Would it be wrong?

[RebeccaN8]

To give baby a Welsh name if not from Wales?

One name that OH is on board with from our list is a popular Welsh name but having checked the statistics for Northern Ireland there has never been a child with this name which I find strange.

I do like an uncommon name so it's makes me want to go for it if there are no others of this name...another on our list I love is an Irish name which is top 5 which puts me off as my other children have unusual names

It's an easy name to say and it's lovely but I'd worry if would get confused with the boys Fionn

Ffion is a beautiful name, and I think it's well known and easy to pronounce outside of Wales, so I'd go for it.

Disagree with this. While it is a lovely name, it's not at all well known in Ireland and many/most people will need to be told how to pronounce it. Could it also possibly get confused with Fionn/Finn?

@PricklesAndSpikes Fee-On

I think Ffion is fine but Fiadh is going to cause problems with pronunciation and spelling. Without the Irish ancestry to back it up,
I think it's best avoided. There was anIrish name I would have loved to use for DD but, being English and living in England, it would have been a nightmare for spelling and pronunciation every single time she met someone.

[quote Katefoster]@PricklesAndSpikes Fee-On [/quote]
Thanks for that, so it is the same as the Irish Fionn then (unless I've been pronouncing it wrong? ). I think then OP, in Ireland, everyone will just assume it's Fionn rather than Ffion and they will spend their life correcting the spelling.

I think Ffion is an easy name for people to learn but expect a lot of 'fuh fie un' from people initially based on the spelling. A relative called Ffion gets this a lot outside of Wales. So basically expect to have to explain 'it's FEE-on' a lot.

I also think a lot of people will assume Welsh ancestry as Ffion has quite a Welsh feel due to the letter Ff. I have a Welsh name outside of Wales and most people ask the origin and what my Welsh connection is. So expect to be asked that a lot. Also be prepared for some dodgy spellings and pronunciations - I don't mind these but they do bother my Mam so worth thinking in advance about whether these will irritate you. My current workplace is the only one I've ever had where everyone in my team pronounces my name correctly. I used to temp for years, so I've had a lot of workplaces!

General advice to anyone considering using a Welsh name is to double check you've got the spelling and pronunciation right. A lot of websites are dodgy for Welsh names and suggest random Welsh words as names such as torture, snake and wheel. I have actually encountered an Olwyn (wheel) as a misspelling and mispronunciation of Olwen.

Ffion is a beautiful name though, it would be on my list if I there wasn't already one in my family. Friends and family will learn it so if you love it, go for it.

You can hear Ffion pronounced here: www.bbc.co.uk/wales/livinginwales/sites/howdoisay/names/index.shtml?ff

I believe the Irish boy's name Fionn is pronounced Fyun whereas Ffion is Fee-on (on as in the word on rather than un). In Welsh the emphasis is on the penultimate syllable.

There's another thread running that says Fionn is often said as Finn in the north of Ireland (and, yes, usually more like Fyun further south). I also think the names may get confused, as Ffion isn't widely used (at least not in ROI, not sure about NI) and may be unfamiliar to people at first. It is a lovely name though.

There was a politicians wife called Feeyon
I remember thinkingvit was a nice name. Being irish, you'll excuse my lack of any recollection which politician that was!

@PearlyBird

There was a politicians wife called Feeyon I remember thinkingvit was a nice name. Being irish, you'll excuse my lack of any recollection which politician that was!

William Hague. 🙂

I don’t think it’s “wrong”, but it’s one of those things that will inevitably lead to the question “Oh, is your family/is your DH Welsh?”. And when you say not, they may be a little nonplussed. One of my colleagues gave his DD a French name and had this all the time!

(As an aside, I missed the oh so subtle hint that the OP is in NI so my comments about Irish spellings aren't relevant 🤦🏻‍♀️)

Lady Hague is a Ffion.

Ffion will get Fionn a lot in Ireland, I would think.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ffyona_Campbell This thread reminded me of Ffyona Campbell

The Welsh girl’s name Ffion and the Irish boy’s name Fionn are pronounced very differently, but I still think people will be confused..