Scottish inspiration

[fairytimes]

I have been going over and over lists of Scottish names and I'm really wondering if there's any hidden gems I haven't come across. Husband is Scottish and would like to honour that but he's been absolutely useless when it comes to actually coming up with suggestions.

Could you please share some of your favourite Scottish names? For either gender as we have decided not to find out until the birth so trying to prepare names for both boys and girls.

No middle names decided so far. We really are procrastinating when it comes to this but we have a few months to go.

Other boys names I didn't see listed
Arran
Alexander is fairly common it's often shortened to Saddie
Bruce

Girls names
Elspeth - scottish version of Elizabeth not really used anymore

Sterling Iona

I'm dm to a Catriona and a Finlay
we live in Wales so they also have Welsh middle names

Mairead, sinead and Finlay are Irish names, not Scottish

Finlay is Scottish. Sinead is Irish. Don't know about Mairead.

Hamish is nn for James. Shamus is Irish.

Brodie
Rory (nn for Roderick)
Lorne

Morven (or Morvern)
Ailsa
Fiona

Thank you everyone for the wonderful names! So far we have agreed on liking:

Girls
Elspeth
Iona
Floraidh
Eilidh

Boys
Fraser - DH even came up with Fraser Rowan as a combo. Not sure I'm loving it though

Lachlan
Blair
Rory

Questions: Just to be sure, is it Murray or Moray? And the spelling for the girls name is Mairi right?

Murray is definitely Murray (Moray is pronounced slightly differently and is a place.

Mairi if pronounced mari (bit like Mary but with an I at the end)
The name Mhairi is pounced varrie and very different

OP You are right - Mairi is the name (nominative).

Some people - even is Scotland - do use the spelling Mhairi but that really, really is not grammatically correct in Gaelic.

It's pronounced like Marry, with the stress on the first syllable.
It's the name of the author of the famous Katie Morag picture books: Mairi Hedderwick.

Re Murray/Moray - the place name is Moray and it's also the title of a very famous historical character "The Bonnie Earl of Moray". Murray is a surname. The pronunciation for both is much the same.

Murray/Moray is not used that often as a first name. I've only ever met one person with the name, and he spelled it Murray. Other Scottish mumsnetters might be able to tell you more.

I've just looked at official lists of Scottish baby names for 2019 and there are 2 boys spelled Moray there, and 74 spelled Murray.

If you want to look at the lists yourself:
www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/names/babies-first-names/babies-first-names-2019/list-of-data-tables

Gaelic is an interesting language and it's a shame it's not taught more. I like a decent number of Scots wasn't aware of how the pronunciation of first names can change depending on the grammar (Mairi to Mhairi). It's an interesting feature I haven't come across in another language.

Also Scottish, we have in our family:

Shona
Flora
Jennifer
Kirsty
Mairi
Sorcha
Skye

Haye
Fraser
Denholm
Alexander
Ellis

Annona. Don’t ask me how it’s Scottish but my friend named her baby that and insists it is.

Annona was an ancient Roman goddess.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_(mythology)

Not many Scotish Gaelic female names end in 'a'

Hamish is nn for James. Shamus is Irish.

Seamus (pronounced Shamus but not spelt that way) is the Scottish Gaelic and Irish version of James - common in both Scotland and Ireland. Hamish is the vocative of Seamus - properly (but very rarely) spelt Sheamuis. Hamish is to Seamus as Mhairi is to Mairi. It’s not a proper name from a Gaelic point of view.

Also thank you to the person that sent that link to the statistics on names in Scotland. I have found some interesting gems in the 1970s lists

Ruaridh
Darroch

Fenella
Euna

There's a Murray/Moray in every year group in the school I work in. Very popular round our way as I've met quite a few. All pronounced Murray but spelt both ways.

I just posted something similar to this but it's disappeared.

Ruaridh is another name that is popularly used but not right in terms of Gaelic spelling.
It means red king and the English versions are Rory or Roderick.

Gaelic spelling has a rule that says consonants must be surrounded by vowels of the same type, either broad or slender.
'i' is a slender vowel, so the 'r' needs a slender vowel on both sides to be correct - that is to say, Ruairidh.
Broad vowels are a, e, u

It''s pronounced Roo-ah-ri, approx. But quickly, with the first two syllables flowing from one to the other.

I like Fenella.

For more info on Gaelic spelling, try here:

learngaelic.scot/littlebylittle/sounds/index.jsp#screen6

Darroch is a surname based on the Gaelic for oak tree.

Rory (and some other versions) are very, very popular.

I love Elspeth or Eilidh, or Fraser or Lachlan from your list.
The Gaelic thing is interesting I'm Irish and when I was in Skye kept thinking everything was spelled wrong

Sheena for a girl
I think in Scots Gaelic spelling is Síona or Síochna.

Ruairidh is very popular in the Western Isles. Rory more common on the mainland.

Other Gaelic boys names:

Murdo
Sorley
Seoras
Eachainn
Uisdean
Tormod nn usually Tam
Iain
Callum
Alasdair
Domhnall

I would avoid Moray.

As already pointed out it's pronounced Murray, but I've twice recently heard it pronounced on TV as Maw-RAY and I think that would happen a lot.

Murray is fine though.

MERIDA

Haven't noticed listed

Arran for a boy
Logan (not sure if it's Scottish?)

Rhoda (girl)
Blythe (girl - not sure if Scottish?)
Brahn (boy - not sure if Scottish)

These are just names of kids I've noticed around here (north of Scotland) that haven't noticed been mentioned

Hamish, Isla, Harris - seem to be very popular names

cathy Perhaps you are joking. But if not:

Merida is not Scottish. It was used by Disney in a film about Scotland but that does not make it a Scottish name..

It is also the name of a Spanish (and Mexican) city and a very big Taiwanese-German bike manufacturer.

It's not wrong to use Mhairi instead of Mairi.
In Irish, the convention is to use the nominative form as the "official" name. In Scots Gaelic, the convention is to use the vocative form.
Séamas : A Shéamais
Mairi : A Mhairi