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!)

user Alva is a name in its own right. It's not an Irish name "taken and butchered".

Thats a matter of opinion. And the OP didn't see it that way.

It's not a matter of opinion. It's a fact. It's a Scandi name, very common in Sweden and Norway.

I get your point about wanting an Irish name but with a simple spelling!! My partner is Irish and we nick named my bump Seamus as a joke but got very attached to the name!! In the end we had a girl and she got an English name! We were also thinking of Cillian for a boy. Another boy's name I like is Caelan, slightly unusual to an English ear but not too complicated!

I'd love Irish names for future DC's, DH is not as keen. Names I love include:
Oisin
Conal
Evelyn (I know this isn't strictly Irish)
Niamh

I love Fiona if I thought they would be fair haired, but that's very unlikely.

We had several Caolin's in my year at school. Of both genders and every one had a different spelling so that would put me off.

Oh and we're both Irish, living in England with English first names and an incredibly English surname. I always hated my boring first name so am keen for my children to not be saddled with deathly dull names.

It's not a matter of opinion. It's a fact. It's a Scandi name, very common in Sweden and Norway

Thats not how OP was using it, she was clearly stating that she liked names like Ailbhe but would probably spell it in an English way, eg Alva. The fact that the name also happens to be spelled that way somewhere else is neither here nor there.

I don't know what the all the angst is about Irish names in the UK.
Isn't the UK multicultural?
Some of the South East Asian names are tremendously difficult to pronounce and spell to my English speaking ears and eyes.

I love Siobhan, Sinead, Roisin and Caoimhe for a girl.

Dara/Daragh/Daire is a nice unisex name.

Love Oisin for a boy, as well as Tadgh, Seamus (really love Shay or Seami for nicknames) and Cian

I'm Irish (with a very, very Irish name) living in England, married to an English man and a couple of my children have Irish names. I'll tell you this now, no one over here can pronounce Caoimhe.
Whilst Qweeva might be the best way of explaining it to people who don't have Irish, even that isn't quite right.

A few names which go down ok over here seem to be

Siún
Siobhan
Aoife (although the I've heard a lot of E-furrerrrrr)
Rosin
Nuala
Clodagh
Oonagh

Sean
Declan
Dara
Ronan
Eamon
Ciaran
Eoghan
Diarmuid
I think Daithi could work too.

I'd like to use Fidha if we have another girl but I think I might sound like "fear" to English ears.

I would be delighted if my child's name didn't work in Swindon. Just saying.

Having to constantly spell your name is boring and sometimes embarrasing. Mostly children want to fit in and to be the same as their friends. I longed to be called Catherine, or something as equally english.

Sorry but this made me laugh, so your name is Catherine/Katherine/Katharine/Kathryn, is that with a C or a K, an a or an e, and i. or a y. Yes, hell on earth to have a name you need to spell.

Michael or Kevin

johnboy you're definitely confused
I went to school with two Caoimhes. One pronounced it Keeva, her parents were from NI
The other pronounced it Queeva they were from Dublin.
Personally prefer Queeva

Conor
Connel
Fergal
Finbar
Eoin

Arlene
Bridget
Catriona

Shockingly enough, people outside of London are capable of grasping names that are not white bread and one syllable. How bloody insulting

Yes, my London-born son (with not only an Irish first name of the kind deemed 'unpronounceable' by the nay-sayers but with both his parents' Irish surnames) is managing fine at his rural midlands primary school where the teachers and pupils manage to get their heads around names from Asian, African and Eastern European backgrounds on a daily basis.

The people shrieking on about how all children should be called George and Olivia otherwise they don't 'fit in' clearly live in some white middle-class ghetto where the natives are crippled with an inability to listen and repeat a name that may be initially unfamiliar.

I know an Ailish and an Aisling and think they are both really lovely names.

Thanks flying that's good to hear! pluto and user I don't consider alva to be a butchered Irish name because it is a name in its own right, but that's the problem - spelled Alva it doesn't really reflect my Irish heritage at all! It's interesting that some anglicised spellings are more acceptable than others (maybe just to me) eg I feel like Dermot is fine for diarmuid but I would never use Neeve for Niamh.

I suppose the longer an angliscised version has been around the more it's recognised as a legitimate name rather than a lazy spelling.

I have s Cillian - we figured this was an easy one for most English people

He does get Sillian a lot but easy to correct, I did think it would be better known because of Cillian Murphy but do get some looks from people - I just explain it's Irish like me

Not going to avoid s perfectly acceptable name that's part of his heritage because it's unusual on this side of the water!

I have a 9 letter mouth full of an Irish name and admit that I generally use the shortened version for ease and because of this we ruled out some of the harder names

Other names just don't sound right when said by English people e.g.
Cathal

I think an anglicised version of an Irish name is the worse option! Eg killian

I was born (in Ireland) in the early seventies, when I think there must have been a big trend for Irish names (probably a reaction from our mothers having all been called a variant of Mary...) and most of my friends with Irish names have an anglicized version. It's not just lazy spelling, it was probably a soft way to re-introduce the Gaelic names as you were expected to have a saint's name, not a pagan one. My mum's parish priest was NOT impressed with my pagan name.

And even the anglicized version doesn't work in the UK when it's pronounced using Irish sounds - a friend called Emer maintains she is consistently called Emma or E-ma as no-one can pronounce the Irish R

Clodagh
Aine
Emer
Cara
Tara
Deirdre
Etain
Eilis
Una

Ciaran
Cian
Cillian
Eoin
Niall
Liam

None of those are too hard are they??

I'm not sure that all of these simplified spellings are actually anglicisations - like Conor/Conchubhair, Emer/Eimear, Orla/Orlaith etc. I always thought they were part of the Caighdeán Oifigiúl from the mid-century. Anyone know anything about that?

I think an anglicised version of an Irish name is the worse option! Eg killian

I don't mind Killian. I'd say I know equal amounts of Killians and Cillians. And I love the St Killian cheese!

You may be right Maud - remember roll call in school when everyone's name was called out in Irish and there were some weird translations - was Jennifer Siobhan or something? And if you were James it would be switched to Seamus. I don't remember them changing the spelling of Orla to Orlaith though...

My mum's parish priest was NOT impressed with my pagan name.

The priest refused to baptise my brother unless he was given a Christian middle name to go with the pagan Irish first name. My parents had to think of one on the spot