Áine… If we’re not Irish?

[bumpabroad]

My partner and I are expecting a baby girl in the next couple of weeks and are still a long way off giving her a name. I want something quite ‘strong’ sounding and my partner is keen to give her a name that’s associated with (or at least he associates with!) her being born in late spring/early summer as it’s his favourite time of year.

I’ve come across Áine and I really like it. However, as I’ve said in my thread title we are not Irish. My partner has 2 Irish grandparents/great-grandparents and I have some Irish heritage from a few generations back, but that is it. So I was wondering if it would be considered;

a) culturally a bit insensitive
b) just plain weird

to call her Áine? If the general consensus is yes to either/both then I won’t do it… but any other name suggestions would be gratefully received! 😳

I couldn't care less if you're not Irish but I have no idea how to pronounce it. I'm guessing it's not Ayne? If it's not you're setting her up for a lifetime of explaining how to pronounce it to most people.

I'm Irish and I certainly wouldn't find it culturally insensitive or weird! Áine is a lovely name. My only concern would be will people outside Ireland be able to spell or pronounce it, or will she have a lifetime of explaining what a fada is? 😁

People will assume it's a fancy spelling of Anya and that she is eg Polish. But other than that, it's no trickier than Sinead.
It's tricky to get the fada on birth certificates.

I taught and Áine, people did have trouble pronouncing it! She pronounced it An-ya. I don’t think she was Irish, not sure about her family. I think it’s a nice name though, as long as you don’t mind people struggling to spell or pronounce it x

I like the name, but I would definitely expect someone named Áine to be Irish. I think it would be a bit strange if you're not, considering it's an authentic Irish name and not an Anglicised one. It's kind of like Pierre - nice name, but a bit weird if you're not French. If you live in England, I expect it would get mispronounced a lot, too.

Ohh, this is promising! Pronunciation wise I believe it’s ‘Awn-ya’ (so like the start of ‘awning’) rather than an Anya/Onya sound. Hopefully I am correct!

The girl I taught had all sorts of pronunciations from people- On-ya, Ane, Arn-ya. Luckily she wasn’t shy about correcting people. I usually Google names I’m not sure how to pronounce (or words in general, not just names).

Hi OP, as long as your pronounce it properly I think it's brilliant to see non Irish people using Irish names ❤️ I don't see it as inappropriate even if you had zero Irish connections.

Yes, this is my exact worry! Partner thinks it’s not at all odd as his grandfather on one side was Irish and great-grandmother on another side was Irish but I’m not sure that really counts… as you’ve said, I probably wouldn’t call a child Pierre just because I had some distant French relatives!

I’m not as worried about the mispronunciation, I must admit.

As far as I know it is pronounced “Onya”.

It’s a beautiful name but I really would think twice if you’re not living in Ireland or in an area with historical links to Ireland, such as Liverpool where Irish names might be more common. It can’t be much fun having to constantly explain the pronunciation of your name day in day out until the end of time. I wouldn’t want that for my daughter.

I'm Irish and no, it would not be an issue to me. It's a slightly old fashioned name but I really like it. Just in case you are not sure, it's pronounced as Awn-ya, unless you are speaking Ulster Irish, in which case it is more aahhn-ya - Ulster Irish is pretty different to the rest of the country.

Yes I'd say awnya, other friends from different areas would say oynya or occasionally something closer to onya.

I'm Irish and would have no issues with you using it, but I might wonder why you hadn't gone with Anya.

@bumpabroad my only concern would be how you pronounce it, and your follow up post shows that you are spot on! It's a lovely name, and as an Irish person I don't think there are any cultural insensitivities etc to worry about.

I despair at Mumsnet hand-wringing about people's lives being ruined by these awful uncommon names. FFS she'll be fine. I have an insanely unusual name and I can confirm that my life isn't ruined by people mispronouncing it. She may have some people calling her Anya but if you can live with that then I'd say crack on.

The thread moved on as I was posting. I see you already know how to pronounce it. You're sorted then

I think they’re different names, aren’t they? Quite similar pronunciations but different meanings/origins. We really like the idea of Áine being associated with summer/the sun 🙂

Thank you for your comments everyone!

You are correct

I’d expect an Áine to be Irish. If you are in the UK passports don’t contain diacritical marks and these in general aren’t well used in the population as the aren’t used in English. The amount of Esmè threads I’ve seen over the years…

Some people don't bother with the fada, although these days more people will spell correctly with the fada rather than the anglicised version without the fada.

My name has a fada and a lot of people don't use it in emails etc as they are not sure how to do the fada. I always put the fada in myself but I can't get terribly excited if others don't.

Yes, you're correct re. pronunciation.

In my head I'd categorise Aine alongside Orla and Niamh (category being: plain and sensible and slightly boring), two names that have really taken off in the UK recently. So I wouldn't find it too weird to meet a non-Irish Aine.

We pronounce it awnya and it’s actually Anne, if anglicised. It’s maybe a little bit old fashioned

That’s a good point with regards to people just not knowing how to use them. I can access them on my phone and Mac (and they make it very easy), but I have no idea with my Windows computer. If I’m replying to someone, I just tend to copy and paste!

I love it (I’m Irish) but wouldn’t have an issue with someone outside Ireland wanting to use it!

il probably use this name if I have another girl 🙈

I have an Aisling and we live in London anf yeah people struggle with pronouncing it (we get a lot of Ashley, ays ling guesses

doesn’t bother me and it’s nice that nobody else in her nursery has the same name !

I find once you tell people once how to pronounce it they get it :)

I think this is a really good point about names with accents/diacritical marks in general - a lot of English people will just miss them out, and that's got worse in the digital age as its cumbersome to add them if you don't do it often. So if that's going to bother you a lot, maybe avoid.

But back to the OP, I don't think it's culturally insensitive or weird (though I didn't have a clue about the pronunciation before it was explained on this thread)

It's the name of the main character in This Way Up isn't it? So has had some exposure in the UK recently...

@Lipsandlashes I think the Brits just assigned random English names to Irish names that were vaguely similar so Áine isn't really Anne, it's just a crude way they used to translate our names. As in, the names don't come from the same roots etc so I wouldn't really consider Anne to be the same as Áine. Anna/Ánna are Irish names that are closer to Anne.