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! :-)

Personally I don't like the Darragh spelling as much as the other two.

The girls I knew named Dara spell it that way. There was a sort of a little rash of them in my neighbourhood growing up, in the space of about five years. One of my cousins has a boy named Darragh -- just based on that unrepresentative sample, I suspect the Dara spelling may be more associated with girls.

Yes I think you're right, Darragh looks more masculine. Dara is nice and simple.

Aoibheann and Aoibhinn are massively popular so I would avoid those names .

Feck ! Thread has moved on since, apologies.

I know about 6 Daras between 5 and 7 years of age - all boys.

It's used more for boys, but I know some female ones.

My dad knew a male/female couple both called Dara!

Etain is nice.

I've got an Irish name (as has DSis) and we've only ever had positive reactions, people saying how much they love our names.

My side of the family is Irish, but DP and I love Caoimhe. Interesting to see how his Aussie family react!

DSis and I always say it got us spelling from an early age and made us more assertive, by having to say to strangers "no it's pronounced/spelt..."

I also love Tadhg for a boy, but there is a famous Irish Aussie rules player and all Aussies pronounce his name completely different - less like Tige and more like Tage (soft g).

Really puts me off.

Is this spelling ok? Saibh.....

That would be pronounced Sehv, with a vowel sound like the 'Mai' of Mairead (Mehr-ade)

Etain is nice, and there is a great myth about her.
Irish Mumsnetters, as a Scot, I would pronounce Etain 'Ay-taw-in' or 'Ay-tawwnn' . Is that correct, please?

The E is long so it's E-tane :-)

My DH and I are Irish and living in London - he has an obscure Irish surname which British people really struggle with and he normally just resorts to spelling it out (half the reason I'm sticking with my maiden name as long as I can)

We are planning an Irish name for our jellybean due end October. I love Saoirse which should be pronounceable given Saoirse Ronan's fame! Have to line up a couple of boys names too, possibly Dillon (a bit Welsh maybe)
Going to try buy a book of Irish names on our visit home for Easter weekend for inspiration

www.babynamesofireland.com/

I love Oisin for a boy but my sister in law beat me to it. In Wales it tends to be Dylan :-)

chickieno1 yes it can either be Saibh or Sadhbh but I prefer the first one - lovely name

I've met two Aoibheanns, both of whom pronounce it Ay-veen. One a Dubliner and one from Donegal.

With Étaín is it pronounced EE-tain, or e-TAIN? Or something else? The accent on the i makes me think there's more to it.

There are no fadas/accents on Etain.

I've a book of Irish names and there are fada's over the E and the A. I'll double check with my family if we decide to use it as they are all Irish speakers :-)

A fada over the E and the a would make it "Ay-toyn" or similar.

Etain, pr. ee-tain, is an anglicisation and the most common version of the name, in my experience.

But it's an ancient name so depending on the specific time period or the region you're in there is bound to be a lot of variation with the name.

Aoibhinn is beautiful but agree not pronounced ay-veen
Definitely no fadas in Etain.
If you don't know how to pronounce or spell Irish names you probably shouldn't use them.

Tochmarc Étaíne

Irish names change a lot over the centuries, sometimes fadas get dropped, doesn't mean they're wrong.