Irish names for English babies

[harrietm87]

Hello. Not pregnant (yet!) but would love to give my future babes Irish names. I'm Irish, DH English. We live in a multicultural bit of London. Interested to hear people's favourite Irish names and opinions on how traditional/obscure it's possible to go without being accused of child abuse! (Guessing Sean is ok, Feidhlimidh not...). For context I love Ruaidhri, Seamus, Siofra and Ailbhe (but so many good options!)

Patrick
Dara
Diarmuid
Sean/Shawn
Fergal
Aidan
Niall
Brendan
Cormac

Aileen
Siobhan
Teresa
Dervla

Sorry, not so good at girls names

Declan
Liam
Conon
Fergal

Niamh
Orla
Caitriona
Fiona

Conor*

We're planning on calling our little girl (due in March) Ailish.

Before we decided this we were thinking:

Aoife or
Boys names: Fionn,Conor, Ferdia.

I myself have an Irish name and while people struggle and I have to spell it on a daily basis I love it and regularly have people compliment it. For what it's worth people who hear me say my name before they see the spelling seem to have no problems, if they see it written down first they can't seem to get their heads around it even after hearing it many times.

TBH in multicultural cities I'm sure people come across many different spellings of many different names in various languages - not sure why people always give Irish names such stick.

It's only the ones that have silent consonants that people have a problem with.

Not that many other languages with names with silent consonants, to be fair.

We're mad for the silent consonants!

To (mis)quote Braveheart (and ignoring the fact he was Scottish) 'they can take our lives, but they'll never take our silent consonants!'

I have a Bridget :)

Cara - Caraiosa - love that. And cara also means dear/darling in Italian.

Conleth is nice for a boy.

I don't know anyone with Irish-name kids. The trad. spellings R very confusing.

Clodagh
Nualla
Emer

Padraig
Seamus

Maeve
Niamh
Ciara (might get see-ah-rah or key-ah-rah)
Siobhan
Catriona
Sian

Patrick
Aidan
Niall
Sean
Seamus
Declan

These are names that would be fine where I live (not Ireland or England). Some of the others mentioned on this thread would get a look when seen on paper, because they're non-intuitive to non-Irish people and people who don't spend a lot of time around Irish people/Irish names.

Caoimhe should be pronounced queeva not keeva.

I never understand the stick Irish names get on MN.

There are many nationalities living in the UK who after arriving there have children and give their dc names from their home country

A lot of my friends growing up had Irish names (catholic school!) - they're really lovely. Lots of Aoifes, Roisins, Niamhs etc. there were a few mispronunciations but generally none of them have had any big problems through life. I love Irish names. If I ever have a daughter I'd love to call her Niamh. I've also always loved Saoirse.

Caoimhe should Not be pronounced queevabut it probably will be.
I'm not sure non irish people can pronounce it properly!

Caoimhe should definitely be pronounced qwee-va, unless you're from the North in which case Kee-va is more usual.

So much ignorance....................

Qwee-va is wrong ... there's no 'w' sound.

Oh dear. The word 'caoi' which means 'way' is pronounced kwee.

Where are you from that you don't know this?! Have you ever studied Irish? I would have assumed most Irish people would have known it was pronounced kwee-va in the south and kee-va in the north. I'm sorry you weren't aware of this.

But your 'confused' moniker seems rather apt.

To the pp who wanted to use Eilidh but didn't, and others who worry about pronounciation, please don't. My DD is an Eilidh and we live in NZ, where there are very few names like this. Once you tell people how to spell it they never forget, yes she occasionally gets called Edith, and once got called eyelid by a Dr, but she loves her unusual name!

I love Irish names.

My favourite boys is Tadhg and girls is SÍomha

Siobhan
Sinead
Sian
Selina
Fiona

Thanks for the replies! Interesting range of views. For the person who said they find it cringe when people give their kids Irish names - why? Fwiw I have an "English" but very catholic first name and common Irish surname - so while I don't have any silent consonants you can definitely tell from my name that I'm Irish (eg Mary Murphy!)! My children will have my husband's (English) surname and I want them to have part of me in there too. I don't think there's anything cringe about that.

Saying that I don't want to make their lives difficult, so maybe will select from ones that English people are more familiar with/easier spellings. Shame as I love Ailbhe and Alva doesn't seem as nice!

Don't anglicise an Irish name, its the worst of all options. It's taking and butchering..either use it or don't.