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)

[Bobbins36]

@Scottishgirl85 same background as you ref me scottish, DH english and live SE. Have a Rory - loved the gaelic spelling but didnt want to lumber him with a lifetime of explaining and spelling it out to folk! Also DH would prob spell it wrong endlessly too 😜
Both versions are lovely - but for obvs reasons I do love Rory!

[HaveringWavering]

Out of curiosity I just put "Rhuaridh" into Linked in and it came up with over 20 men using that spelling. (Note also the lack of the second "i")

[HaveringWavering]

Lots of Ruaridhs too, but vast majority are Ruairidh.

[MushroomQueen]

From south east - east Anglia and I had never heard of it - spelling will always be an issue my surname is British and I have to spell it constantly.

[Scottishgirl85]

@2manycats hmmm interesting. Was considering Ruaridh spelling as I feel one less 'i' makes it simpler. To me it's quite an obvious pronunciation once you know about the 'idh' sound (also seen in names like Eilidh). Our daughters are Eira (AY-RA) and Iona so we already have rare, tricky names which makes me think it's ok to continue the theme!... thanks for your experience, really need to think about it!

[Scottishgirl85]

@2manycats meant to ask what region you're in to have Ruaridh as most common spelling?

[EarringsandLipstick]

@Scottishgirl85

@2manycats hmmm interesting. Was considering Ruaridh spelling as I feel one less 'i' makes it simpler. To me it's quite an obvious pronunciation once you know about the 'idh' sound (also seen in names like Eilidh). Our daughters are Eira (AY-RA) and Iona so we already have rare, tricky names which makes me think it's ok to continue the theme!... thanks for your experience, really need to think about it!

They are beautiful names - Ruairidh would work perfectly with your girls' names!

[RightMessUp]

@Scottishgirl85

@Allmarbleslost my phonetic example in my OP wasn't the best. It's like brewery without the b, the only way I've ever heard it.

Um, I pronounce brewery brew-er-ree. I wouldn't have a clue how to say or spell your kids name.

I have a name that people do not know how to spell or pronounce and I can't say it bothers me. I often use my middle name for simplicity but I quite like the fact my name is a bit of a talking point. I'm never offended when people can't say or spell it. I've seen posters on MN who get IRATE when people don't say their kids names correctly (especially if it's the MIL 😅) If you might be one of those people then maybe chose another name

[Scottishgirl85]

Interesting, brewery definitely only has 2 syllables for me in my glaswegian accent. Brew-ry. It's clear regional accents play a big part in all of this!

[DancingUnderTheLights]

Here's a clip from a Scottish gaelic learning site of just the name (better clip than the one I posted earlier). There is a syllable between "roo" and "ree" but it's subtle so I can see why people think it's just two: learngaelic.scot/audio/ff-mp3s/af-ruairidh.mp3

[underneaththeash]

@Scottishgirl85

@2manycats hmmm interesting. Was considering Ruaridh spelling as I feel one less 'i' makes it simpler. To me it's quite an obvious pronunciation once you know about the 'idh' sound (also seen in names like Eilidh). Our daughters are Eira (AY-RA) and Iona so we already have rare, tricky names which makes me think it's ok to continue the theme!... thanks for your experience, really need to think about it!

Again, they’re not that rare and you can at least guess at the pronunciation and gender.

[HaveringWavering]

@Scottishgirl85

Interesting, brewery definitely only has 2 syllables for me in my glaswegian accent. Brew-ry. It's clear regional accents play a big part in all of this!

It has three for me and I grew up only 30 miles from Glasgow!

[DaisyP24]

I'm Scottish... And a teacher who can never spell this name properly 🙈 Ruairi gets my vote

[ditalini]

Ruaridh is an impossible spelling in gaelic, a bit like having a q without a u in english.

Consonants in the middle of a word always have either slender vowels (i or e), or broad vowels (a, o, u) on either side of them. Never a mix.

There's no reason why you should care since it works fine in english bit it's an obvious spelling mistake in the original language.

[LizzieAnt]

@DaisyP24

I'm Scottish... And a teacher who can never spell this name properly 🙈 Ruairi gets my vote

It's Ruairí in Irish to be correct, not Ruairi, so that complicates it a bit maybe.

[2manycats]

We’re in Fife. I work in schools and it’s mainly Ruaridh and Rory that I see, Ruaridh pronounced as either roo-ry or Rory (guaranteeing that the child will be surprised if you get it right on the first go 😅), with the occasional Other Spellings. I think part of the problem for my Ru is that for him it would be easier to accept someone asking “Steven with a V?” than having a name that can’t be spelled phonetically in the language we use. When I was growing up (again, in Fife) any “mhairi”s we had at school were always “marry”.

[SeanChailleach]

Ruaridh is an impossible spelling in gaelic, a bit like having a q without a u in english.

Ruaridh is a compound word so "caol le caol" does not apply in this case.

Rory is a reasonable dialectal pronunciation (and spelling).

[Bobbins36]

@Bubbleguppette

Rory is a different version of the same name I think?

It is. It’s the anglicised form 👍

[Bobbins36]

@2manycats had a Mhairi in school, always thought is was “Varry” - really love that name but the mispronunciation from Scots and others would have driven me mad!

[LizzieAnt]

@SeanChailleach

Ruaridh is an impossible spelling in gaelic, a bit like having a q without a u in english.

Ruaridh is a compound word so "caol le caol" does not apply in this case.

Rory is a reasonable dialectal pronunciation (and spelling).

@SeanChailleach is quite right that compound words are exempt from the caol le caol spelling rule (breithlá, birthday is an example in Irish). However, in this case older spellings of the name Ruairidh/Ruairí mostly do seem to include the first i. Ó Corráin and Maguire list another name, Rudraige/ Ruaraí which they suggest may have become 'confused with Ruaidrí'. Maybe that partially accounts for the variation in spelling? It''s hard to know (Woulfe seems to suggest they're the same name).

I would have considered at least the spelling of Rory to be an anglicisation rather than a dialectal variation?

[ThomasinaLivesHere]

@Scottishgirl85 Did you choose it? What’s your experience been with it?

[Scottishgirl85]

Hi @ThomasinaLivesHere . We chose Ruaridh and are so pleased with the simpler spelling. He's a gorgeous blue eyed, blonde haired 7 month old now, and suits his name so much! We get so many compliments and if someone hasn't heard it before they usually guess it as Rory which isn't too bad. Are you considering it?

[ThomasinaLivesHere]

@Scottishgirl85 Congrats! Good to know it’s worked out well. Yes we’re considering it. We were thinking of that spelling too as it’s the most popular in Scotland it seems.

[soundsys]

@overitall1

Putting aside other people's pronunciation, does anyone actually think about the child learning to spell his name? He will be taught phonics at school, how will he equate what he is taught with how he spells his name? I often feel so sorry for children with names that are spelled completely differently to how they are pronounced. But then both my kids have biblical names...

Um the parents might also teach him how to spell in Gaelic?! Which - oddly enough - has different rules than English?

[inverness123]

Please don’t call him Ruaridh! If you’re going to go with the Gaelic spelling, why would you spell it wrong? To anyone with any Gaelic, this is really jarring because it breaks one of the fundamental rules of spelling in Gaelic - consonant clusters must be surrounded either by broad vowels (a, o, u) or a narrow vowels (e, i), not broad on one side and Gaelic on the other. So if a comes before r, it must be followed by an a, o or u, never an i. (E.g. Ruaradh, Ruarodh and Ruarudh all adhere to the rule even though they’re not correct spellings of the name, but if you have -idh before a condiment, you must have e or i before. )

I think Ruairidh is lovely, but as someone with basic Gaelic, I find Ruaridh really grating as it looks so wrong. Of course he’s not likely to meet that many Gaelic speakers, but if you don’t want the proper spelling I’d just go with Rory rather than using something that looks Gaelic but isn’t.