Carys or Iris

[duckoutofwater]

Trying to decide between Carys Hope and Iris Hope for DD1. DS1 is Nathan Luke. Any thoughts?

I much prefer Carys.

I love Iris

Carys, it's lovely.

Carys is great.

Iris is beautiful.

Carys.

Iris is beautiful and we considered it for one of our DC but it is having a bit of a moment. Carys is much less widely used and simply gorgeous.

Carys for sure. My DD is Cerys and I just love the name.

The only thing I will say, I'm in England and I'm surprised at how many people don't know how to pronounce it.

I much prefer Iris, but I'm Welsh and Carys seems a bit old fashioned to me. Are you Welsh/in Wales?

Love both. My youngest daughter has cerys as her middle name so would probably be swayed more to carys

@Twizbe - I actually prefer Cerys I think, but pronounced Kehr-iss, and I read that the right pronunciation is actually Care-iss? Is that what you say? The potential confusion is putting me off sadly.

@Wtfdidwedo - no I'm Scottish, DH is English, and we're in Scotland. Didn't realise it was more old fashioned in Wales, DH is actually worried that Iris is a bit old fashioned.

Iris

Iris is lovely.

@duckoutofwater, Cerys is pronounced Kerris.

Carys and Cerys are still used for baby girls but they are 1950s and 1960s baby names and seem very dated to Welsh speakers.

I don't particularly like either name. It's a bit like the welsh Karen, although the meaning is different.

Iris. I love the meaning of Cerys but I prefer the Latin version: Caritas. But it's really uncommon which doesn't strike me as what you're going for.

There are still a fair few around in my area (South Wales) but it just seems a bit frumpy to me. It had a bit of a resurgence in the early 2000s I think, around the time Catherine Zeta had a Carys. Cerys is much more popular round here and doesn't sound as old to my ears I don't think. I would agree with Mike's (expert of course) assessment of it being a bit Karen.

I'd not use Carys if there's no Welsh connection, otherwise she'll be forever fending off questions about her 'Welsh heritage'.

Iris is a beautiful name and doesn't have such strong regional connotations.

Carys (but also Welsh).
Cerys is Ceris where I come from though.

@HavelockVetinari

I'd not use Carys if there's no Welsh connection, otherwise she'll be forever fending off questions about her 'Welsh heritage'.

Iris is a beautiful name and doesn't have such strong regional connotations.

I'd agree with this. I was born in Wales, but we live in England and I don't sound welsh (moved when I was very young) we get asked a lot about the welsh connection.

We pronounce it Care-is but a lot of people think it's Se-ris

Carys

I don't think you need to be Welsh to use Carys, it's well known enough. I don't know any little ones called Carys but quite a few older (both Welsh and not). I think it's lovely.

Iris is OK, pretty trendy in my area right now though.

We pronounce cerys as mikeuniformmike said kerris. We are on the welsh border and my husbands mum is from wales

Carys

Iris is an unusual and beautiful flower name due for a resurgence. Carys is beautiful too, but unless you have Welsh roots it might be better not to, as she'll always be explaining it! Besides, everyone can pronounce and spell Iris.

The Cerys Cair-is pronunciation is not the usual one, and is very regional. (cf Eleri - it really isn't El-Airy, it is E-Lerry)

I don't think you need to have any welsh connection to use Carys, but Cerys will have spelling and pronunciation issues. Serees being the obvious one. I'd guess people will try to say Cahr-eez for Carys.

I meant the Cair-is pron. is regional accent.

Iris is pretty.