Dearbhla?

[27Harper]

Still shifting through baby names if it's a girl! My DH is Irish and he wants an Irish name if it's a girl, and I think Irish names are lovely anyways so that not a problem for me. How do you feel about this name? We are thinking Aisling and I live that name but just wanting to keep out options open. In case you're not certain in the pronunciation Its Dervla. Thank you! xx

Maude - Exactly.

I'm not keen on the name, not a problem with spelling, I have a Niamh who loves her name.
We live in Scotland too btw and people get it, not always at first, but she's happy to tell them, she's 15 now.

I was considering Niamh is DS had been a girl. I prefer this spelling over Neve because I hate it when people pronounce it 'Nev', unless that was their intention xx

There bloody will be in her own culture

Her "culture" doesn't change how spelling works. There are no silent consonents in Dearbhla.

There bloody will be in her own culture

What the hell does that even mean?

I don't love Dearbhla. It makes me think of a 50 something grumpy rural librarian type. The kind who doesn't like people to actually read the books. I grant you most people in the uk are unlikely to have similar associations, though.
I like Doireann, Muireann, Ciara, Aoife, Niamh, Áine, Caoimhe and Bláthín. But I called my daughter Anna. Because we live in London and I called my son Cian which I so thought was easy to pronounce. But turns out not to be. Combined with our v unusual Punjabi surname, he's in for a lifetime of spelling and explaining his name.

I'm English and I'd struggle with pronunciation at first, probably need to recheck the spelling a few times.
Shouldn't necessarily put you off, it depends how you balance unusual/interesting name that can make you memorable among people with more common names versus constantly having to spell and pronounce your name.

I did guess at the correct pronunciation for Dearbhla, I know a Niamh and a Roisin. If people want to get the name right, if they care, they will. I say this as an English person with the less common English pronunciation of an uncommon name and a Spanish surname (I even have to say the letters to myself as I write it if I get them in the wrong order!). I like unusual names, variety makes life interesting.

I really love Roise (pronounced Rocha) has a fada somewhere but again she will forever have to spell it.

Also like Oonagh (Una) and Aine but do love Dearbhla too.

How do people struggle with Cian? It couldn't be easier!

Cian is pretty simple I wouldn't have thout they would have struggle with it either. Maybe Kian would have been a tad easier but not by much! xx

It's an absolutely beautiful name. I infinitely prefer the softness of Dearbhla over the anglicised version. There is a subtle difference in the pronunciation of the first syllable also, a slight lengthening that sounds like "dare" as opposed to the flatness of "der".

There's some really rude responses to this thread, considering it is not beyond the realms of possibility that a person with some of the names listed could be reading. I'm not one of them, but I do have an unspellable (and apparently unpronounceable in some quarters) name from another Celtic country and I'd rather have any of the Irish names listed here than my own

As it is I live in the UK and by some quirk of fate on our road there are 7 children with Irish names including one or two of the ones that get sniffed at on here sometimes and they all seem to manage!

I can't say I know how to pronounce all Irish names if I see them written down, but I'd say Dearbhla is one of the more recognisable ones. As soon as I saw it in the OP's post, I knew it was "Dervla" and I don't think I've ever seen the Irish spelling before. I think it's nice.

Dearbhla is a bit of an old hick name to me.

Not a fan.

Yeah, I really thought Cian was easy. But we get See-an, Cyan, Key-ANN - even Shaun once...

I really struggled with this too as wanted an Irish name but didn't want the poor child to spend their life pronouncing & spelling name

Settled on Oran as spelt phonetically

I worked with a donnacha in Australia & the poor man was demented as no one could even attempt it

I really don't like it - she'll get dur and durvie as a nn

There are much nicer Irish names -
Nuala
Darcie
Niamh

Beautiful name!

Nuala! 😅

Nuala and Dearbhla are staff room foes. Nuala teaches Home Ec and Dearbhla teaches maths and religion. They both have designs on Mr O'Shaughnessy (Eamon) and will go to any lengths to thwart each other in a bid to win Eamon's affections. Dearbhla started a rumour that Nuala was overly fond of the sherry and wasn't it such a shame, and Nuala put laxatives in Dearbhla's cup a soup.

squoosh.

I don't like the sound of it.

A lovely name when said but it looks liken a hand of scrabble tiles when written down.

Why not go for Aoibhinn or Caoimhe for true Gaelic pronunciation challenges 😬

It really annoys me when English people throw their hands up in horror at the difficulty of Irish names. It just doesn't happen with names from, say, the Indian sub-continent, but Irish names are fair game.

I have to use a diminutive of my name for precisely this reason.

I like Dearbhla but don't think you could with it on a kid growing up in the UK.