Irish name - Anglicised spelling - help & opinion please!

[rachysetty]

I really love the name Aine, and my Irish mum says it's pronounced Awnyah. Mum in law has been banging on about names spelling and pronunciation difficulties (even though she has suggested a couple of Irish names she likes). Part of me wants to say bugger off, the other part wants to listen as she is a retired teacher. Also my youngest sister's name is Irish and although my mum did partially anglicise it, to an accepted alternative but her name has never quite been pronounced correctly by anyone. The alternative English spelling I have seen is Anya, but that doesn't pronounce as the name I like!!!!! I was thinking of suggesting the spelling either Onya or Awnya. What do people think? ta xx

I agree janine. My Irish family reckon orla is just modern rather than an attempt to anglicise it.

OP - dd and ds both have irish names and are growing up in England. I can honestly say it is not a problem (except for the supply teacher who referred to dd as "miss funny name"). The dcs like their slightly unusual names and teachers cope just fine.

You do have to accept that people will constantly spell Irish names incorrectly, but that is just fine by me, as long as they call them by their correct names.

I'd stick the fada on the name on the birth cert but I wouldn't bother with it day to day if I was living in England. It would just throw people.

I wouldn't anglicise it. It's not like it's complicated to spell. I have a very common English name that happens to have a couple of variants so often have to clarify/spell. I don't even think about it.

I've got the sort of name you've got to spell out every single time unless you're in my native country... and I chose a very international name for my own child.

Always having to explain your name gets old fast... so I'd be in the Orla camp.

If you lived in Ireland it would be different, but in the UK I just see a lot of "No, A I, not A N..." etc in her future.

Unless you have a certain accent when Aw la sounds bloody terrible .

Odd that names like Orla (Orlaith? Orlagh?) and Maeve are acceptably Anglicised, but other Irish names absolutely cannot be messed with.

Irish spelling was standardised and updated in the 1940s (iirc). Orla is the modern Irish version of the very old Orfhlaith and its not so old version Orlaith (just as Mairead is the modern Irish version of the very old Mairghread, and its later, not so old version Maighread.)

Neither Orla nor Mairead are anglisiced. Orlaith and Orla are both Irish spellings. Orlaith is more archaic.

There are people who would never use the anglicised Maeve but would plump for Medb (Old Irish as found in Thomas Kinsella's 'Tain') or Maedhbh or Maebh. I know a few who use the latter two spellings and one Medb.

I agree Awla sounds terrible.

Thanks math. Sick of being told Orla is anglicised - it's suggested as a fallback on every irish name thread on here. "For an irish name that's not too Irish "