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! :-)

Lovely name.

Your child will hate you. Imagine the poor little sod when he's 5 trying to learn to spell that!

No one will ever get it right and he'll be in for a lifetime of having to spell it out or correct people's pronunciation. Some keyboards won't have the accent so it'll be a massive arseache on forms.

I feel really sorry for kids whose parents saddle them with long pretentious names that no child has a hope anyone ever getting right first time.

I like Oisin. As long as you're prepared to be relaxed about people varying between Uh-sheen/Oh-sheen/Osh-een which are all reasonable attempts at correct pronounciations then I think it's a goer.

Another vote for Oily bear too! Sounds pretentious imo

Why would you even think of this? What is the point in calling him Oliver then spelling it in a way that no-one will understand or remember? What have you gained - for yourselves or for him?

@shreddies

It will be a huge pita for your son for the whole of his life

This.

It always astounds me the amount of people who say ‘yes, go for it’, but they’d never dream of naming their own wains with it.

Yup - pretentious is definitely the word. Poor kid.

I have a Celtic name which is unusual today. Nobody hears it right the first time and they struggle to spell it. My name has four letters. I would shudder at the prospect of a lifetime of spelling out Oilibhear.

@Juliette222

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?

I was going to suggest Oisin. (I'm Irish, living in Ireland).

It's one of my favourite names.

No - just NO! Unless you will be with him all the time though his life to explain, say and spelled it when required. It may be OK in parts of Ireland(?) but he may go to US, Europe or Australia etc for all you know. And they certainly won't have a clue about it.

It's a bit silly.....it looks like Olly Bear. Might be cute when a baby, but he's not going to be a baby forever

I prefer Oisin to Oilibhear. It reads too much like Olly Bear which is not the name a grown man would choose!

I have an Eoin (His dad is Irish and it's a family name and get so many spelling mistakes) People tend to guess Ian to pronounce and often Owen in cards especially from my family. He did a football camp when on holiday in Dublin and was super impressed that everyone got his name right (names on t shirts).

Honestly it's a PITA having to correct everyone so unless your planning to move back I'd choose something easy to spell/ pronounce and have an Irish middle name.

As someone with a name that no one can pronounce or spell (Gaelic), don’t do it

Olly Bear is a gorgeous name! 😆

Irish names are lovely and this one seems unusual. I agree that to a non- Gallic speaker like myself I would be seeing the word bear in there when trying to work out how to pronounce it.

I think if you are willing to ‘put in the work’ of correcting people a lot then go for it but don’t forget that your son will have to do the same.

Speaking as someone with a longish name that is a Scottish variant that most people in England don’t know, I still regularly think in my own head how to spell my own name etc

I would go for Oliver. It’s a lot more well known and everyone will know how to spell it.

Sadly I thought this was a joke I read it as Oily Bear.

@M0rT

I'm Irish so automatically pronounced it as you've written but I have never heard of it and if I was introduced to someone with that name would assume it was supposed to be French. Is it actually a name or have you gaelicised Oliver?

Real name! Several long-standing Gaelscoileanna with that name!

"it can seem like a gaelicisation of Oliver".
There's no seem about it. It IS béarlachas. Oili in irish doesn't even make an olly sound.

Oisín is lovely. Use the fada on the second i though or else it would be ush-in and not ush-een.

@fallfallfall

Sadly I thought this was a joke I read it as Oily Bear.

me too, I thought it was a "mil has nicknamed my baby Oily Bear, AIBU to hate it?" thread.

@Juliette222

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?

Oisin is a beautiful Irish name. There is also a beautiful fable to it. The first name you picked I’ve never heard of.

@Changingtheweather

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

I may be overthinking this

🤣

There are a fair few Olivers/Ollies knocking about Irish primary schools these days. I don’t think Cromwell is the first connection these days. Murs possibly.

How about Cuchulainn