Baby name Oilibhear?

[Juliette222]

Hello!
I wondered what you think of the baby boy name OILIBHÉAR? (pronounced Olly-vare).
We wanted to find an Irish name. I like that it has the friendly nn “Ollie” but an unusual longer name. But keen to hear what others think ….?
Thank you! :-)

Thanks so much for all the posts guys - very helpful comments :)
We are Irish but living in the UK. Very good point it can seem like a gaelicisation of Oliver.

Another name we like is Oisin - I wonder if you also think this will sentence the poor little guy to a lifetime of spelling issues in the UK?

@Juliette222

Oisin is really cute :)

Sorry I also read that as Olly Bear in my head. If you don't live in Ireland he will have an entire lifetime of nobody pronouncing his name correctly (trust me I know).

Oisin is a better choice

Another name we like is Oisin - I wonder if you also think this will sentence the poor little guy to a lifetime of spelling issues in the UK?

Oisin is much much nicer. It's pretty well known outside of Ireland and should not pose too many problems in terms of pronunciation and spelling.

I think that any Gaelic names can be problematic in the UK - I'm Scottish not Irish but remember several Siobhans at school (not sure I've even spelt that correctly!) who spent their time saying Shi-V-ohn not SIO-BANN!
I think some malicious people will say it incorrectly.

I don't know how to say Oisin - is it Wazzin or Oy-sin?

I know enough Gaelic pronunciation to read it as "Oliver", more or less. But it's not an Irish name. It's a Gaelicisation of an English name. If you lived in Ireland, I'd recommend you just give him an actual Irish name. Since you don't, giving him an English name but insisting on inflicting a Gaelicised spelling on everyone just comes off as really wanky.

How is Oisin pronounced? My brain says 0h-sheen but I can lay £20 on that being incorrect 😂

I'm Irish and even I would struggle to spell that. I was able to pronounce it without even thinking about it, but the poor kid will have a lifetime of spelling it out painstakingly for people and probably swith to Oliver on his first day at Uni and never look back.

@OakPine
I think its oh-SHEEN

Oisin is nice. Again, being Irish the pronounciation is blindingly obvious to me. He'll still be spelling it out, but at least it'll be quicker! :)

Not Gaelic but another example of an actually lovely name, but not pronounceable in English...
I'm a big fan of Skye McAlpine, who has a beautiful name herself, but why oh why did she saddle her child with the name Aeneas. Poor kid - we know what his nicknames are going to be.

But with the "oh" said like in orange

I would pronounce it uh-sheen, it's a brilliant name, I think. I heard a little Irish boy being called Ush by his mum as a nickname once, which I also like.

Agree with other Irish people on this thread about the ‘Oliver’ name.

Oisin is lovely and fairly popular in Ireland. I know quite a few little Oisins in London, too. It does have different pronunciations depending on what part of Ireland you’re from, though.

USH-eeen is the more common one.
OSH-een and OH-sheen also used.

Me again. You would think that being Scottish I would know how to pronounce Oisin correctly, and I wasn't being mean saying it like Wazzin or Oy-sin, I just genuinely have no idea how to say it.
Sorry!

Lovely if you're Irish. If you're not, I'd just go for Oliver.

Oh so is the stress on the first syllable then?

To be honest, if you're going to pick any name that has no correlation between spelling and sound, because you don't live where the spelling does make sense, does it matter too much which one you pick. They will all have the same problem, to varying degrees.

The more common Irish names fair better in the UK. But it's like anything. I have some friends with beautiful Lithuanian names, pronounced nothing like they way intended in the UK. But that's how 99% of people pronounce them, because that's how the name is "read" in the UK
They have to correct someone, every day.

Granted, more people will know of Oisin. I didn't know how it was spelt, and my mind said it to rhyme with hoisin. Now I know it's what I've heard as O-Sheen. Even knowing that O-Sheen existed, I didn't realise that was how it was written down.

It honestly depends how much it's going to irritate you having to do this while he's a child, and how much you think it will irritate him for his adult life.

Oisin is a lot better. I considered Roisin when I was having babies.

I'd say it as "OH-sheen" or "OSH-een". Accent very much on the first syllable.

Oisin is much nicer.

In my part of Ireland it’s most commonly OH-sheen with the stress on the first syllable, rather than say the surname O’Shea which is Oh-SHAY @BrightonOrLancaster

Oisín. UH sheeen

Love Oisin
Would worry about Oliver variants in Ireland
Are we going Cromwell or Plunkett?

I may be overthinking this

I love Oisin, DH has vetoed it as it’s one of his friends names