Opinions on an unusual name.

[romdowa]

My self and my oh are ttc at the moment.
During the week I was scrolling through a facebook group and seen a post from a woman with the name faela, I struck up a convo with her and asked the origin of her name. She claimed it was irish /Celtic , being irish myself I knew that it wasnt an irish spelling so I looked into it more.
I eventually came across the irish word faoladh, it was a mythical creature from ancient ossory, an old Provence in Ireland where kilkenny its now.
It turns out it was a type of werewolf that was a protector over the young and old.
My self and my oh have fallen in love with the name for a girl but are aware that it is really unusual. What are other peoples thoughts on here?

I say no, only because I hear Faela as fail-er ie someone who is always failing!

Really dreadful

I really like it. I don’t hear failure at all.

I’m pleased you’re going for the Irish spelling. My DD2 is going to have an Irish name when she’s born in September (DH’s whole family is Irish).

I have a very standard name and people still spell it wrong. I don’t approve of made up spellings for names but you’re not going for the made up version! People will learn to say and spell it.

It’s a lovely name OP. Very pretty.

I enjoy MN but for some reason, children’s names seem to bring out a kind of anger and strong opinions in people

I doubt other kids would make fun/tease your daughter if this was her name...I think people need to give kids abit more credit.

I have an usual name and spelling (it’s a ‘real’ name but is not native to U.K.) I never once got teased or made fun of because of it!! People just used to tell me how nice it is, they still do. I do get asked how to spell it, but again, that’s not exactly a big deal!

@romdowa I think it looks and sounds really pretty and rolls off the tongue, I did instantly think ‘failer’ but I guess that’s not the word is it.. the word is failure which it doesn’t sound like, so this is a non-problem. I used to like Faenia until someone told me it reminded them of fanny or sounded it could be an anatomical word for something to do with female genitalia and it stuck and put me right off 😂 . Your choice is lovely, I’d go for it 👍

I haven't heard of it here in NI but has a similar vibe to other names like Fiadh, Fiachra, Ferdia so I would assume it was Irish. I think it sounds lovely. I like Faye which is Irish for fairy and think Faela is even more feminine.

I like it

@irishprincess I'm from the south and I've never heard of it there either. The young woman I came across on facebook was from the states which explains the english spelling. It's pretty similar to faolán which means little wolf and that's also a name we love for a boy 😅😅😅

It's awful

@edenember oh no!! There is nothing worse than someone turning you right off a name. I had loved the name loughlan until someone else I didnt really like told me they loved it and then I had to reevaluate my taste in names 😅😅😅the good thing about it is , if the child ever decides she doesnt like it , she can always use Fay instead and just use the full version for official purposes.

I think it's lovely, but I believe the correct pronunciation is fwail - ah. That may depend on dialect, but that's how I would pronounce it.

My eldest has a relatively unusual Irish name and has to pronounce it to everyone when outside of Ireland - doesn't bother her at all.

I actually like it. It's easy to pronounce although I'm Irish so that helps. It doesn't sound too unusual yet I've never heard it before if that makes sense.

@Croquemonsieur

Ignore the dimwit Little Englander responses. Some people can’t grasp anything beyond Emma. Having said that, it’s not that nice a legend in Cambrensis, and I agree with a pp that it’s liable to be confused with Féile, which for many of us has connotations of getting drunk aeons since in Thurles and brushing our teeth in cider.

i'm extremely English.... and I like it

@Croquemonsieur

Ignore the dimwit Little Englander responses. Some people can’t grasp anything beyond Emma. Having said that, it’s not that nice a legend in Cambrensis, and I agree with a pp that it’s liable to be confused with Féile, which for many of us has connotations of getting drunk aeons since in Thurles and brushing our teeth in cider.

i'm extremely English.... and I like it

@tinkhasflown I had wondered about this actually but maybe it depends between the provinces or something 🤷‍♀️

@romdowa exactly ☺️

Love it! It sounds beautiful and quite delicate.

@ShadowMane, I didn’t say ‘English people’, I said ‘Little Englanders’ — not at all the same, thankfully.

[quote Croquemonsieur]@ShadowMane, I didn’t say ‘English people’, I said ‘Little Englanders’ — not at all the same, thankfully.[/quote]
I'm not sure of the difference TBH

I like it, and unlike pps I don't really think of the word failure as the endings are different. Much prefer the Irish spelling. If I saw Faela, I'd think it was probably a made up name, and that it looks a bit like something out of a fantasy novel, but if I saw Faoladh, I'd guess it was probably Irish, even if I wouldn't be sure exactly how to pronounce it until hearing it said out loud. Whichever spelling you went with, you'd have to spell it out to people, so may as well go with the traditional spelling.

I think it's really pretty. I have an extremely unusual name and have gotten used to spelling it out over the years, it doesn't bother me.

@ShadowMane I googled for a good definition and found this, which I wasn't expecting:

""Little Englander" was a phrase applied to a wing of theLiberal Partyopposed to expansion of the British Empirein the 19th century, who wanted "England" to extend no farther than the borders of the United Kingdom."

Nowadays people mostly use it to mean someone who thinks England is better than other countries, or who wants everything to be English. In this context, someone who would only want someone to use a standard "English" name for their baby.

Not fussed on the name personally but I gave my two daughters unusual names they don't mind having to spell it or not being able to buy things with their name on they love being unique and both love their names. I am bipolar and named the second Dd after a old movie star who had bipolar before there was effective treatment and thrived and was high functioning my daughter knows this and actually wants to change her middle name to be the same as the actresses middle name.

My Dd love their names.