Irish spelling in U.K

[daheedsgirl]

My husband is from Ireland and we live in Wales. We both love the name Aoibhinn Frances for a girl (Ay-veen) but I'm worried that she will spend the rest of her life spelling and having her name mispronounced! We also like Elin Frances. Any opinions and other name suggestions are appreciated! :-)

I have an Irish name, albeit a slightly more common one, and do spend a lot of time spelling it and explaining how to pronounce it but it's never bothered me and I love my name and I really like Aoibhinn too. Don't worry about what other people think and go with a name you love.

I am having this concern too. But go with the Irish name if your dh is Irish and you both love it. It's a beautiful name and not overused.

in Wales it will be OK.
you be ok in London
too.
anywhere in the provinces of England and it would be a disaster IMO.
She will have to spell her name out but then don't we all anyway?

I know a lot of Irish families and children and I couldn't work that out without your phonetic spelling so that will be a problem for her, especially when she's older and doing anything over the phone or meeting people through work who have only seen her name written down.

However people get used to names - I now know that my friend's children are Aoife and Siobhan and that they're not pronounced how they look!

I've done it. She hates spelling it but prefers having a different name to everyone else. She has 3 friends called Emma but only met one other Caoimhe. We are in Scotland though so bit more tolerant of Gaelic names

Irish names are generally well received in Wales.

No so much England though, as is standard with most "foreign" names.

Caoimhe. That's what my DS would have been had he been a girl! I love it! I like Aoibhinn too though and I think that the "bh" as a "v" sound might be easier for non Irish people to "get" as Siobhan is relatively common?

Some people wouldn't pronounce that the way you want in Ireland, so I dont think Wales would be any worse.

(I say this because, although I don't know anyone called Aoibhinn, I know or know of several people called Aoibheann, pronounced variously as ee-van, ee-von, ee-veen and ay-veen depending on the region of the speaker).

Personally I wouldn't as not only will people not know how to spell it they won't be able to pronounce it either upon first reading it.

I have a 4 month old Niamh and I sometimes wish I had used another spelling.

I wouldn't have a clue how to pronounce or spell the name you like.

i have a sister with a well known 'princess of ireland' name and the crap she had to take off teachers at school was un-fucking-believable

I live in Ireland & know two girls with this beautiful name. Both pronounce it differently and neither like you say it. Pronunciation of names varies depending on the region of Ireland.

I don't see any reason why you can't use this name in Wales - people will get used to it. The important thing is that you should go with a name you really love.

I must admit though, for my half-Irish DC I chose Irish names that were easy to spell & pronounce because we were living in England at the time. Then we moved to Ireland so it didn't matter anyway

Thanks for the advice. I work around lots of children and although we also like Elin it is quite popular where we live. I'm English and I know that my family will struggle with any Irish name. Hubbies family are Irish speaking so Aoibhinn would be fine for them. We looked at the spelling Aoibheann as well. I am stuck for alternatives. We did like Etain and Aoife as well :-)

Etain is lovely, lovelier than Aoibheann in my opinion, and a much easier name to carry in the UK.

Aoife is a bit blah.

I have an Irish name - one of those 'hard to pronounce' ones - and it is a total pain in the butt. Hardly anyone can say either my first or last names and it really does get tiresome. I use the Anglicized version of my first name outside work and it makes life much simpler.

If it sways you at all, there is this very beautiful poem by Seamus Heaney, A Kite for Aibhin (and another whole spelling into the mix):

www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21889

Quick note: Aoibhinn/Aoibheann is a lovely name, but it's not pronounced Ay-veen. Yes, plenty of people do use that pronounciation, but it's completely wrong, much like someone being called John but pronouncing it Ben.

Aoi makes an Ee sound, like in Aoife. To make an "Ay" sound you'd use something like "É".

inn/eann makes an "in"/"ann"/"un" kind of sound depending on dialect/spelling etc. To make an "een" sound, you'd use something like "ín".

So, if you want Ay-veen, I think the spelling should be something like Éibhínn.

I'm not a native speaker, but the rules of Irish pronounciation are much more rigid and easy to follow than English (nothing like the difference in cough/though/through/bough etc). I know there are a few native speakers on MN who will be able to expand on this, and correct me if I'm wrong.

What about Saoirse? That's what I really wanted for DD but DH overruled and she has another Irish name.

You're correct Stokes. It needs to be spelt Éibhín or Éibhinn.

Éibhín looks quite ugly though doesn't it. A bit biffy.

What about Eavan OP? It's the anglicised version of Aoibheann.

I think there are so many non 'english' names in england (and the rest if the uk) now that people are used to asking for clarification on spelling and used to having to spell out their names. I say use whatever name you love.

What is biffy?

Even with OP's phonetic spelling I can't work out how to say it.

I have a niece called Aoibh, it looks lovely on paper and sounds lovely when said.

There are far more complicated Irish names to choose from, try Sabdh for starters. In fact I used to think that they just came up with a beautiful name and then made up the spelling .

I live in Wales also and I don't think using an Irish name would be any problem, but then I don't really see why it would be a problem anywhere in UK.