Is Aoibhe a step too far in the UK?

[mika2]

I'm Irish, living in the UK and due DD1 in 4 mths. I really want to give the baby an irish name - DH has reluctantly agreed - and had come up with an extensive list of boys names i liked (and was convinced it was a boy!) but now i know it's a girl I'm still struggling. Not helped by the fact that a lot of them (Ciara, Tara, Niamh, Beibhinn, Saoirse, Siun) have already been taken by my very extended family. At the moment this is the best we can come up with;

Clodagh (klo-da) - but DH is insisting on nn chloe (which defeats the purpose of giving the baby an Irish name IMO)
Aoife (ee-fa) - pretty, but v v common in ireland and getting more so here?
Caoimhe (quee-va) - I love, but DH isn't so keen
Aoibhe (eva) - alternative to aoife, but a bit more "out there" than the others as even Irish ppl seem v confused on how to pronounce. And with such an obvious english alternative, can see DH/DD giving up and spelling it Eva eventually

Thoughts on the above for a baby growing up in the uk? And any other suggesions gratefully received!

It's an opinion I agree with. I'm Irish and have lived in Ireland and UK. My opinion isn't less valid for not having a degree in Irish. In fact most Irish people don't have a degree in Irish!

lol at squooosh, you've reminded me, i have two lotto tickets in my wallet i must check.

This is a useful website for pronounciations Op - I really wouldnt worry about people not being able to get to grips with those names. All ours have Irish names but we do live in a place where there is no such thing as normal.

://www.babynamesofireland.chttpom/irish-girl-names

My brain hurts reading this thread.. I can't pronounce most of the names because I have no idea where to start

Meant nicely by the way!

Have you considered Ailbhe, OP?

I think it was suggested earlier.

I love it :)

It's easy to pronounce for English people.

Have to say I agree totally with PerfumedPonce and Peevish. There is at least one poster who is coming across as quite aggressive on this thread. If you don't like the names or spellings yourself, then don't use them. But why come on just to say that people who do are being pretentious or unfair on their children. That's just nasty and if that's your opinion then why not just keep it to yourself?

Perhaps some of those dissing names like Aoibhe and Orlaith should tell us what they have chosen to call their children so that we can judge the levels of pretentiousness or dickishness in their own choices.

Deirdre, pronounced the Irish way - 'deer-dra' not the Coronation St way 'deer-dree'?

"There is at least one poster who is coming across as quite aggressive on this thread. "

:o

Now there are two

Passive aggressive is still aggressive.

I think people's opinions are legitimate, they come from experience. I personally don't get why someone raising a child outside of Ireland would name their child Orlaith instead of Orla. However I wince when I see Niamh spelt as Neve.

I also agree with the point made up thread that Aoibhe isn't a 'real' Irish name, it's Eva that's been made to look Irish. A bit like an O'Neill's pub in Hong Kong or wherever, it's an Irish pub but not really.

My personal opinion is to keep it authentic but don't create a spelling headache.

I agree with you Squoosh. Authentic where possible if that doesn't create a spelling nightmare. +1 to that!

AS for who's rude and who's not rude, well that's subjective. I thought Peevish's post was sailing a little close to rudeness, although I didn't know what to say to it, categorising everybody and pronouncing people either little-englander or holier-than-thou-gaelteachtar. I'm not having a pop at her, that's how it seems to her. I'm just saying that it's entirely subjective. The posts you agree with seem far less rude.

PerfumedPonce may well have a degree in Irish but several of us grew up in Ireland and know for a fact that Orla is the accepted spelling of the name. Loving Irish MORE than we do doesn't make you more right.

Aoibhe is a variation of Aoibh (wife of Lir in the story) and means beauty.

Eva is Hebrew in origin and means life.

They are different names albeit with similar (but not identical) pronunciations.

But in the story she was Aoibh not Aoibe? So by variation, I am thinking that that means an e was put on the end of Aoibh so that it sounds like Eva

I mentioned the fact I took Irish at university only in response to the idea that it's ok for some people to use Irish names but not others. I really dislike the tone that this thread has taken. Can't we just let people choose whatever names they like without getting so het up? There will be people reading this thread whose children are called the names that have been mentioned and I would rather not label them as dicks or whatever because it isn't what you or I might choose. It's so easy to be hurtful on naming threads. Like I said earlier, can't we just live and let live?

I love the Irish name Eithne.

I suppose it's the inevitable consequence of people having different opinions. There's no right or wrong, it seems there is different degrees of right, and then, there is ignorance and wilful ignorance! It's a minefield.

I say live and let live too although I'll admit to enjoying a good discussion. I apologise for throwing the fact that you've a degree in Irish back at you like that. If I'd been more articulate I could have made the same point but in a less snarky way.

No problem

I love that Aoibh and Aoife were sisters.

Their other sister was probably called Caoimhe :o

Just to be clear - English people would have no problem pronouncing these names. They just wouldn't know how to say them from reading them.

I don't think it's pretentious. And I don't think it holds people back at work. It's probably going to be a talking point for some people which could be quite nice.

But it is, I think, a bit odd, if you are based in GB and intend to stay in GB, to provide a name for your child that would fox most people in GB unless they had someone tell them "you say it like this". Most people these days probably know Siobhan etc but that's because there have been some famous ones. The others on this list I have never a) heard of or b) seen written down and I live in London and my child is the only Anglo -Saxon origins child in her school so we are hardly mono-cultural!

It's not like having a French name in English. That would actually be easier. It's nothing to do with "foreignness". It's to do with the alphabet.

My parents gave me a very normal English name with a very abnormal spelling. I changed it to the standard spelling by deed poll I was so fed up of people not being able to spell it.

If you give a child a name with a spelling that is not standard in the country they are living they will spend their lives spelling the name.

Also the names are going to be pronounced more by English people than Irish, so might not get the sound right. Would that bother you?

Not through lack of trying. I've seen a few posts about Niamh and Neve, to me they sound exactly the same and I'm normally good at picking up subtle sounds.

Where in the UK will you be living, I'm related to a Niamh who has lived her entire life in Yorkshire and it sounds different with that accent, much deeper, more knee-ev. Are you going to be happy with that? Well with whatever accent your children will grow up with.

Then there is teaching your child to write their own name. I went to school with a Philomena, she thought she was stupid because at 5 she couldn't write her name when all the Traceys and Janes could.

No matter how beautiful a name is in Irish, is it as beautiful pronounced with an English accent?

I suppose it depends how much you are attached to the spelling, how important you feel it is.

Siobhan, Niamh and Sinaed are common enough for English people to know the name and the spelling, although I know there should be accents over the letters but not where.

Although I did once shout Siobhan X to a crowded waiting room and Siobhan and her mother looked at each other stunned. In 15 years no one had pronounced her name correctly without them explaining it.

I was also at school with a Dymphna which can easily be worked out with phonetic English spelling.

Being pigeonholed as Irish is a problem? Where did that come from?

Ireland is not a province. It is a country. The use of an Irish name is not provincial and yeah, you can be Irish as you like called Miriam or Emma or Stephanie and English as you like being called Aoife, Maeve or Clodagh.

There are a great many O'Connors, O'Briens, O'Neills and O'Reillys living for generations here and across the world. Should they all change their names so as not to be pigenholed at work as Irish? Why on God's earth...? I have yet to meet an English person who can pronounce Keogh to my liking but giving up a surname to not stand out is, frankly, nuts.

My son has a completely nuts and ridiculous Irish second name, Amhlaoibh. Do I think anyone will ever be able to pronounce his second name? No but it is a family name and he can do with it what he wills but I gave it to him partially to kick against this nonsense that Irish names are inferior that I have seen time and time again on here.

Most of our kids will probably end up in Asia where all of this will mean nothing.

I said this upthread, but I think there are two different issues with Irish names. I can't speak for all English people (even if I were English I couldn't do that) but I don't think names like Amhlaoibh are names that would,,, how do I phrase this? pigeon-hole a child. I think it's names like Conor and Calum and Aoife and Niamh that might sometimes do that. Names that have become popular in the uk. Although they continue to be perceived as quite classic in Ireland. Im guessing your son's second name is amleev?

working - did you have a thread about Amhlaoibh a few years ago?

I remember one where I was encouraging someone to use it. And it was a family name.

You don't usually get feedback from name threads.

" I'm related to a Niamh who has lived her entire life in Yorkshire and it sounds different with that accent, much deeper, more knee-ev"

Sounds closer to the proper Irish pronunciation that Neev, which is how it is usually said in English :)

That's quite neat. :)

I don't think I've ever heard of Amhlaoibh before.

Ow-lee-uv?

lol at Chonchubhair! The English primary school teachers wouldn't think he was from a 'chav family' though.