Conor or Cillian

[TakingTheStairs]

I am Irish and quite keen that my child will have an Irish name. My own (Irish) name does not sound like it is spelled and a lot of people in the UK struggle with it, so I want to give our DS an Irish name that most people can manage.
The middle name will be Patrick. It was both of my grandfather's first names, it is my DF's middle name and my DB's middle name, so DH and I are quite keen for that tradition to continue.

I'm not a fan of Killian with a K, and prefer Cillian (which is pronounced the exact same way).

Can I have your opinions please?

Cillian is nice. Don't worry about the hard C, people will get it with one correction at most and it's easy to spell.

There's a difference between choosing a name that's easy to pronounce/understand and pandering to ignorance. No one pronounces Caroline with a soft C. It's not complicated.

I agree that you shouldn't discount a name or spell it differently just because people are ignorant.

My DP has mentioned Cillian if baby turns out to be a boy. Can't say I'm overly fussed on it, but I knew the pronounciation of it instantly when I first saw it, plus its "different" without being too out there :)

Cillian all the way, you will get 'sillian' in the uk from time to time but once people know its not a problem and its mainly friends and family who will be using the name anyway.

I like Conor best its not common at all. Conan-no!The Barbarian!

Conor is very common.

Definitely Cillian.

Wouldn't worry about the Sillian thing, it'll happen but he'll only need to correct people once.

Love Cillian Murphy and love St. Killian's cheese.

Interestingly the main UK spellings in the last ONS stats were

Connor 1471 babies
Conor 165
Conner 88

Cian is actually above Conor in those stats, with 194 babies named that.

I have a 13 year old Connor and there are not actually that many about, I don't know of any others (I am in England though)

A word of warning though, it is apparently in the top 3 naughtiest boys names and up until 2-3 years ago... I would have believed it :)

In the UK most people seem to spell it Connor, all the Irish ones I know are Conor, you only really see the double n in the O'Connor surname.

Funny enough greylady it existed for quite a few centuries as a Celtic name before people attributed that tiresome association .

Agree about Conor rather that Connor. In Ireland it's Conor. Muvh nicer than the alternative spellings.

Love them all, although definitely not Killian. If DD2 was a boy she would have been Patrick John so probably PJ.

Lovely lovely names - preference is Cillian. And I agree with other posters - don't worry if people mispronounce it first time, they'll get it soon enough (am Irish in the uk and have given the DCs a pair of names that initially prove tricksy for folk but they quickly get it)

Cillian - just far far too many Conors/Connors out there!

Thanks everyone! I'm going to show this thread to DH.
And Mollydoggerson thanks for the reminder about no K in the Irish language. That has definitely ruled out Killian with a K.

I had always thought that Connor (with two Ns) was the way it was spelled for a surname too.

Leaning more towards Cillian than Conor now.

Oh I adore Cillian. I have one of those Irish names that noone knows how to spell and despite myself, want similar for my DC! Cillian is the only one DP may consider.

May be outing myself in RL given comment about surname - I have DS called Patrick. Never ever gets called paddy. most people call him Patch for short but generally school etc use Patrick. I don't really mind Paddy but can see your point with it. For us it was a family name too, really really glad we used it.

I use a shortened version of my name as I would prefer that people get my name correct than use full name and get it wrong. Mine name isn't English but looks like an English name so I get called that.

I have no idea if he has problems! not to my knowledge. I'm not Irish but I like Eoin.. it just sounds so nice!

Prefer Conor.

I love cillian and wanted it for dc3 but dh vetoed it. How about Colm?

I love Cillian and you never really hear of any in England. Well I haven't anyway. Conor has definitely made the move over!

I love the name Cillian, would love to use it myself. Go for it, its much better than conor.

I don't understand the 'he will have to spell it all the time' camp. I grew up with the the last name Jones and I was always spelling it.

Ooops mine is a Connor, Had no idea it was the surname spelling... See this is the problem when we try and steal Irish names, we get it all wrong :)