Irish boys names?

[leighdinglady]

Can anyone recommend Irish boys names that aren't countdown conundrums and can't be easily pronounced by English people?

I quite like Cian (key-inn) but DH doesn't. Something short and sweet

[squoosh]

No it-s fee-yun and its never like Finn.

Except for the Fionns who pronounce it as Finn.

There are lots of them about.

[LiveLongAndProspero]

I don't think there are. Though going on some threads here, some parents will mispell or mispronounce their kids names for one reason or another.

Fionn doesn't make the sound Finn, either in English or Irish. It simply doesn't.

[squoosh]

Well I hate to break it to you but I can think of at least three Fionns, living in Ireland, who pronounces it as Finn.

[LiveLongAndProspero]

Well that's depressing if true.

[missyB1]

Fionn is gorgeous as is Conal.
Conleth hasn't been mentioned yet, that's another nice one.

Cathal unfortunately reminds me of the miserable parish priest from my childhood. His name was Cathal Cassidy.

[MaisieDotes]

It isn't at all depressing. Ireland has regional variations in local dialect and that affects pronunciations of names too.

I have a Fionn. Pronounced Fionn (fyun).

[LiveLongAndProspero]

In no dialect though is a silent O!

[squoosh]

Cathal unfortunately reminds me of the miserable parish priest from my childhood.

Cathal is such a priesty name! So is Senan. A friend of mine has a little Mannix!

[WankersHacksandThieves]

Oh I love Kier

If we are doing Irish then it's Ciar - the original form of Ciaran - with the "an" meaning little.

The anglicisation of Ciaran is Kieran, I've never seen this shortened to Kier.

There is however the scottish name Keir which is unconnected (well it possibly is if you go back far enough)

[LilaBard]

Big fan of Colm/Columba (can also be Colum or Columb)
Cathaoir is also nice and traditional and can be spelled Cahir to make it simpler for non-Irish relatives
Canice (kan-iss) is not too common where I am but also nice
Cathal, Caolán and Cillian all nice common names - again you can spell last 2 Keelan or Killian
Conleth/Conloach
Connor
Cormac

Non-C names I've always been a fan of Oisin, Ruairi (few ways to spell that too), Pádraic, Garrett

[autumnkate]

I love Oisin but no non Irish person can pronounce it! Same with Tadhg which is my favourite. So we have Niall, Finbar and Cormac.

[Chelsea26]

Also I went to school with a Croistoir

[TheweewitchRoz]

Niall
Callum
Conor
Declan (my favourite boys name ever!)
Jarlath
Liam
Cormac

All easily pronounceable in English but beautiful Irish boys names.

Also
Sean
Seamus
Ronan
Cathal

(But I don't like these names!)

[TheweewitchRoz]

And how could I forget Patrick!

[missyB1]

I have a little Patrick and everyone loves his name! 😀

[BandeauSally]

I love the name jarlath but I have a family members with that name and he is a prick.

I also know a little mannix.

[Heratnumber7]

My cousin pronounces Jarlath as it's written. Jar-lath. It's my all time favourite boys name. His nickname is Jarly.