be faced with so many questions every time they introduce themselves.