Irish Boys Names - Donnacha or Conor

[SquealyB]

DH and I are expecting DC1 in January. We don't know whether we are expecting a DS or a DD.

We have a girl's name we love but we are struggling a bit with our potential boy's name.

I am Irish but live in London, DH is English and we are keen to reflect our baby's Irish heritage. DH loves the name Conor but I am concered it is a little over used. We both like Donnacha (pr - Don aka) but I am concerned this might be a bit too unusual and am not sure what people will make of it in London.

Any thoughts??

It will work better in London than elsewhere - I have a reasonably uncommon Irish name in London and you just have to tell people how to spell and pronounce it, people are used to names they are not used to iyswim. Conor is more common but is still a lovely name, and there aren't that many around. Donnacha is gorgeous but he will have to spell it out, and will probably get a few 'Duncan??s.

What about Finbar, Declan, Sean, Diarmuid, Conrad, Tadhg, Lorcan, Aiden, Killian or Rory? Easier to spell than Donnacha but less common than Conor?

Thanks LondonElf.

I agree London is more forgiving to the unusually named (I also have an uncommon Irish name).

Conor is definitely less common in the UK than in Ireland (top 5 names for the last few years). Just keen to avoid our DC being one of 5 kids with the same name in his year group.

We like Donnacha as can be shorted to Don (which just makes me think of the incredibly cool Don Draper from Mad Men!).

We also liked Lorcan and Rory. I love Tadhg by DH vetoed sigh.

I'm not keen on Conor/Connor, sorry.

Donnacha sounds lovely, is an interesting name, has cultural meaning for you and can be shortened to Don. Great choice, imo.

I'm looking for an Irish name for my baby boy due in 6 weeks, and this is my list:

Lorcan
Diarmid
Darragh
Tiernan
Finnbar
Seamus
Cillian
Derry
Breandon
Emmett
Fergus/Fergal
Rhuiri

I think I am going to go for Tiernan (although I'm a bit worried it'll get shortened to Tier and he will get called Tier the Queer )

This is my fourth boy so I'm running out of ideas. Girls name has been sorted for 10 years, Roisin but I only have boys.

Thanks for the input shoobi.......would rather hear if people are not keen on a name now than after we have lumbered DC with it .

Dinosaurs I like the list. Tiernan is a nice choice. We play the playground nickname game too at home with all name choices (hence why Gabriel was out the window). Love Derry too.

Wow, your fourth DS - how wonderful!

ps. I am not 100% sure (and you may not care at all) but I think the Irish spelling of Rory is Ruairi (I think Rhuiri might be welsh)

I can't get my head round some of the spellings

My all time favourite name is Derry, ds3 was very nearly called it but I hate the shortening Dez. I do feel sad that I won't have a little Derry though.,

Cormac is THE best name in the world ever. biased

I so wanted Oisín for ds but was vetoed, anyway...
Of yours I'd go for Donnacha, agree that there are a lot of Connors about the place.

I think Connor/Conor is so common that, in London at least, people wouldn't automatically see an Irish connection. So if honouring your heritage is important, I'm not sure it is the strongest choice for that.

Donnacha is lovely. And Don is a waaaaay cool nickname. Might steal that for 'mythical third child'. Not heard it before, but I think it's easy for English ears to get their heads around whilst being distinctively Irish IYSWIM.

One of mine has an Irish name. Not even a particularly rare one. But moving away from London has made things harder. In London, people were comfortable with not recognising a name and would just ask, and ask about the spelling. Here we find that they are more inclined to fill in a name IYSWIM. So they'd hear Roisin (to steal a name from upthread) and guess something like Rosaline, or hear Darragh and guess Darren. I find there are a few names which share a syllable or two with DD's and I am forever correcting people who try to use them.

They are both gorgeous names but I prefer conor. It's popular for a reason, coz it's such a lovely name!

Thanks all for the input - feeling more confident about our choice now.

I love Donnacha. I'm a big rugby fan so have heard it, I'm sure a lot of people will make a similar connection. I live outside of Wales and my son has a very Welsh name, people pronounce wrong once but then always get it right and he gets loads of compliments.

I've never actually seen it spelt with the first 'a' - it's usually Donnchadh in my experience. It's more dun-a-ca than don-a-ca too, it's softer with the 'dun'. I love the name, and because of the 'exotic'-looking spelling I don't think people will just guess at it and get it wrong, I think they're more likely to ask you first then get it right. Go for it!

Eek, I just realised you didn't use the dh spelling either, sorry about that! Yep, go for Donncha then. I can't read! :)

I'm not keen on Donnacha
Ds1 is called Connor. I'm due in 5 weeks dp likes Darragh

I have a Tadhg! I'm in Ireland and LOADS of people misspell it lots of consonants I suppose

I have a Tadhg too and we are in the UK. People have no idea how to pronounce it but it gets a really positive reaction when I liken
It to "tiger". I love both your names, Donnacha has the edge

Haydon if you like the nn Don

Hayden

We're the same as you (Irish in London married to local boy) and I want a Tadhg but DH has vetoed any names he can't spell (bloody English men! )
I love Donnacha, very influenced by one of my first huge crushes in school back in the day... wonder what he's doing now

I'm not mad about Donnacha. Conor is lovely but is very very very popular in Ireland at the moment.

Donnacha is lovely.

Connor is very very popular and has been for years.