What are your thoughts on these more modern Irish names?

[Snowbell99]

These are more recently created names, based on Irish vocabulary words. What are your thoughts on them? Do you like them? Do you consider them to be authentic?

Croía (KREE-a from croí meaning "heart")

Éala (EH-la from "eala" (pronounced slightly differently) meaning "swan")

Cara (from "cara" meaning "friend", this has already been in use since the mid 60s).

Aodha (this is supposed to be from "fire" but it gets mispronounced as AY-da even though the DH should be silent here)

I'd consider Cara (as used in Ireland) more an Italian name really OP. I know it's listed as an Irish name on websites, but as you know cara (friend) in Irish is pronounced differently to the name - corra vs Kaa-ra. I think they have the same root if you go back far enough though.

I'd agree Aodha would be Ay-a - it does sound like an 'a' was randomly added on to the name Aodh to make it feminine?

Croía also sounds a bit made-up to me, but there may be an older name from which it's derived. I'm not completely sure, just suspicious

There was an Éle (modern form Éile) who was a sister of the famous queen of Connacht, Medb. I guess Éala is a form of that name. I'd pronounce it Ay-leh I think.

Thank you for your answer :)

Unfortunatley Cara is not used in Italy as a name. I have several Italian friends and asked them about this. It's an Italian word. It means "dear". So if you wrote a letter to someone in Italian instead of "Dear Mary" you would say "Cara Mary". So that leaves the name without a proper meaning as a name, I suppose? Even though it was inspired by the Irish word. The same with Carina which means "cute/pretty" and isn't used as a name in Italy.

Yes, I think that is where Aodha comes from as well. People liked the meaning and tried to make it feminine probably inspired by Ada though it's pronounced differently.

Yes Croía was made up by a celebrity but I never heard of him. Maybe it existed before? It is rising like crazy so people seem to love it.

Oh that is interesting I would like it more if it had more meaning behind it, I will research Éle.

I have a feeling Cara might have been inspired by the Italian word rather than the Irish one even if isn't used as a name there, but I'm just guessing really. As you say, it's been used as a name in Ireland since the 60's at least.

I remember Éala came up on Mumsnet a few months ago. I hadn't heard of it before, but there was a bit of discussion about it then.