Aodhla or Éala

[namingnumbertwo]

Hello, we’re trying to decide on a name for baby number two, who is a girl (but not born yet). I increasingly like the sound of Aodhla or Éala (pronounced Ay-la). I know it’s becoming more popular in Ireland, but I can’t find much details about it besides being used more frequently in the last few years. I also wondered if either option is a more accurate spelling?

Other options include Niamh, which feels much like a name people will be familiar with. I really like Niamh but not sure it goes as well with the surname.

I've never heard either but I live in UK (I'm Irish). What do they mean? I think "eala" pronounced "al-la" is swan, but no fada on the e.

I like the look and sound of both, btw

Will you you be living in places where Irish names are known?if not your DD will spend a lot of time explaining how to pronounce or spell the name Aodhla. I’d get used to it though.

@Squicknick

I've never heard either but I live in UK (I'm Irish). What do they mean? I think "eala" pronounced "al-la" is swan, but no fada on the e.

I’m Irish in the UK too! The name was suggested to me by a friend in Ireland, who is a primary school teacher. I wonder if it’s a bit like Fiadh. Wasn’t really a very known Irish name 20 years ago but is now hugely popular.

@Duetorain

Will you you be living in places where Irish names are known?if not your DD will spend a lot of time explaining how to pronounce or spell the name Aodhla. I’d get used to it though.

Do you think Éala would be easier? I’m Irish, husband is English. Live in a pretty multi-cultural part of the UK currently but we’ve both worked abroad in the past and could very easily do again or potentially move to Ireland, so not set on living in one place.

My oldest child has an Irish name that people who don’t speak English as their first language make a much better attempt at pronouncing than most English speakers (English speakers don’t seem to read the letters).

I’ve also got an Irish name that is very old and uncommon but easy enough to pronounce based on spelling - having a different name has been an advantage to me living out of Ireland as it’s so associated with me. But appreciate some might find endless questions about their name annoying.

Éila?
I'm in Ireland and this is the name we'll be using if this baby is a girl ( I'm currently pregnant).
We'll be spelling it Aela.
I'm a teacher and have heard it twice.
Once in a school. Then a teacher from the same school used it for her DD.
I read it in the INTO magazine this month. Spelled Éilla I think.
I hope it's not the next Fiadh! Which is so beautiful everyone uses it now!

I should explain - the INTO magazine is the Irish Teachers' Union magazine so there are photos of children winning prizes etc and that's where I saw the name

The website cso.ie has a name checker where you can put in a name and it will tell you how many babies were called that name in a particular year. You have to individually check for spelling variations though

Im living in Ireland and have never heard of it!

You're going pretty obscure tbh, which is fine, but it may be a total burden for an English child. Constantly having to explain and spell your name is not fun.

I'm not sure why you can't use something similar but easier, like Orla.

I live in Ireland a d have never heard of it - and I'm a midwife with school aged children, so can assure you it isn't overused in this part of the country.

I lived in England with an old fashioned Irish name for many years, and there is no point in using a name with a fada in England Only a small minority of people will ever use it or make any attempt to understand it.

The first one.

I'm Irish, and it's rare enough but I'd still have guessed pronunciation ''ayla''

The second one just seems too insubstantial iykwim.

@Wapawapa

Éila? I'm in Ireland and this is the name we'll be using if this baby is a girl ( I'm currently pregnant). We'll be spelling it Aela. I'm a teacher and have heard it twice. Once in a school. Then a teacher from the same school used it for her DD. I read it in the INTO magazine this month. Spelled Éilla I think. I hope it's not the next Fiadh! Which is so beautiful everyone uses it now!

If you really want to use the name "Ayla" but spell it in an Irish or non-phonetic way then I suggest you use one of the suggestions in this post because they're much easier to guess the pronunciation of than your original two options

I think Eila is lovely!

I think pronunciation/spelling will be fine once you've told someone once, and I say that as an English person living in England

Éala is similar to éalú "escape".
Eala means "swan".

The spelling Aela that @Wapawapa says she will use is my favourite. It gets the pronunciation you want in Irish and might get some correct guesses in English.

I'm in Ireland and have never met an Aodhla or Éala, but I checked the CSO and you're right OP - people have used these names the past 3-4 years at least. Quite rare and the Éala version is the more popular here with between 10 to 28 baby girls given the name in the 2017 -2020 records. (For reference 28 was in 180th position on babyname lists.) Fewer than 3 in 2016 or earlier (they don't give exact numbers between 0 - 2, just say less than 3). Aodhla was given to between 3 and 8 babies over the past 4 years.

As regards accurate spellings, I don't know. I think these are new names, so have no traditional spelling. Aodh is a very old male name but the traditional feminine forms (which aren't really used today) are Aodhnait and Aodhamair. Éala reminds me of eala and ealú as pp have said, but the pronunciation of the name is obvious from either spelling if you speak Irish. It would be more complicated in the UK I would think.

I know an Áilís (Ayleesh) which has has similar first syllable sound. It's a form of Elizabeth but, again, I think you'd have issues with spelling/pronunciation. I like Niamh too.

*éalú

Sorry, hadn't noticed Wapawapa had already given a link to that information.

Thanks everyone. Yes, I had checked the CSO and Éala seems the most commonly used spelling (with Aodhla, Aela and Éila etc much less used). It looks like Queen Medb’s sister was Éile, so maybe it is from that.

@ElspethFlashman I constantly have to spell and explain my name outside of Ireland. But it’s never been an issue for me. In fact I feel like my name has been an advantage to me, because it memorable which is very useful in the industry I work in. I’ve also never had any issues with people not being able to pronounce it once I’ve told them. In contrast, my husband has a name that’s very normal in England (think a British king’s type name). But it has been mispronounced all over the world, from Brazil to Spain to Sweden. I lean towards names being easy to say across various cultures over easy to spell for one language.

Orla is a lovely name but I have yet to meet an English person who can say it correctly (although fine in Scotland, thanks to that rhotic accent)!

@Roonilwazlib1 and thanks for this! I agree- I work in the UK with people from all over the world and they often have very different names than what you’d traditionally hear in the UK, but no one seems to have a problem pronouncing their name once they’ve been told it

Sounds like a beautiful name. There has been a real explosion of irish names recently , my neighbours here in Ireland called their son luan and I know another couple who used dabhi (davy) . Even among irish in the UK irish names are becoming very popular again.

OP I don’t know. I think English speakers just need to get used to Amy name.

I've never heard of this name before but I'd know how to pronounce it. Aodhla looks more correct, I'd just assume a female version of Aodh that I hadn't come across before.

There seem to be a lot of new-fangled Irish names on the scene. I wonder if the parents of all the new Fiadhs knew it was quite so popular. I'm picturing Junior Infants in all the primary school in a couple of years time being wall to wall Fiadhs!

Niamh is fine but it's a bit dull. It must have been a Top 10 name in Ireland for the past 45 years! And even though it's more commonly known in the UK I bet not as much as you might guess. A little Niamh in England is likely to be called Nymph or Nimee or lots of other things too on a regular basis! Basically, what I'm saying is don't pick Niamh because you think it might be 'easier'.

It looks like Queen Medb’s sister was Éile, so maybe it is from that.

Ah right. Sorry, didn't make that connection - I've previously only seen Queen Medb's sister written as Eile without a fada.
The name of the town Thurlas is from Dúrlas Éile, I never thought about it before but a quick google shows that Éile was a territory in the Offaly region. Croghan Hill in Offaly is Brí Éile and is associated with an 'otherworldly woman or goddess', Éile (of whom I had never heard I'm sorry to say). The place has an interesting history.

I do love the sound of the name, just not so sure about the spelling. I'd probably go for the original Éile and would wonder if it would be misread as Elle or Ellie especially in the UK. Also, I'd pronounce the second syllable a bit differently, more Ay-leh than Ayla, if it comes from Éile.

Hi, our daughter is Éalla, pronounced Ayla. She was born in September 2019. We had never heard or seen the Irish version before apart from on one website where or suggested or could be used as a version of Ellen. That was good enough for me. I wanted to name her after my granny. We used the extra L as we thought everyone would think she was "swan" Éala. Since she was born we've heard it used a few times. My brother is a gaelscoil teacher in Dublin and he's also seen it since so it's definitely becoming more popular. People do still call her Ella though so she will probably be correcting the pronunciation for her whole life. We have a Caoimhe too so my family in England had to get voice notes to give them the pronunciation.

Would the English pronounce Éala correctly though, if they're not handling Orla right? I don't love it to tell you the truth OP. Feels a bit nothing-y. And it also feels like just a spin on the blandness of Ella/Ellie.

Btw, JI in Dublin classrooms is wall to wall Fiadhs already