It’s between these three…

[LOISJ]

Husband and I due our first baby end of the year and having a boy 💙

Typically we had decided on a girls name easily 🙄but torn between 3 for our son…
It’s between Finley, Max or Connell.

We both have some Irish heritage but live in the UK. Surname is Mc….

Not sure if we are having a middle name but if so it’s likely to be James.

Any advice?

Max
Conal (spelt like this)

Don't like Finley at all but love Finn.

Finn would work

[quote LOISJ]@whatausername yes I think I that’s the traditional Irish spelling but as we live in England we’d likely spell it the Anglicised way. Same pronunciation though (I think)[/quote]
Conall and Connell are not actually pronounced the same OP, as you can hear in the link below. (I prefer Conall.) Max is good too, but I prefer Finn to Finley.

forvo.com/word/conall/

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. A mix of responses! We don’t like Finn so much assumption is if Finley he’ll have it shortened lot. The good thing about Max is that it’s short and sweet.

@LizzieAnt thank you for that. Definitely going for Connell then rather than Conal. I had no idea it was pronounced CONE-al. I was thinking Connell like the character in Normal People

No, it's definitely not CONE-al!! It's CUN-al

Connell isn't much used as a first name in Ireland tbh, it's too similar to the surname to be popular, I suppose. Conall, or its variant Conal, are used more, but are still fairly rare. (In 2020, for example, Conall was ranked at no.165, Conal at no.324 and Connell at no.496 in boys' babynames.) I'd personally never come across Connell used as a first name until Normal People.

It depends on the surname. Max McSweeney sounds silly, but Max McGuigan is ok

Not keen on Finley or Connell but both ok

Out of the three names I prefer Max but don't think it goes well with a Mc surname. I know a lot of Finleys who have been born in the last couple years so that would put me off, and around here Connells is an estate agent! Don't think I've been much help here!

It depends on the surname. Max McSweeney sounds silly, but Max McGuigan is ok.

Yes, ILoveShula is absolutely right. I never thought about it before, but the Mc part of surnames is pronounced a bit differently depending on the name. It's said fully as 'mac' in names like Mcsweeney, so that doesn't work very well with Max as she said. It's pronounced more as a short 'muh' sound in names like McCarthy or McGuigan (at least where I am in Ireland) so Max works much better then.

Love all three with a preference for Connell and Finley
I like Max but not as a full name, I would choose Maximilian with Nn Max
Agreed that Max Mc is not the best.
Congratulations!

Max is my favourite.

I really like Finley bit it's so popular around here that I would never choose it.