Aodhán or Aidan

[ImStayingInside]

I have posted before about Irish baby names, but we have whittled down the boys name to Aodhán or Aidan … (we didn’t find out the sex, so could be completely irrelevant if baby is a girl!)
For content, DH is Irish and wants baby to have an Irish name, we live in England and I’m not 100% sure on which spelling to use.
Are we just subjecting the child to a lifetime of spelling his name out?
I am quite settled on the name, it’s just the spelling that is causing me trouble now … any opinions welcome!

Déarbhíle and a Shánnón. Oh Lordy!

How would you say those?

Jar-veel-eh?

Shawn-oohn?

Yeah something like that. Dare-veeluh and shawn-own?

Putting fadas on Shannon seems especially bonkers when it's not even as Gaeilge.

Well Déarbhíle pronounces it Dervla, but yeah, dare-vee-la is the way it reads to me.

Let's not touch shaw-nohn

Spelling aside, Is it possible to actually pronounce it completely correct in different English accents? If the actual sounds in the make aren't easily made by native English speakers, you can't really complain when they anglicise names.

@Receptionclass

Spelling aside, Is it possible to actually pronounce it completely correct in different English accents? If the actual sounds in the make aren't easily made by native English speakers, you can't really complain when they anglicise names.

Aidan? Yeah it’s pretty easy to pronounce.

I prefer sound of Aodhan.
They are each pronounced differently in my part Ireland. However I do think Aidan is English version of the name.

@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry my post obviously refers to Aodhán 🙄

There is a typo however in my post- make instead of name.

Aodhán is easy to pronounce too. Even if someone had trouble saying it as it is said, I’m not sure why that would translate to them anglicising the spelling.

I have an Aodhan and Iove it. We live in England but are from Ulster. We pronounce it Ay dawn but with our accent it can come across as Ay Dun. Yes, it can be difficult for people to recognise or pronounce but once people get used to it there are no issues. My son loves his name and it does not bother him. I am a teacher and teach lots of children with names from around the world. I often have to ask them for help to pronounce their names for the first time, so I really do not understand the obsession with Irish names and highlighting all the difficulties one might experience having one.

I see all sorts of nonsense “Irish” names here in my part of NI. Facebook names are another level.

I just thank the Lord that Americans haven't discovered fadas yet. So far, they only tend to go to town on the GHs.

Shánnón is a character in World of Warcraft, apparently. Who knows what language it is.
Déarbhíle i ndáiríre? I wonder where they got that from.
There is no authoritative source for first names in Irish. Only Ó Corráin and Maguire, which has only a small selection, fewer than a thousand although they say 12,000 were recorded in early sources.

Both Déarbhíle and Shánnón come from a deep desire to be as Irish as possible without actually speaking a word of the language and so as many fadas and silent letters are thrown in as possible. Déarbhíle's daughter has some random consonants in her name but I'd best not post it.

I always think it's really sad when mixed nationality couples end up giving children the father's surname and a name that is clearly from the father's country/language. What about the mother?! I feel strongly that names should reflect both sides of a person's heritage. Ideally two surnames, but if baby is going to have one parent's surname then it should be a first name from the other parent's country/language - or at least something that works in both.

If you were both Irish, or if you lived in Ireland, it would make more sense to use an Irish first name as well as surname. But you're English, and you live in England. I would use a first name with a spelling that both English and Irish people can spell and pronounce. Give an Irish middle name if you want, although baby is already having his father's Irish surname, so if it was me I'd choose a middle name from the mother's side of the family.

@NameChange30 I’m quite happy for baby to have an Irish name and my husband’s surname. I decided to change my name to his when we got married, so wouldn’t really consider giving my maiden name, also my maiden name is a German name, so wouldn’t represent my English heritage anyway and I have no idea where German comes into my family, as I haven’t ever tried to trace it back!
If it’s a boy, baby’s middle name will likely be my brother’s name, which I wouldn’t use for a first name, but think it is sweet as a middle name.
Our choice of girls name is Irish, but with only an Irish spelling, so doesn’t have the same decision to be made about it as our shortlisted boys name, again with an English middle name, but just picked because I think it’s a pretty name.
Choosing potential names for a baby is a much harder job than I realised! Maybe it will look like a completely different name when it’s born and all of this backwards and forwards will be for nothing anyway 🙈