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!

It depends on where you're from. Nee-uv would be a bit Munster. Nee-iv would be more Connacht.
I don't think it's the -uv or -iv bit that's the issue though. Lots of people leave it out and simply say Neeve, all one syllable. It sounds incorrect to my ear.

That's because dialects are so different. Just look at what fadas do in ulster vs connacht or munster.
As far as I know fadas do the same in all dialects, they lengthen the vowel sound. The stress on syllables can vary between dialects though. In Munster it's usually on the final syllable. So say, Ciarán in Munster is CiarAWN, but in Galway it's CIARawn.

The sound of the 'á' in the name hasn't changed, but it's stressed differently.

Lots of people leave it out and simply say Neeve, all one syllable. It sounds incorrect to my ear.

Yeah. It sounds wrong to me too. It sounds a bit English to me so an over-anglicisation of the word. We have these kind of half syllables that you don't get in English.

As far as I know fadas do the same in all dialects, they lengthen the vowel sound.

Yes, they do but the sound can be very different. Lá in ulster is laaah but is laaaw in connemara (that's the one I learned). Back when the tellietubbies came out first, there were t-shirts being sold with a picture of La-la and the slogan "Tiocfaidh ár La-la". It wouldn't work in other dialects.

Mind you, fadas sound much more similar in the other dialects. Ulster Irish may be due to the influence of Scots Gaelic?

Do you live in Ireland? Because half of these names are hard to know how to pronounce if you don't live there and aren't familiar with them so for that reason l would go with one of the more well known ones like Niamh or Ciara. Only so your dd won't spend her life telling people how to spell/pronounce her name. Congratulations xx

@OchonAgusOchonO
That's interesting, I didn't know that before.

I absolutely love Orla for a girl and Iarla for a boy, but they both sound awful in an English accent imo - Awwla and Eaala

Yes, DS was nearly Iarla, which I love, but it sounds god-awful in a non-rhotic accent.

@LizzieAnt - That's interesting, I didn't know that before.

I have friends who learned donegal Irish and some of the differences are bizarre. Snámh is pronounced sneew rather than snawve. Subh is sue.

Mind you, I can't really talk. Prátaí in connemara are fataí. And my favorite, rubble for eireaball.

I want a Teletubbies Tiocfaidh ár La-la T-shirt 😆

Yeah, I listen to Donegal Irish and marvel, because it sounds like Martian a lot of the time to me -- lovely Martian, for sure, but it doesn't always code as 'different dialect of language I speak/understand with reasonable competence'.

When my dd was doing the leaving there were lots of videos and memes doing the rounds about the Irish exam. One referred to some fella coming on and making whale noises for the Donegal Irish section

I came across the name Rosaidh today, never heard it before. I'm not Irish - any of you knowledgable people know this name and anything about it - what it means for instance? I couldn't find anything. Is it Irish? Is it a new, made up name?
Thank you.

@ShaNaNaNaNa - I want a Teletubbies Tiocfaidh ár La-la T-shirt 😆

Everybody should have one . Although I'm not sure if there's a hyphen in his name. My teletubby days are long past.

@giletrouge

I came across the name Rosaidh today, never heard it before. I'm not Irish - any of you knowledgable people know this name and anything about it - what it means for instance? I couldn't find anything. Is it Irish? Is it a new, made up name? Thank you.

Sounds like someone wanted to name their kid Rosie but decided to make it 'more Irish' tbh. If that's what it is it's dreadful

Sounds like someone wanted to name their kid Rosie but decided to make it 'more Irish' tbh. If that's what it is it's dreadful

Yes. I'd say you're right. And yes, pretty dreadful.

Roisín is a common Irish name meaning little rose. I think it's beautiful.

@midsomermurderess

Niamh is 2 syllables though isn't it, granted the last soft. But not 'neve'.

Dunno about that, plenty of Niamhs going around Ireland pronouncing it as Neeve. Always hated the Nee-uv pronunciation myself but it's definitely regional.

@OchonAgusOchonO

Sounds like someone wanted to name their kid Rosie but decided to make it 'more Irish' tbh. If that's what it is it's dreadful

Yes. I'd say you're right. And yes, pretty dreadful.

Roisín is a common Irish name meaning little rose. I think it's beautiful.

Agreed, Róisín is a pretty name - and Rosie is a lovely name too! Such a shame it got mangled into... whatever that is.

@SionnachRua - Dunno about that, plenty of Niamhs going around Ireland pronouncing it as Neeve.

It's more 1.5 syllables than 2 though so not neve but more nee-iv, with the iv bit very short. Except in Cork obviously where it's Nee-uuvv.

Sounds like someone wanted to name their kid Rosie but decided to make it 'more Irish' tbh. If that's what it is it's dreadful
Ah. I thought it might be, thank you. I didn't meet the person so I can't ask them for their name origins, but I was a bit surprised at it and how I couldn't find any reference to it online.

I agree, the name Róisín is lovely!
Thanks for your help all.

@SionnachRua
Dunno about that, plenty of Niamhs going around Ireland pronouncing it as Neeve.
Always hated the Nee-uv pronunciation myself but it's definitely regional.

I don't know if you'd get native Irish speakers saying Neeve for Niamh though? Open to correction here, but my understanding was that the Nee-uv pronunciation was truer to the Irish language? I know it's Nee-uv in the Munster and, as far as I know, in the Connacht dialects too - not so sure about Ulster though.

Yeah I guess it could be a Dublin-isation. I know a lot of Niamhs up here who all pronounce it as Neeve, never Nee-uv.

Thanks @mathanxiety - for whatever reason I really like O’s in names, the more the better, so you can imagine how keen I am on Oonagh vs Una. There was a character in the old film What’s Up Doc named Una, pronounced Yuna, and she was dreadful, so that’s what I think of with Una (apologies to Una’s).

@Ritascornershop - I think Úna is really old-fashioned and frumpy whereas Oonagh is cool and hip. Weird, isn't it?

I see Una as an older lady who runs a shop and is quite tense: as you say, Oonagh is very cool and likely wears jeans and wonderful scarves.

Niamh is supposed to be pronounced Nee-uv.

The vowel combination IA should always be pronounced as two separate syllables in Irish. In practice the A is often pronounced as 'uh' (schwa).