Naming my mixed race child and Irish name?

[ihateyousarahm]

I'm pregnant with a child who will be mixed race. My family are Irish but we've lived in England for a couple of generations.

We want to respect the heritage and name our child a traditional Irish name. Some people have said it will be hard to pronoumce as it's an Irish name and we don't usually see the name and others have said it's a mixed race baby so don't. However when I said what name we should use, they don't know.

A girls name like Charlotte etc is English and although we have both lived in England for a couple of generations I'm torn.

Ideas please?

But the OP isn’t saying she is Irish because her parents or even grandparents were born in Ireland. She is talking about several generations ago. I do think how someone describes themselves is a personal choice but having your 5x great grandfather being born in Ireland doesn’t make you “Irish” yourself. Your English with Irish roots/ancestry surely. (Substitute “Irish” for any other nationality it’s not a specific Irish thing).

Although I don’t agree with the term PP used I do think they have a point that the OP is very much like the Americans or Canadians who claim to be Irish/Scottish because their great great great great grandmother was born in Ireland before moving to America when they were 4 years old. No you aren’t Irish you are American and can trace one side of your family’s roots to Ireland.

I don’t know if there is any hard and fast rule on this area woukd be interesting to know what experts like on You Do You Think You Are view it. For me I’d go two generations maybe but that’s just my opinion and no more valid that something that looks back ten generations.

I’m not dismissing anyone - I’m saying those experiences are all different and that people raised by parents / families from whatever country or culture shouldn’t be told they aren’t allowed to say they are Irish / Italian / Nigerian etc

Well I'm Irish and I don't feel that at all. Names travel for all sorts of reasons, and Irish people have names from lits of different cultural backgrounds too. It's just a name. I do hate when they are rendered phonetically though

It’s not something we can easily define - how many generations we go back etc - which is why a good solution is to let people self-define, depending on the context. Not fraudulently obtaining a passport but saying we chose an irish name because my family is irish seems fine without any further qualifying information about how many generations you go back. I have friends whose irish rents raised them in England, one says she’s Irish and one says she’s English and that seems fine to me.

I'm Irish and think you should name your child whatever you wish, although I also think that deciding on an Irish name for your child because you are "Irish" is somewhat performative, give that many Irish people who are 100% Irish and living in Ireland give their children names like Thomas, Jack, Ella and Elizabeth. The top 10 boys and girls names in Ireland for 2025 contain a total of 6 names which are not specifically Irish (Lily, Grace, Sadie, Jack, James and Noah).

I'm talking about people who say 'I'm Irish' when it's solely because they have an Irish granny. Having citizenship of a country is one thing, but claiming to be something because a grandparent was born there is another.

I think a mixed race child should have a name that belongs to one of the heritages she belongs to.

Congratulations. Use whatever name you like, the pronunciation might be a problem occasionally but most children shorten their name or help their friends to pronounce it correctly.

It didn’t ‘ seem like a micro agression’. That isn’t a fact, because it didn’t seem like a micro agression to me.

You are someone very jumpy about talking about people of our world and admitting their characteristics. And as a consequence you have brought self consciousness and fear into the discussion. You probably wring your hands about the prevalence of mental health issues in our society, whilst busily policing innocent comments and tripping people up pointlessly.

Congrats OP! So tricky choosing a name, isnt it! We didnt settle on one until DD1 was 4 weeks old 🙈 My DH considers himself British with Irish heritage (his 4 grandparents were all Irish who moved to the UK, his parents and him / his siblings were born in the UK). His sibling has claimed their Irish passport but he has not (as yet). For our DD, we chose a name that is popular in both Ireland and the UK (although more linked to ireland than the UK), then we gave her a middle name linked to my side. Her surname is an Irish surname. We obviously want her to understand her family history but she will never really consider herself to have a strong Irish link i think, as she will be 3 generations away, so we wanted something that worked for the UK. If there's a name you love, then go for it, but lots of lovely names out there so make sure you've thought about them all. Good luck!

Irish people can be black/mixed race/any colour. This is a non-issue.

Mad the way Irish names are considered unpronounceable in a way no other ethnicity would be.

Jeez said like a true "few generations ago irish". There are plenty of mixed race irish people so having an irish name and being mixed race do not cancel each other out.

My child is mixed race with an Irish name. It's not a problem. His middle name and surname are Indian and has an Irish first name.

When he was born my H agreed he could have an Irish name that his Indian family could immediately pronounce so that limited options somewhat but we worked it out.

What names were you thinking OP?

But....what? Even with a traditionally sexy Italian or French or Spanish accent? Really?

I used to really like the way my French ex and my Arab ex and deep south US ex and even Polish ex said my very Irish name.

Nobody on here can tell you this OP, without knowing the actual name and its spelling! Just make sure it kind of works with the surname. Are you saying your family are all born in the U.K. across several generations, but you still identify as Irish? That's quite unusual, but it doesn't matter. If you like an Irish name, go for it.

John and Mary are also very traditional Irish names. I have so many in the extended family that we use their first and surname to differentiate.
Don't use traditional Irish spelling if you can avoid it, all those mh, bh sounds are a nuisance to spell outside of Ireland. But otherwise pick what you fancy.

Nobody considers them unpronounceable (mostly). But generally if they are living in England they won’t be phonetic so the name holder will spend a lot of time explaining it.

I don’t think it’s that big a deal but it maybe to others.

It’s also a blatant lie to say no other ethnicity has names considered unpronounceable! My name is phonetic but unusual and in almost 50 years I am used to having to say it at least 3+ times for people to get it right! Loads of other non Irish people will experience the same.

Well not really. How could anyone non-Irish speaking be expected to know that eg. Sadbe is pronounced 'See-ve?' Even my phone is trying to autocorrect that name as I type!

Sure people get used to names. I think most people are now familiar with Niamh, Saiorise, Siobhan etc. But there are loads of Irish names people are obviously not going be able to sound out because the spellings bear no relation to phonics in the rest of Europe or globally. In Spain, I had a friend called Liusaidh (Lucy) but practically everyone read this name as 'Loosaida' until she corrected them.

I’m mixed race and my name isn’t from either country/culture. Do you actually mean mixed race eg white and Asian or the child is Irish/English (this wouldn’t be mixed race).

I wouldn't think anything of meeting a mixed race person with an Irish name.

Names like Erin, Orla, Patrick are Irish and well used in England. If you like a name with a traditional Irish spelling you could still go for that though, but there are some names that English people will be more familiar with. Personally really like Erin.

It's funny you should bring chinese people into this - I used to work at a University that had a large number of chinese students and every one of them adopted an english name as it was easier
This is a conversation for you and your partner - you need to pick a name you both love and agree on

Probably because names from other languages/cultures in the UK are often transliterated. As are Irish names sometimes.

Well not really. How could anyone non-Irish speaking be expected to know that eg. Sadbe is pronounced 'See-ve?' Even my phone is trying to autocorrect that name as I type!

Well I think it did autocorrect it because surely the name is Sadhbh?