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

I like Aisling. I haven't come across the Dearbhla spelling before, it reminds me of bleurgh.

Dearbhla is lovely. May get turned into 'Dee', do you like that?

I think the thing that bothers me is when people get told 'people will never be able to spell/say that name, so don't bother.' It just seems to me that maybe people could try a wee bit harder and not be so negative. Obviously many Irish names may look odd to people who haven't encountered them, but once you know how it's spelled/pronounced, you know. I mean Catherines/Katherines/Kathryns are always having to spell their names, as are Lynns/Lynnes, Clares/Claires. And they survive! Nobody minds spelling out their name or advising on pronunciation if the other person is polite about it.

I work beside a Greek lady called Ioulia (Yoo-LEE-a). A colleague (who is known for rudeness) phones from another dept asking who to email about a certain issue, the person who takes the call says email Ioulia. The colleague on the other end is saying 'no, no, I can't spell that. Who else can I email?' Person taking the call starts to spell Ioulia's name but is interrupted as rude colleague says 'I'll just email AgentCooper, I can spell that.' So me and Ioulia are just sitting there dumbfounded as the person who took the call tells us what's just happened. Of course, I get an email through from rude colleague which I then need to forward to Ioulia. Extreme example there obviously but so bloody rude and unwilling to try.

I have a name I've had to spell out on every official phonecall my entire adult life. And it's an Irish name - and I live in Ireland. Believe me it gets wearisome, no matter how polite they are.

What's more Im going to be spelling it out literally for the rest of my life. Probably in the bloody nursing home.

What is this thing with the English where learning to pronounce non-Anglo names is such a huge deal? "How do you pronounce your name?" It's literally a two second conversation.

I have an Irish surname that needs to be spelt out all.the.time.

It's purely a personal view but I would go for Dervla in an effort to make life just a little easier.

I wouldn't have known how to pronounce Cian and I am of Anglo/Irish heritage. If you haven't encountered a name before, it's okay not to know how to pronounce or spell it, just ask politely. Here in Scotland there are various spellings of Rory - Ruaridh. Can be tricky.
I have a Welsh friend called Dai who has people all the time asking him how to spell that! He is actually a Dafydd but has given up on that one!

@dementedma dyfed is also a welsh name (spelling might vary) and for some reason i always had trouble with that one. Also some have troubles with Rhodri, another Welsh name although I think that's quite straight forward personally.

I am English and obviously a smart arse because I knew how to pronounce it. I think it is a beautiful name and lovely to say. Having a very usual English name I am shocked at how many English people misspell it. Perhaps it says more about them

"Here in Scotland there are various spellings of Rory - Ruaridh. Can be tricky."

They're not different spellings, they're pronounced differently.

How come there's suggestion after suggestion of changing Irish names to work phonetically in English, but if people do the same to other languages there's uproar over it? Phoebe for instance.

Yikes there is some real old fashioned British imperialism on this thread. Us daft Irish lot with our own language, sheesh aren't we a bit above ourselves eh?

I love Dearbhla, it's lovely.
I have a very Irish name (I'm Irish but living in England for years) and people do struggle with it (actually in Ireland there are two regional variations of pronunciation for my name, one which I hate and the other I love) and I tend to have to spell it out or help with pronunciation but meh there is always something that someone will comment on at first meeting. My cousin has comments because she has red hair, my friend gets "oh are you a basket ball player?" because he is really tall. I think giving a child a gorgeous name that Brits don't get, isn't the worst by a long stretch. I did for a long time, to be fair but recently I've come around to it.

I wear my Irish name with pride in England and push a bit of Irish language into their lives everyday.
Do you yourself have any Irish so you can explain to people why certain letter combinations make specific sounds? That will help when she is first born.

Other ideas
Nuala
Aine
Fionnuala
Éabha
Fraoch
Caoilfhinn
Mairead
Sadhbh

Why would I use Aislinn it's Ash LING

Because as Mathanxiety explains Aislinn is standard Irish spelling, pronounced Ashling. You could spell it Aisling, but the -linn ending gives you the 'ling' sound.

Aislinn is pronounced Ash lynn
Aisling is pronounced Ash ling.
It's not standard to spell Aisling as Aislinn.
Aisling is an Irish word that means "vision" or "dream"

I was going to slink off and hope this thread died but thought better of it - you are absolutely correct OkPedro and I stand corrected.

Pallisers I'm afraid you're wrong there.

Aislinn Is pronounced ASHlynn

Oops sorry, cross post!

Goodness what have i created lol. I just wanted opinions on the name xx

Harper I like it. Have you ideas for a middle name?

The -linn in Aislinn is pronounced the same way that linn is pronounced in 'liom, leat, leis, lei, linn, libh, leo'.

It does indeed mean vision or dream.

Lovely name no matter how you spell it, imo.

But why is 'aith' pronounced 'a' on the end of Orlaith? Isn't 'th' a consonant in Irish then?
It is a consonant but not sounded at the end of a word (think of the name Hannah).
TH at the start or in the middle of a word is pronounced like an H.

@Keira none so far. If we decide on Aisling I was thinking Eilidh, put some Scottish into it as well, bit Dearbhla I'm not sure. Maybe Amanda? Not sure how well that works though xx

I knew a Dearbhla Catherine and a Dearbhla Muireann in university.

Muireann is quite nice xx

math it's not standard that aislinn is pronounced Aisling tho. Any aislinn I've met is called Ash lynn

They shouldn't be..

Dearbhla seems a bit old fashioned to me.