Oonagh, Francesca or Nuala?

[Koalafications]

DH and I are struggling to find girl names that we can both agree on.

What are your thoughts on these three?

I know that Oonagh and Nuala are going to have some challenges with spelling and pronunciation.

Not a fan of any

Prefer Norah to Nuala

This might give you a giggle
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/baby_names/a795278-Non-ugly-Irish-girls-39-names

Aileen is pretty, very popular in the 70's but I don't hear of too many children being called it now. A-leen [as in ABC]

Muireann is also beautiful but I think I like it so much because of the striking actress that played the lead in Braveheart.

That thread is hilarious, the second half is a homage to really ugly names.

Someone describes Gobnait as a 'great name'. What madness is this!!?? Only bettered by someone saying they have a daughter called Macushla (!), surely that's the same as calling your kid 'me darlin'.

DH called me a while back to ask me how to pronounce "Dearbhaile". His gast was flabbered to hear "Der - vlah" and his response was just "but why would you do that to a child".

OP - we're in grave danger in heading off on a tangent for even more Irish names to which I'm not sure you have a particular love for, just one or two. Either way they are often met with derision and bemusement in the UK. As much as I love many Irish names I have chosen not to bestow them on my children for that reason.

Here's my tip. Make a shortlist of say 10 names that you can both live with. One wild card each. Spend 10 weeks calling the bump that name as though the baby is already here. Don't include any friends or family in the exercise or you'll be deluged with opinion.

Trust me, you'll be surprised at the outcome. We had some names that we loved on paper which simply didn't work for us, they weren't comfortable at all when we tried them out.

Not to mention that 'cuisle' is literally 'pulse', isn't it? 'A cuisle mo chroi' is literally 'o pulse of my heart'. Snigger.

Oh dear. So not even 'my darling' but 'pulse' or 'heartbeat'. Doesn't sound quite so poetic in translation!

Thanks TreadSoftly if we could agreed (even vaguely) on 10 names that would be great! I like your idea of calling the bump a name, we don't know whether we are having a boy or girl so we would have to try out the boy and girl names.

I told my Aunt we were considering the name Nuala and she gave me a face over Skype so I don't think she was too keen, she said it wasn't a very nice name for a baby...

Oh well, I asked for opinions and I definitely got them!

If you can't agree on ten names, then each of you needs to come up with a list of 30 or so. This will increase your chance of finding something in common, even if it's just a general trend that might lead you towards a category you could explore.

Even the most diehard refuser to contemplate any more than three names would have to put on his thinking cap to come up with both comedy and realistic names on a list of 30.

You can probably eliminate about two thirds of each list but the aim in starting with such a high number is to actually open your (his) mind to possibilities.

Though Francesca is a perfectly nice name...

Plus in my experience, it's an exercise you'll do once.
PFB will get the name you are most in agreement over
DC2, the next one down if the same gender

Pair each name with your surname also. It's surprising how many have to be knocked off the list simply because they don't work or because you look up the origins of the name and they are dire.

I discounted a number of names because my husband is incapable of using anyone's full name. It's either a shortened version or a madly elongated nonsensical piece of whimsy. Poppy becomes Pops or PopsyWopsy............... not a specific example but very similar treatment