How do you feel about traditional Irish names?

[Jackie1985]

Given my Irish heritage, I'd like give my soon to arrive child a suitable name - such as Aoife. My husband thinks they could cause some later school bullying (think London secondary). Thoughts?

I went to school with four Caolans. I think two of each gender. Every single one of them spelled it differently! But all pronounced Keel-an.

I don't agree that it insults a language or culture to use a name from it but change the spelling & pronunciation. People widely use Joshua & Michael without spelling them יהושע and מיכאל (I imagine no one on MN knows how to say them in Hebrew, too)

It's one thing to use a name that is written in a script that few can read and a language that few know, but I think it's another to change the spelling or pronunciation of names in a language that is learned in school and known and used by people on the neighbouring island as well as many, many people in the UK.

It's one thing to use a name that is written in a script that few can read and a language that few know...

Don't most Jews know Hebrew?

The Jewish population of the UK is about 270,000, as opposed to about 4 million of a population in Ireland, most of whom would have learned Irish in school and would be familiar with Irish names, and plenty of people are familiar with Irish in NI and in the UK too - a few million in the UK. One community is definitely larger than the other.

Way more that 4 million in the UK have no idea how to pronounce Irish names, so by your reckoning we should just adopt English phonics.

The population of NI appears to be under 2 million.

You shouldn't.

It would be interpreted as yet another example of willful British ignorance of Ireland and all things Irish.

The blithe assumption that it would be fine to plough ahead with English phonics would also illustrate British inability to understand why mispronunciation and alteration of Irish names to suit British taste and ignorance constitute an insult to a country that has a good deal of pride in its own native culture, which survived determined and persistent English efforts over many centuries to snuff it out.

If way more than 4 million people in the UK have no idea how to pronounce Irish names then that is shameful. Ireland has a border with the UK after all. Westminster was once the seat of government of both islands. English monarchs ruled over Ireland for 800 years. Why the ignorance? I think Irish people can be forgiven for suspecting that it arises from contempt.

Great post mathanxiety. Says what I feel but more eloquently.

Any native speakers on the thread? I would've thought Caolan would be Kay-lun and Caoileann would be Keelin/Queelin. Don't you need the i to make the ee sound (and then adjust the first vowel after the L accordingly)?

(And yeah, what math said in her last post.)

I like most. Nice sounds, nice meanings.
In London though, I really doubt anybody will be getting picked on for having an Irish name. Even names from much further away just slot in nicely with everybody else. Nearly everywhere is extremely diverse, so won't be anything anybody has never seen before.

The -aoi- does indeed make the long E sound, LivLembler, with the slender vowel after the intervening consonant.

The Caolans I knew who pronounced it Keelan were imo wrong (or their parents were).

I agree, you need the aoi to make the long e sound. Don't get me started on all the Aoibhinns who are called A-veen. Anyone remember 'Aoibhinn bheith I mBinn Éadair'?

I still know big chunks of that poem!
Leaving Cert 1982...

The Aoibheanns annoy me too. Was wondering if it was a dialect thing as I seem to come across more Ayveens () in NI than in Dublin.

Lots of Ayveens in Dublin too I'm afraid.

LC 1987 for me. I loved Irish. Loved the poetry. Loved Stair na Teanga. Loved Stair litríocht. I wish my Irish was still that good.

I think theyre beautiful. The only downside is that they are often mispronounced.

Sorry everyone, I explained myself really badly. Also I made a mistake, I thought Irish originally had it's own script ( I mean different characters) , I see from replies that I'm wrong, and I should know better, my mum is Irish. And the "random collection" bit... What I meant was if you take a word like Qi , from Chinese, it's pronounced chi , so it seems odd to me that whoever decided these things chose to translate it from Chinese characters into
this alphabet by giving it a non phonetic spelling
So unless people already know it's pronounced "chi" , they would miss pronounced it as" kwee".

So apologies for sounding l like I thought Irish was a random collection of letters, I don't. Sorryfor any offence caused.