Neasa, Cara or Emer?

[working9while5]

Interested in opinions for these names to go with Brendan. Don't know if having a girl or a boy yet!

Neasa - pronounced nassa or NASA
Cara - as it looks
Emer - pretty much as it looks: Ee-mer

We are also thinking of Orla and Sive and have an O'Something name.

Thanks!

Orla is my favourite of those.

I have never heard of Neasa. Is it also Irish?

How is Sive pronounced?

Sive rhymes with Hive, but should really be spelled Sadhbh!

Orla is okay, but pretty boring as Irish names go and we would really only choose it because we are in England and people are familiar with it - would never have chosen it otherwise. It also suffers from being pronounced Oh-ler O'Something, because obviously English folk don't have a "r" sound in that medial position. Neasa would be Nasser O' as well, which we can live with but don't love!

Neasa is Irish too, from Irish mythology.

I don't like Sive at all, not the english spelling nor the sound of the name.

Neasa is nice, don't change the spelling.

Emer was the name of the mw that delivered dc3 so I would go for that one.

I like Cara

Cara would be my choice or maybe Ciara.

I don't like Emer, too dull, or Neasa possibly due to the Ny-asa pronunciation (I'm Irish)

Given what you've said about the english tendency to pronounce the -a ending as -er, I think I'd avoid -a endings. Car-er doesn't sound so good.

I wouldn't go with Emer if you're in England. I have a friend named Emer and almost noone seems to be able to say her name,no matter how often they hear it.

Cara is beautiful.That'd be my choice.

Cara would be my choice too.

Those are all lovely, OP. My favourite is Sadhbh, which would have been one of our top choices if our baby to be had been going to be a girl. I agree with you about 'Orla' being mispronounced due to English habit of dropping r sounds, and I could see myself not choosing it for that reason, unless you like the sound of 'O-la'.

I honestly fail to see how anyone could conceivably mispronounce 'Emer' spelled that way, though....

They did I promise. They pronounced it as 'Amir' 'Eem-Eer' and Emer,like Elmer sans the L,anything but Eem-er. It drove her crazy.

None, at a push Cara

Cara or Orla.
Both are simple and sweet.

I wouldn't overcomplicate the spelling of a name. It will come back to bite you and your dc in later life.

Verity it's almost unavoidable though... Aisling would be one that it isn't but then no one can read that. Grrr. I hate girls names to be honest with you. More "English" ones I like have been used up by family - Sarah, Catherine, Rose, Anna. Like Maggie too but live oop North so not in Thatcher's lifetime.... I know what you mean about Nyasa but don't think anyone here would do that.. We used to have a teacher at school would would say Siwawn for Siobhan, can be a pain with Irishy names.

Watching, that's shocking! Yikes. It seems so.. phonetic to me!

Orla or Cara

I would never pronounce Orla Ohla

I love all the ara names -Cara, Tara, Lara

Also like Orla

Dont like Sive.

Think Emer is fine but agree it would cause trouble with spelling, pronunciation

Cara is lovely. Shaunna?

Where are you from SoupDragon? People in Lancashire and Cornwall as well as parts of Scotland pronounce 'r's too. Technically it's not so much "oh" as "o-eh" but English accents in general are non-rhotic e.g. there is no pronounced "r" word-medially or word-finally.

Cara is proving popular with most people I ask, but I do worry it sounds a bit "American". I don't think I've really found a name I love yet.

I like Cara...but what about Carli

Cara means "friend" in Irish

I know! But it is used a lot by Americans.

I always used to think Emer was a variant spelling of Emma

Shona (or Irish spelling if there's another way to spell?)