Lochlann or Gabriel?

[bigshiplittleboat]

Humour me - I’m 38 weeks, think I’m in the v early stages of labour and sat at home bored. We are having a girl, who is almost definitely going to be Seren but could be Enid if she doesn’t look like Seren when she comes out. BUT if they’ve got the sex wrong, Lochlann or Gabriel? I know the usual spelling is Lachlan but we are Irish (well, DH and DD and future DD/S are, we live in Ireland but I’m English), we like it as our house overlooks a lough. But I’ve fallen in love with Gabriel now, and it is December! DD is also a Christmas baby with a Christmas name.

Lochlann is Gaelic for Norway or land of swamps 🙄
most folk will assume you’ve misspelt.

Erin instead of Enid?

I like Enid - if it’s pronounced properly, which it generally won’t be.

I'm intrigued @daisypond how should it be pronounced? Not Ee-nid?

How else can you pronounce Enid? Surely it's Ee - nid?

Seren is lovely, Enid is awful. I wouldn’t want to be lumbered with that name.

Lochlann - great name!

It should be pronounced something like EHneed. It means spirit or life or something rather nice. So Eh, not Ee, and need, not nid. It seems to transform the name.

Lochlan with one 'l' -- it looks strange to me with two. One is standard, isn't it? But can you pronounce it with a slightly soft 'ch', OP? If it becomes 'Lock-lan' with a hard 'ck' sound in the middle, it's a lot less nice.

EHneed

That's roughly how it's pronounced in French, where it's Énide, but not in English. Are you thinking of cognate names in other languages?

In Welsh. The name was transformed when I heard it said by an old Welsh man. It was so different to how I had thought. I think I’ve got it right but can’t swear to it precisely.

Aaah it even looks prettier as Énide

I like Enid.

Of the boys’ names, I prefer Lochlan to Gabriel.