Thoughts on Irish little star!

[Marrilou]

Hi all, after some thoughts... I have a ten month old baby who has an Irish name (his dad's side of the family are Irish) and have another baby due in April that would ideally like to also give an Irish name to. I love the name Rae for a girl and have come across the name Réiltín (pronounced Rae-elle-teen) which is apparently Irish for little star. I am thinking I'd maybe like to call the baby this as their full name but know them as Rei. What do people think of this? If you saw the name Rei would you pronounce it as Rae/Ray? Does anyone in Ireland know of anyone with the name Réiltín as I can't find much about it on the web. Many thanks!

I’ve never heard it before but I really like it.
I wouldn’t have known how to pronounce it though.

Réiltín is lovely. I've met a couple, but I'm in Ireland so it's not surprising.

Don’t know why people worry about spelling your name throughout life.

I have one of the most common girls names in the western world but because there are numerous variations I have to spell it every single time.

May this be your biggest problem in life.

I think it’s a lovely name. I’m Irish living in the UK. These threads always descend into a debate about it names being “un-pronounceable” but actually sound wise ‘rail-teen’ (as I would say it) is easy to grasp, and Rae is very usable shortened version!

I hope we never only use “names the majority of the world can use and pronounce”. The loss of heritage would be devastating.

It’s not a big deal in a professional world to add a tag line to an email signature explaining how to best “say” your name in multiple languages. Kids are surprisingly accepting. It’s a minority of adults that don’t fancy putting in any extra effort to acknowledge difference.

I like Rei or Rae & would pronounce it Ray , as pp has said why not name your new daughter that & have an Irish ☘️ middle name .

I've not heard this as a name before, but I think it's pretty. And easy to grasp really - I think most people would guess something close to correct, and if not it's pretty easy to link the spelling and the pronunciation. I would also have guessed Rail-teen, like PPs.

It's also a fairly easy one for speakers of European languages other than English, because "ei" is very often "ey" and "í" is often "ee". This would be guessable for an Italian speaker, for example. So I think it travels pretty well.

I'm not Irish but live in London and a lot of my children's schoolmates have Irish names (and not just the ubiquitous Niamh). I haven't heard this name before but would pronounce it pretty much as everyone else said. I also didn't know how to pronounce Medbh and Tadhg before I met them but I learned very quickly.
I think it sounds like a really pretty name and works well with your criteria.
If I saw Rei I think I would pronounce it Ray because it's similar to Rey which would also be Ray.

Thanks v.much for the comments, lots of food for thought!
It's nice to hear that it's known of in Ireland and that some people like it.
Also interesting to hear how people would pronounce 'Rei' - my mind immediately went to 'ray' like the ei sound in 'reign' but my friend also said she thought it was 'rye' like 'ei' sound in height. I suppose it is something that might keep needing to be clarified if I went with that as the general shortening. However, am not too put off by the potential "explaining the weird spelling and pronunciation." My baby who's nearly one is called Tadhg (pronounced Ty-g) which I love so have already swum those waters Also, as a primary school teacher in London I've come across many lovely unusual names from across the world and you only need to be told once or twice before you've got it!

Lovely, easy-to-pronounce name OP (and I’m not even Irish). Go for it. If people persistently get it wrong, that’s on them, not you.

Go for it, it's much nicer than Rae.

Be prepared for misspellings and mispronunciations.
I'd guess people will read it as Ritalin.

Do you live in Ireland and expect your DD to live there forever? Your child will always be explaining the weird spelling and pronounciation.

🤦🏻‍♀️

Who are all these people only on MNs who only know, work, etc with people with English names. I'm an immigrant with a "weird" name, grew up in London. Met plenty of other kids with "weird" names, same at uni & then each new workplace.

I would also pronounce it Rail-CHEEN I think, but I've never actually heard of it! I also have an Ulster accent and my Irish language skills are...shaky

I do prefer it to Rae, which was nice enough, but it got ruined for me by it becoming the new May/Mae/Rose/Grace to stick on the end of Lily or Amelia! I'm not keen.

And, not being English, will be tricky for the child for most of her life, unless she moves to Ireland, where the spelling and pronunciation will be more familiar to people.

No it won't! Do you not know anyone with a African, Indian, Chinese, Swedish, etc etc name?

Just saw you have a Tadhg! Lovely name. You cannot give your dd Rae, if your DS has a lovely, irish name like Tadhg ! If you can cope explaining Tadhg, you can cope explaining Réiltín. Go for it .

I'm Irish - I'd pronounce it Rail teen also.
It's a lovely name. I don't know any in real life but considered using it myself because of its meaning.

In the kindest way possible, Rae-elle-teen sounds like an over the counter medication

I have a name that isn't a mainstream name, and unless you know how to say it, you'll get it wrong. Basically, unless you speak the language, you'll get it wrong.

Every time I meet someone new, they stumble over it, or misspell it, or just call me something else (never anything pretty).
It's a nuisance. If my actual name isn't relevant, I use another name instead.

With celtic names, the vowels will get mixed up. Someone wrote Gaelige on a thread here the other day, Tadhg will be written as Tadgh etc,

I'd probably guess 'Ray', maybe 'Rye', but like any decent human being, I'd ask or if told I'd pronounce it correctly.

English people have managed to get their heads round Sean, Siobhan, etc so they'll manage this.

I have a name that isn't a mainstream name, and unless you know how to say it, you'll get it wrong. Basically, unless you speak the language, you'll get it wrong.

Why is that a big a deal though? There are lots of names in other languages that I can't pronounce or spell initially so I understand it when people have difficulty. However once I'm told I understand it & don't tend to stumble again. I'm not offended by someone stumbling over my name, I'm often told it's lovely.

I like the meaning more than the sound.

@marbellamarc exactly this! When my brother and l were born then our parents got grief about our names. Lovely feedback like “why did you call them that?”. “Why did you give her a boys name” (me). “How do you spell them”?. Roll forward a few decades and our names are fairly common place, mine is on the popular side. I would seek out an unusual name for me child, l wouldn’t want them to be 4th child in the class with that name. My partner and l work in a very multicultural industry and encounter lots of lovely unusual names

Plus your child = your rules.

Exactly. One of my friends has a common English name but people still misspell it.

@marbellamarc, because every single time I meet someone new they get my name wrong.

You can say it doesn't matter, but it matters to me. If I am lucky, they'll say Mrs Surname - always Mrs even when I was a child.

When they get it wrong, it won't be an Amelia/Emilia type mistake, it will be something hideous.

It's not Griselda, but if it was, the wrong versions would be Gridelsa, Gresmerelda, Grimella, Glinda and Gertrude.

It's every doctor's appointment, every dental appointment, every hospital appointment, every optician's appointment, every time I have to go to the police station, job interviews etc. My name gets entered wrongly on things like Change of Address requests and prescriptions.
Oh, and there are people who just insult the name to my face.

If it doesn't happen to you, you won't know what it's like to have your lovely name be said in a way that is ugly to you.

I don't think Reiltin will be as problematic, but from this thread we have had Rae-elle-teen/Rail-teen/Rail-CHEEN pronunciations. Add a few Ryle-tins as well and all the possible typos, and that the accents will usually be omitted, and Réiltín may not find it so easy to live with.

Do you never get any names wrong?
I just don't see it as a big thing. DH has a name like Thomas & is constantly meeting people with the same name. His manager has the same name & 3 of his friends do.

If it doesn't happen to you, you won't know what it's like to have your lovely name be said in a way that is ugly to you.

People often say I can't even say your name or ask me if I've spelt it right?! Yep pretty sure I do. 9.5 x out of 10 its pronounced wrong by a stranger but so what.