Ira

[yellowflowers]

Anyobe like this? (For a boy) I do but never ever met one before.

I'd think Ira Gershwin too.

I like it.

There is the female name Eira, which i think is welsh and means snow. I like that name.

I like it - would think of Ira Gershwin and Ira from the Cybil TV show (who was a screenwriter I think?). A Jewish friend named her new DS Ira and I think it is a really good name for a boy.
In spite of my Irish links I would never have thought about the IRA.

I wouldn't think about the IRA at all, there are enough Iras for other connections surely? We were going to call ds2 Ezra, which is another name in the same ball park I think (the baby turned out to be dd).

I work with a woman called Ira, I didn't realise it could be used as a male name too so I wouldn't use it for that reason.

Sounds similar to Myra, which is a no no.

Also the IRA, which others have said :P

Plus its just ugly, sorry

Never heard of it - to me "Ira" sounds more of a girls name than a boys. Is it even a real name???

I am always shocked when reading the baby names threads at how parochial some posters are. Yes, it is a name. Yes, it is a boy's name.

I think it is lovely. It is very popular in New York. Makes me think of Ira Glass from This American Life [swoon]

Yes am Jewish.

I got it from ira Gershwin

How strongly one thinks of the terrorist organisation will be coloured by age, how vividly one remembers the bombs and assassinations, and whether you lost anyone in those atrocities. For some of the UK population, it will be inevitable and unhappy thought.

rubbish Edith Weston - how strongly one thinks of connections with the IRA depends on how ridiculous you are. It has NO connections, its pronounced Ira, as its spelled, its not pronounced IRA. I was in London when there were bombs, I remember the death of Mountbatten and the damage done to those poor little boys. I remember the guy outside Harrods in a wheelchair who had been hit by a bomb in that very spot. Jeez how ignorant can you get.

I know it has a different etymology and pronunciation.

But it is essentially the same as the acronym of an organisation which killed and terrorised far too many people, and those personally touched may have strong reactions.

I will not post what I think of those who call the bereaved ignorant.

Well said, Edith.

i know an 11yr old called, Ira, he is a lovely boy and his name never made me think of the IRA and i am from a forces family and as a child was evacuated from my own home when they suspected an IRA bomb had been planted nearby, i also had to watch my parents check under their car with a special mirror and torch (kind of on a long pole and at an angle) before every car journey we went on.

i think its a nice name :)

it used to be my favourite name when I was an angsty- self destructive teenager... sorry ;-) it also means "fury" in Latin...

I love the way it sounds though.

I love the name. I know a little Ira.

I thought of the IRA connection the very first time I heard the name, but it's totally his name now IYSWIM and I don't think of the IRA when I hear Ira.

it's welsh for snow

sorry i was thinking of eira which is pronounced the same, beautiful name

my first thought was IRA

I'm familiar with the name and quite like it, but being Irish, it does always make me think IRA as well when I see it written down. I suppose it's down to background - if you're jewish no one will bat an eyelid, if you're irish people might think you've chosen it for political reasons.

I have always liked Ira. I'd never think of the IRA!

It's I.R.A. though isn't it, if you've a grasp of grammar.

I think you're right, Stokes. I suspect anyone of a Jewish background, or who knows a lot of Jewish people, will be really surprised at the IRA inference. It seems to me a really normal name. It sounds as though people who aren't Jewish or Jew-habituated are finding it harder to get past that.

I'd say the problem, if there is one, is confined to occasions when the name will be written .... and only then if written in capitals, and probably less so if accompanied by the surname. It ain't going to happen very often.

It means "anger" in Latin. Not nice