Ruairidh spelling variations

[Scottishgirl85]

Just discovered our 3rd child is a boy after 2 girls!

Always loved Ruairidh (pronounced roo-ray). I'm Scottish, hubby English, we live in SE England.

Will Ruairidh just cause endless issues or should we be brave and go for it?

There are alternative slightly simpler spellings, such as:

• Ruaridh (Scottish, but not technically correct spelling without the extra i)
• Ruairi (Irish, but we're not Irish).

Please help!

(Note, Rory is a completely different name, not as keen)

Yes, Mhairi is the vocative case, when you're addressing Mairi.

I don't speak Gaelic but I speak Irish well enough and the rules are the same.

And when I say English pronunciation. I mean speakers of English, including those in Scotland. I was at school with a Mhairi (Marry) and my brother had a Mhairi (Varry) in his class in the same school.

I like it.

Here's a Scottish Gaelic clip where they say the name. It is similar to how the OP has written it. learngaelic.scot/litir/daoine.jsp?l=150

I also like the nickname "Roo".

So you might say "I saw (Mairi) Marry in Tesco the other day, and I said to her "Hello (Mhairi) Varry", how are you?"

I don't think you'd say this if speaking English though@HaveringWavering, the name would only change like this if you were speaking Gaelic. Is that what you mean?

Exactly. It's a feature of Gaelic spelling/pronunciation and not transferable to English. All nouns that start with an M will be lenited to a /v/ sound in various situations (more than just the vocative case). Also lots of other consonants (e.g. B, C, D etc etc become Bh, Ch, Dh)

Lots of Gaelic names do the same thing but haven't become names in their own right in English, but Mhairi (Varry) has and that's fair enough.

And when it comes to Leavers assembly and all the gifts they receive when leaving primary school, be prepared for other parents to get the spelling completely wrong on items like water bottles/cups or hoodies....

Dancemom is correct with how the name should be pronounced! I’ve heard some people pronounce it Roo-ah-ree but assume it’s been changed over time from non-gaelic speakers.

Shaking my head at some of the narrow-minded responses on here. If you love the name please go for it. Otherwise we might as well ban Siobhan and Eilidh too just in case some people find it an inconvenience learning how to pronounce the names properly.

I'm not sure about Scottish Gaelic, but it's Roo-a-Ree (or sometimes Roo-ree) with a second r sound in Irish.

forvo.com/word/Ruairí/

One of my DC has a biblical name too... spelt very differently to how it's pronounced. Sorry biblical or not, this can happen with any name.

You condemn him to a lifetime of having to say his name several times then spell it out every single time it's needed. Please don't do that.

I speak as someone with a very Welsh name who has had to do just that all her life. It's wearing.

It's from a place of experience that I say tread with caution on choosing a name like this because I have a Gaelic name for one of my DC. - it has been spelt incorrectly several times over the years, he isn't even in primary school yet! Just be prepared for it, that's all I am saying to the OP...

Should have said, the second r is slender so maybe that's why ridh in Gaelic sounds more like thee?

I had a patient called this a couple of weeks ago, I’ve never seen it before and didn’t get anything like the correct pronunciation. It now has a phonetic spelling next to his name on the record card.

it depends Op how much it will annoy you to keep correcting people.

The hilarious bit is that it's Scottish folk who can't even get it right 🤦🏻

Yes. That's exactly what I mean!

I'm hearing quite a strong "r" sound in the Gaelic language clip that @DancingUnderTheLights posted. No trace of a "th" sound at all to my ears.

Yes, and there's this.

forvo.com/word/Ruairidh/

So not thee everywhere in Scotland maybe?

My father is a native (Scottish) Gaelic speaker land he pronounces it the way dancemom has. I was just putting in my 2 pence worth! I don’t mind the roo-ah-ree pronunciation either. It’s think it’s a lovely Scottish name👍. People tend to have different pronounciations for names too such as Mia can be mee-ya or Meye-ya.

I speak some Gaelic. The word “air” (at) in isolation is often voiced as “eyth”. But in the middle of a word like here it’s much more like English pronounciation.

I was super keen on Rory when we were thinking of a name for ds2. I think it’s a great name - Scottish version or not.

I'm late to answer this, but yes - he is Scottish and living in Scotland (if that matters!) and it's spelled Rhuaridh. I'm not Scottish myself so I just assumed the Rh at the start was normal until I read this thread.

I wonder why they added the 'h' in his case, as if it's not hard enough to to spell as it is!

Ps I would def also choose a Gaelic name that doesn’t lenite. Otherwise you’ll get all the pedants either telling you that you’re not using it correctly (see “a mhairi “ above)

Presumably Ruairidh doesn't?

lenition adds an h after an initial consonant. I don’t think words starting with r lenite (off the top of my head). So yes confused too.

I wish we hadn't called DS Ruaridh (the most common spelling in our part of Scotland - never knowingly met a Ruairidh). It's constantly misspelled and mispronounced. He's 9, hates it, and has on more than one occasion asked to go by his middle name instead. We live in Scotland, it'll be worse in England.