A sibling for Orla

[stroan]

We live in Scotland, DH is Irish and we would ideally like another Irish name (or at least Scottish/Gaelic/Celtic) for DC #2. Preferably something fairly recognisable in Scotland that we won’t have to correct too often!

Our surname is a bit sing songy - ends in ey with an L in the middle. Something like Eilidh would sound very silly.

Top of the boys list last time was Ruairi and we both still love it. I do worry that we gave DD an easy to spell and pronounce name and that it would be unfair to use a less simple name for a DS.

The only other boys name we both like is Torin.

Definitely don’t like anything very Scottish like Hamish, Angus, Fergus, Mungo!

Names that are out because of other connections:
Oran
Cillian
Patrick
Sean
Seamus
Ronan

Other girls names we liked:
Aisling (but DD says Ash-a-ling which puts me off!)
Maeve
Niamh

Names out because of other connections:
Cara
Aoife
Mirren
Mairead

Any ideas? Or opinions on these names?

Orla is lovely.
Lorcan.
Conor.
Ronan.
Tiernan.

Úna.
Emer.
Siadhbh. (Sive, rhymes with five).
Cora.
Muireann. (Mwir in)

Emmet is a lovely name too after Robert Emmet (Irish rebel of sorts).

@Corcra it's actually spelt Saidhbh - the a comes before the i.
and Saidhbhín is lovely. Sigh-veen

Yes, sorry.. that was a mistake. I love that name.
Saidhbhín is gorgeous.

@NottonightJosepheen Fancy name for a dog lol! Lucky doggy!

-ín (een) at the end of a name means 'little'.
Hence Saidhbhín
Eibhlín
Róisín etc.

So it's like the Italian -ina e.g. piccolina (little one), bambina (little girl/baby girl)

Aileen
Siobhan
Aiobhan
Sinéad

Mairtin
Niall
Ronan
Conall

But I realise you don't want to complicate her life with spellings, but I think living in a multicultural society as I do in London, I'm used to asking for people to spell names. Mine is a very simple name with French origins, but I constantly have to spell that too!

Aiobhan is spelt Aoibheann - sorry, but I'd hate to see anyone pick a name and end up spelling it assways. Don't mean to be picking on people!
But I love that name too - it's pronounced Ee-van

i love maeve

Grania
Cerys (if you don't mind going Welsh)

Not sure if this will attach for me.......

Ok it won't, but it's a meme

^Guide to pronouncing Irish names:

Niamh: Neev
Siobhan: Shiv-awn
Saoirse: Shhhhhhh and then wing it
Tadhg: No idea mate
Caoimhe: Are you making these up?
Daithí: Just say Dave. Call them Dave^

I'd go for Ruairi if it's still you're favourite, I don't think it's hard to spell at all.

Of your girl's names, I like Cara the best. I know it's not Scottish by Miranda goes well with Orla.

Also, I chose a very short name for dd (Arabic spelling of it), but people always spell it in a different way that is more commonly used in the UK. I was delighted to watch a film recently (Southpaw) to discover that the Dad had the name tattooed on his chest with my spelling!
Dd came home one day delighted that they had a substitute teacher come in one day and was writing all their names on the board or something and she made 4 attempts at spelling it and all the kids were shouting - That's wrong Miss and having the craic with the teacher about it. They were 5 at the time, so you'd be surprised how quick people can pick up on spellings.

My two favourites there are Una prounced Oonagh but best spelt the lrish way. Irish for Agnes.
And Doireann..beautiful name
Boys
Cathal..lrish for Charles/ Charlie
Tadhg...( Tieg) lrish for Timothy/ Timmy

Thank you! I love so many of these (esp Roisin, Aine, Oisin, Caiomhe) and if we lived in Ireland would definitely pick one of those.

However, our surname is tricky, 95% of the time people get it completely wrong and I really want a first name that is at least recognised here. I constantly have to correct people who get both my first and surnames wrong and it’s maddening.

I think we cracked it with Orla (easy to spell, difficult to get wrong but definitely Irish) and I’m not sure another name exists that meets all the criteria.

I love Conall from one suggestion - will get DH to say it to me later and check we both pronounce it the same! I have a feeling that while we pronounce it correctly, other people would struggle. I know of one locally who definitely gets conn-al.

Should also have said - Mhairi is one of my favourites but it’s also my sisters name!

Siofra
Clodagh

Some of these use accepted Anglicised spelling but my list for easy-spell Irish names includes:

Girls:

Emer
Una

Unisex:
Dara (fully unisex, used both for boys and girls regularly)

boys:
Declan
Brendan
Patrick
Cormac
Cillian
Rory

Loads more it seems for boys than girls!

@sureyouwill I would previously have agreed with you on “people will get used to the spelling” until I got married and suddenly had to start correcting BOTH my names. And not just once, sometimes the same person gets them wrong until I give up.

The other complication is in how a name is pronounced and there are sometimes subtle differences. We’ve found this even with Orla (Orr-la and Oar-la).

I'm a lifetime spelling out both my names too, but I think you'd be surprised how many people can't spell names. Even if you're Joe Smith, you'll be asked is that Smith with a y or an i.
If you totally love a name, I wouldn't rule it out entirely. Most Irish names have simple pronunciations, but complicated spellings.

Ailsa

Frazer

You'll find with Orla, if you're a Leinster Irish speaker, you'll pronounce it Oarla. If you're Connacht, Munster or Ulster Irish, you'll pronounce it Orla.