Scottish twin boys

[scotty1973]

Hi all, a question for the Scottish (although others feel free to comment).

We're having twin boys and have decided on the names Rory and Finlay for them. My husband thinks that we should go for the original Scottish spellings - Ruairidh & Fionnlagh.
Would this be cruel? I quite like the idea but am not sure it would work in reality.

Would you Scottish mummies know how to pronounce Ruairidh & Fionnlagh? My husband thinks that lots will but I'm not so sure!

PS Forgot to mention that we are Scottish and live in Scotland (the boys will be raised here!).

I am not scottish, but my DS has a scottish name, and I know how to pronounce both!

Ruairidh I would know how to pronounce, but not Fionnlagh - also think he would be open to being called 'Fiona' by other kids at school!! Both lovely names tho!

Ruairaidh, isn't really rory though, it's rooa-ree, with the a being really short

fionnlagh, that I'd not get as finlay without being told, it's fee-un-la to me - though my Gaelic is quite rusty

I think they should be bilingual.

Ruairaidh would be recognised, often used in Scotland. I prefer it to Rory.
Never heard of someone using Fionnlagh and doesn't make sense to me.. surely the name is derived from the surnames Finlay and Findlay?

Maybe being familiar with Irish is confusing me, but when I see Fionnlagh, I would assume that it's Fyunnla not Finnlee.

I would be able to pronounce Ruairidh right away, but Fionnlagh doesn't look enough like Finlay to make it obvious.

In my Scottish accent Ruairidh and Rory are pronounced the same. Are any of you Scottish? Fin-lee isn't how I'd pronounce either Fionnlagh or Finlay. It's more like Fin-lay.

fallingandlaughing Fionnlagh is a first name and Finlay is the anglicised form or it. Same goes for Ruairidh and Rory!

Looks like we should stick to the anglicised forms :)

I am Scottish and would pronounce Ruairidh (Roori) and Rory (Roari) differently. I also wouldn't know how to pronounce Fionnlagh. I would personally either go for Rory and Finlay or Ruairidh and Finlay.

I'm from south west Scotland btw.

Thanks agora1

I am Scottish and would know what both names were. BUT, I would say something akin to Rooari, with a very small a, and Fi-on-lay, again with a very, very small o sound

Yep, I'm Scottish - it's Scottish gaelic I was talking about, though the spelling works the same way as Irish anyway.

Rory is roaree and ruairaidh isn't IMO anyway, lol

I'm Scottish and I would know both names too. Ruairidh (prn roo-ry, not row-ry) is very common - in fact if you combined all the different spellings it would be quite high in the name charts. Fionnlagh looks too try-hard. It's not usually spelled that way in Scotland - in fact I've never seen it used before.

Fionn is a nice spelling of Finn and more common than Fionnlagh.

I'm sure there was also a Scottish king named Findlaech. Maybe Findlay would be a compromise?

I am Scottish and would say Ruairidh (which you should pick!) as Roo-rey and say Rory as Roar(like a lion!)-rey

I think you should have

Ruairidh and Finlay

Agree with tuggy. Btw, I love both names, good choices :)

Well as a Scottish Gaidhlig speaker I would pron Ruairidh as Roo-a-ree and Fionnlagh as fyoo-laiy. Def not Rory and Finlay. Do you want to pronounce the names as Rory/Finlay?

I am Scottish (and have lived my whole life in Scotland), and would recognise Ruairidh but not Fionnlagh. As others have said, I would pronounce Ruairidh as "Roo-a-ree" (lovely name!), not "Rory" (which I see as a quite different (English?) name.

I always think of Rory / Ruari as wrong / anglicised versions of Ruairidh, whereas think Finlay is the normal Scottish spelling (I've never seen your suggested spelling used). No idea if this is actually right, it's just how I perceive these names.

Finlay is very popular round here just now, and I think people would automatically assume that this was your son's name, he'd be forever correcting them.

I am Scottish too and agree with the others who said go for Ruairidh and Finlay (I wouldn't know how to pronounce the other way of spelling Finlay), as long as you don't mind Ruairidh being pronounced "Rooaree'.

Congrats, I'm expecting twins too, but don't know the sex, so have to have 2 good Scottish or Italian names for girls or boys, I'm struggling!

Thank you all! I have showed my husband the responses and I think we will go for Rory & Finlay as we would like them to be pronounced this way.

Good luck with your twins Fandangos!