Irish baby girl names

[Ek3009]

Hi I need some inspiration!

7 weeks to go and no further forward with names 🙈.

Baby girls surname will be Kilpatrick and we both have one Irish parent so want an Irish first name but really struggling to find something that we love.

Any suggestions welcome!

There’s no need to get all upset @MikeUniformMike. Why are you so invested? It seems that you’re (a) not Irish, and (b) not contemplating Irish names for your children. Why do you care so much? Why did you even bother posting on this thread?

If you really thought people could call their kids what they like why have you gone on and on over several posts with lots of reasons why they should stick to whatever you deem to be acceptable?

@User1990232 Why are you so goady? I'm not upset, I just think it is important to like your name.

You don't seem to accept that some names can be really tricky.

I am not planning to name a child something Irish because they would AFAIK have no irish blood. Similarly, I wouldn't give them a French or Japanese or Chinese name. I would probably have ended up giving them a name that was 20 years or more past its peak, even if it was easy to say and spell. Had there been some connection I might have used the name as a mn.

I usually ask if I have no idea how to say a name.

Siun
Aoibhinn
Aisling

Raonaid

You don't seem to accept that some names can be really tricky.

But you always show up on Irish name threads and say a version of this while wringing your hands, @MikeUniformMike, despite not having any skin in the game. Any Irish person who gives their child an Irish name accepts that non-Irish speakers will have to check spelling and pronunciation -- we get that. What we seem to differ on is whether, as a result, the naming of all children should be confined to names easily comprehensible to an English monoglot who has never travelled, lest little Siobhán Ní Cheallaigh grow up with a deep-seated identity crisis because dental receptionists don't know how to pronounce her name.

I have nothing against somebody irish in Ireland, or anywhere else in the world, naming their DD something like Siobhán Ní Cheallaigh.
I'm pointing out that it could be a PITA if people get it wrong.

I do object to people naming their child something like Sorcha and pronouncing it Sawsha, and I'm not keen on anglicised spellings.

I'm neither a monoglot nor english.

I get your point entirely. I don't agree with you but I've had this almost exact discussion with my DH. He is British, he has agreed that we can give our children Irish names but his only condition is that he must be able to pronounce it correctly first time around. He doesn't want his children to have to regularly correct people. This obviously limits our options somewhat but we can compromise!

I just don't think that people should make decisions about their child's name based on the possibility that some people might not recognise thr name or be able to pronounce it properly. Sure it might be a PITA to correct regularly but there are definitely worse things in life.

Thanks @Shayisgreat.
There are worse things and the kid can always change his or her name if they don't like it.

I wish doctors/ doctors' receptionists etc would keep a note of how to pronounce names.

I bring one of my DCs to a clinic every couple of weeks and they unfailingly get her name wrong, and seem embarrassed each time. I don't particularly like having to constantly correct them, and (fake) laugh it off.

Anyway, it's hardly a big issue, and not something I lose any sleep over!

I think that medical and dental receptionists are a bit scary.

orla or Nianh

Names like Órla meaning:
Solas - light (Solas)
Buidh - golden-yellow (Bid or Bee)
Sound:
Aurora (not Irish but lovely)
Honora

No point lovely Irish names going extinct for fear kids will have to tell people how to pronounce it.. I work with plenty of Eastern Europeans with names I couldn't even attempt to say but they tell me it once, maybe twice, and that's it 🤷🏼‍♀️

@SeanCailleach, where are you from? I’ve never come across a pronunciation of Buídh/Buí as anything other than ‘Bwee’.

Mind you, I’ve never come across it used as a name. (Or Yellow, come to think of it...)

Please at the very least don't name the child Buí 😳

How is Sadbh pronounced?

@Heh1991 Sabhdh is pronounced 'sive' to rhyme with 'five' or 'hive'.

I'm pointing out that it could be a PITA if people get it wrong.

Yes, but life is like that. Lots of PITAs. We shrug and survive.

Please let us have 18 storms this year so the weather forecasters will have to try and pronounce Saidhbhín
www.rte.ie/news/weather/2020/0901/1162449-storm-names/

Caoimhe seems to have two pronunciations - in Ireland.

Yes, just two.

It's not like the problems TH causes all over the UK.

@MikeUniformMike

I think that medical and dental receptionists are a bit scary.

Clearly! 🤣

Also I’m not being goady, I just object to the idea that I would be inflicting some kind of cruelty on my child by giving them a beautiful name that reflects their heritage. Mild inconvenience perhaps, but as I said before that arises with a multitude of English names too.

Buidh = gentle, affable, gracious
Buidhe = yellow, tawny, sunburnt, sunny, summer like
Buidheach = thankful, grateful, kindly disposed, gentle, also little, small
Bid would have been the Old Irish pronunciation and like Sam does survive as a name. Bid and Biddy were obviously very popular names hence "old biddy" meaning an old lady.
There is an important ancient poem that begins
Mise Bid Sencaillec Beara
(I am Buidh, an old woman of Beara)
@PizzaTurtle @SionnachRua

Ha ha. You must go to different practices to ones I've been to.

Current one is OK after they needed someone to translate for a patient. My knowledge of that language is weak but it was better than nothing.

Hi

We were originally thinking Cara as a name for our baby daughter who is due any day but I think we have changed our mind!...

We are now thinking Fiadh. What do you think? We are living in Uk!

Has anybody got some Irish name suggestions for a middle name to go with Fiadh please?

Thank you,

You can get the correct pronunciation of Saoirse here for the three main dialects. I don't honestly know if An Rinn pronounces it differently.

www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/Saoirse

You can also search 'saor' and listen to how that is indeed pronounced more like 'sayer' in Munster Irish but still it changes to 'see' when there's an 'i' after the 'ao'.

Listen carefully if you think it's an 'ah' sound at the end - it's not really. Think of how you say the Irish words 'te' and 'le' - they aren't 'tah' and 'lah'. Same applies to all the other names ending in 'e'.