Irish Boys names

[Cloeycat]

I'm Irish and DP and his family are very English. We've agreed on a nice Irish girls name however I am struggling with a boys name that won't be butchered by the English side of the family.

My favorites at the moment are the following, but any suggestions would be welcome- especially ones that are not considered 'difficult' to people from the UK (obviously I don't find any of them difficult as I grew up with them so struggling with this!)

Fionn
Conor
Liam
Oisin
Sean
Donal

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Hi there - this thread is a little old. [[https://www.mumsnet.com/baby-names/most-popular-irish-baby-names
If you’re looking for an Irish baby name, find inspiration here]]. MNHQ

We're considering some of these so following with interest

I love Oisin and like Fionn and Sean

Suggestions...

Aidan
Ciaran
Cormac
Dara
Declan
Donovan
Fergal
Fergus
Lorcan
Malachy
Niall
Oran
Ronan
Rory
Seamus
Shea
Tiernan
Torin

Dara
Senan
Conall
Cathal

We had the same dilemma, OP, trying to pick Irish names that the English side of the family (mine) could say without mangling them.

We managed it - two of my sons' names are on this thread

Get your DP to say each name, & if he can pronounce them so they sound OK to you, you might be able to narrow down your list.

I love all the names on your list, btw.

Donal
Fergal
Cormac

I love those. They are all names I'd love to give my DS if we had any Irish heritage closer than great-grandparent!

Joseph
Patrick
Michael
Conrad
James
Thomas

Don't worry too much about English family butchering the names - it'll happen no matter what you choose! Within my immediate family we have a Sean, a Seamus and a Cillian, which I would have thought were fairly well known/easy to guess.
They are, with depressing regularity, rechristened Seen, See-mus and Silly-un.

Some of my favorites have been mentioned above (Cathal!) and unfortunately already been ruled out by OH as being too difficult 😢 So really trying to stick with simple ones so I can get my wish off calling my kids Irish names while also pleasing himself.

Senan is quite cool and one I had forgotten about, will add that to my list for sure. Niall and Ronan are both easy and I like them in theory- but there was two mean boys in my class with those names growing up!

Thanks for your help so far guys. Also I'm strongly resisting the urge to pretend to have a particular fondness for something 'impossible' like Aodhgan or Feidhlim so my actual choices suddenly seem much more palatable 😜

If you don't want English people to butcher it it'll have to be pronounced phonetically like it is spelled.

Out of your list I'd say only Oisin is too hard for English people.

I'm English living in Ireland so I've a good idea how these names are supposed to be pronounced and how I would say them if I didn't know any better.

Maybe Sean is too hard sometimes as well.

Cian is v popular for boys in Dublin at the mo. Also Finn. Rory (ruari too hard).

Oisin is gorgeous, pick that!

Cian
Oran ( I prefer the proper spelling of Odhrán but Oran would be easier )
Fionn
Ruairi
Sé
Darragh, although you could spell it Dara I guess.
Séimí

Very few English person are going to get se, seimi, diarmuid, Ruairi or even seamus right. (Sorry no fadas). They're all lovely but they just won't get it right.

My fil is seamus and my rellies can't get it, they can't even get Carmel!!!! You can see a little thoughtful look pass over their face whenever they need to say the names and they have to think how!!!!

I have a friend Aoife who's name English people always get wrong and one called grainne (grainne gets called grainy!!! And Aoife even gets called 'squiggly name'!)

You could have shay so English people can say se.

Yes they have and they try, but it's just so different from the way they would 'naturally' say things they can't get it right.

Some names they can get right that are surprising though, like Siobhan! Maybe coz they didn't see it written down first?

It's like it's going against the wiring in their brain or something!!!!

Where do you live op? If you live in Ireland I wouldn't think it matters for a name that might be a bit hard for some English people. Only if it's a really hard name like Domhnaill or something.

I love Liam (have one myself) and Patrick, I just think they're nice, classic names. Seamus is a good one, of course and I love Oisin. Really beautiful and I've only ever heard of one, so he won't be one of 10 in class at school - I seriously considered it during pregnancy but DSs dad has a difficult surname so I wanted to keep his first name simple.

Currently live in UK but will probably end up back in Ireland at some point in the next 10 years.

Well then how ds will get on in school would be a consideration.

One of my all time favourite irish names is Éanán pronounced like n-nan. I know a girl married to someone called this. You can find a slight variation of it in some name books but over the course of 3 children I have never found it. It's an old name and even here Ireland he says he has never in his life met another one or even met anyone who knew the name. If would of loved to use the name but couldn't. Also love Cuan.

Please use Senan, so gorgeous!