Irish names for a child outside of Gaelic countries

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DH is Irish and I'm British but we live in Asia. Hope you're keeping up!

DH would love to give our pfb an Irish name, but we dont expect that we would ever really move to Ireland and we will realistically stay in either Asia or England for the majority of their childhood. On this basis, neither of us wants to saddle a child with a name that they have to spend their life spelling out or explaining.

For a girl I love Erin and for a boy I love Finn. But DH isn't keen on either of them. Does anyone have any similar ideas?

I do love Fiadh and Ruairi, but these fall into the "will need to be spelt out and explained constantly" and I just can't bring myself to do this. I have a name that requires spelling out constantly and it's been the bane of my life.

Any help greatly appreciated!

How about siobhan? I appreciate that it's not spelt as it sounds, but it's been popular in the UK for so long the majority of people know it's not pronounced sio - bhan

Love Orla

I'm Irish and while Irish names aren't for me personally, I do love seeing them while living in the UK and I agree with not anglicising them. My favourite Irish girls name is Iseult (is-sult) or Maebh and for boys I love Fionn but it means fair in Irish so if your child has dark skin I might avoid just to avoid them being a contradiction in terms for anyone who knows the meaning of the name! Aisling is extremely common in Ireland so is fairly well-pronouced abroad.

For me, Erin is what American "Irish ancestry" people call their child so I'd personally steer clear of that - I don't know a single Irish Erin! Finn is fine, but not Fintan. But then again I have an uncle Fintan who would send shivers down your spine so I'm biased .

I think if you're wanting to avoid needing to spell things out constantly avoid anything with a fada!

Oh definitely agree with not Anglising Irish names. I don't mind Conor or whatever - that's a standard name in Ireland - but Keeva instead of Caoimhe is a travesty.

Erin isn't an Irish name to me, it's a name for Americans who think they're Irish.

Fergus
Cormac
Seamus (think this would be ok to spell in Asia?)
Patrick

Ailish
Oonagh
Ciara
Clodagh

I have a friend from another European country who settled on a name from her home country that was pronounced the way it was spelled, this was a compromise which worked for her. Maybe this would help you?

I have a DGD whose name is Orla. Lots of people say how lovely her name is. It's often spelled that way in Ireland too. Have to a say she's a gorgeous girl or am I just biased??? 😁

I have a fiadh and once you explain the name no one really questions it ruairidh is also our name if we have a boy

If it's a girl just put Fiadh on the birth cert and use Fia while you are in Asia.
Id use Rory not Ruairi

Agree about Erin. It's ok, but it came from America a bit like Paige, which i believe is from the irish for margaret which lost something in the pronunciation over there and came back to us as paige.

I have an Irish name that's hardly used anymore and gave my dc common Irish names easy to spell

To be fair the most common names in Ireland are not the real Irish names. Danny, Anna, Jamie, Lewis, Kayla Kayden etc these are all really popular and not Irish as such

Suggestions:
Paul
Aidan
Owen
Hugh
Darragh

Ellen
Rose

These are names that would work in all part of the world

My dcs have Irish names ( from the list) and we live in France. My dd spent some time in the neo natal ward after her birth and one of the nurses liked her name so much that she gave it to her own ds a year later.

I love Aoife but it’s another spell it name

I just can't bring myself to do this. I have a name that requires spelling out constantly and it's been the bane of my life

Dd3 is Aoife she is currently living in Scandinavia where this name is unknown. She shrugs and tells me. "Well they learn don't they?" Her middle name is Scandinavian and contains a letter that doesn't exist in the English alphabets she is right. People learn and mostly i have found they are perfectly willing to learn.

Agree Erin is not so much an Irish name but more feels like an Irish American name - Éire is Ireland in Irish so Erin feels like its coming from this.

For what it's worth my Irish suggestions are:

Boys - Cormac, Fergal, Liam, Cian, Rian, Cillian, Fionn (although it does refer to fair), Conor, Eoin.

Girls - Tara, Aoife, Ciara, Saoirse, Clodagh, Laoise, Aisling.

We have the same British/ Irish mix and our son is Euan - straightforward enough I thought but no he is often referred to as Evan / Owen / Ian and then the spelling blows people's minds!

We are having a similar dilemma. My OH family is Irish and he really likes Aoife (which i agree is a very pretty name) but i worry about her spending her whole life correcting people calling her 'eh-off' 🙄.

I’m English born with two Irish parents and both my daughters have tricky-ish Irish names. Neither are Aoife but when I was looking at names Aoife was actually relatively common in the UK, as was Niamh and Maebh so any of those would be fine I expect.

There are always ignorant people who don’t see why they should have to respect your “funny foreign name” (looks at in-laws) but I’ve never had issues with anyone else once they know how the names are pronounced apart from people sometimes struggling to hear the “V” sound in a “bh” name.