Name to go with Irish named DS

[youarethequarry]

My DS has an Irish name with traditional Irish spelling (the same name as Una Foden from The Saturdays has just picked for her new baby).

Living in England (with Irish DH) the name has caused no issue when spoken aloud but people (understandably) ask how it is pronounced when they see it written down. It doesn't really bother us and we love the name.

We are now expecting DC2 and have no idea what name to pick. I am not against continuing the Irish theme but wanted some other options too. We love Orlaith for girl but that's the only name on the list. Nothing at all for a boy! We don't like royal names (and these really wouldn't fit at all with DS1) but don't mind some of the traditional ones. We rule out anything on the top 10 lists as find them a bit safe.

Any ideas of names that compliment DS1 whether Irish or not?

Thanks!

Floraidh - pronounced florrie

I don't see the difference between Seer sha and Sir sha. Do you mean Sur sha rather try than Sir sha? Agghh I'm so confused!
I'm Irish and to me it's Seer Sha..

I think the name has developed into a much more mainstream item than it used to be since Saoirse Ronan became famous.

LucyBabs -- do you hear a difference between the 'seer' of 'seersucker' and the 'surr' of 'surrender'?

The Seersha pronunciation is more correct, but I think in a northern Ireland accent the long E sound would be more clipped, hence 'Sirsha'.

I like your list of suggestions mathanxiety. You really know your stuff. I know you're Irish but I'm Irish and I don't know this stuff! Did you go to an all Irish school or did you study Irish at university level? I'm always learning things from your posts. I swear, I've learnt more Irish from you than from some of my Irish teachers

I honestly think that the hardline republican link with Saoirse is exaggerated these days - I mean, I think it's now a historical linkage.

My son is Naoise (Neesh-uh) and we live in England. Have never had any particular issues after initially spelling/pronouncing it for people. Aoife going mainstream probably helped people stop trying to yodel the 'aoi' combination.

Surely no one outside a very particular kind of Irish-American would burden their offspring with Macushla? 'Hi, my name's "My Pulse"!'

I'm from Dublin and I don't think Saoirse has an 'Up the 'Ra' connotation there. In NI I can see that it might.

The idea of someone calling their child Macushla is still giving me giggles.

Well, I lived for a time in NI so maybe that's skewing my view. It has also meant that Tadhg is off the table for any potential DS, which is a shame cause I LOVE the name Tadhg.

But I also think Saoirse is almost as naff a name as Machushla, quite apart from the 'Ra connotations. 'Freedom' = boke.

I am blushing very modestly here, Faktis. Weirdly, Irish was my favourite subject in school [teacher's pet emoticon] and I studied it in university as a result.

You should be working for the EU Mathanxiety. Earning 100k a year translating all those boring policy documents in to Irish!

That sounds to me like a fate worse than death .

Declan
Cillian

Bridget