Aoife or Orla

[Baby2Sep22]

not long to go and we need to decide between

Aoife Lily
or
Orla ... (please suggest middle names)

Lily is a family name but I don’t think it goes with Orla and their are no other family names we would want to use.

Oh should add - living in the UK!

I will go with Orla as some people in the UK won't be able to pronounce Aoife correctly

If you're in the UK, I would go with Orla. People here can neither pronounce no spell the name Aoife the majority of the time.
I wouldn't put my child through that tbh (or myself because I'd get frustrated having to correct people over and over, spell it out constantly and explain that it's an Irish name and that's why it's spelled and pronounced differently)

nor spell*

I’d say the opposite! English people might initially struggle to get their heads round the spelling (though I think it’s becoming better known), but Eefa sounds basically the same in English and Irish accents.

Orla vs “Awla” though is very different. I hate Orla without the “r” which is how nearly all English people will say it. If you live somewhere with a rhotic accent would be different.

Aoife, it's a much prettier name. And I'm sure people will get the hang of it quickly enough.

Orla will sound like 'All a', and is meh. It is very popular on here, but I can't unsee Oral

Aoife will be misspelt and mispronounced but is ok, but sort of disappears into all the Eva/Ava type names

Agree with @Ifyouknowyouknowyouknow . Orla is a lovely name but I don’t like the ‘Awla’ sound in the English accent (maybe depends what part of UK you are in). I often hear English people referring to Aoife as the most crazily spelled Irish name, but it makes me think that actually quite a lot of people have heard of it, and the different accent doesn’t change the sound of the name. I had the same concerns with ‘Dara’ which I like in Irish accent but not in English accent.

Orla is however lovely, maybe a more consonant-y middle name, e.g, Rose or Maeve.

I have two siblings with Irish names and both have considered changing their names because they're tired of having to explain why they are pronounced and spelled differently from English names. My siblings are in their 20s and 30s and this has been going on since primary school.

Agree that Orla won't be pronounced correctly in England.

But, I think Aoife blends in too much with all of the Eva/Evie/Ava/Ella/Ellie type names so I wouldn't like that either.

Sorry!

This.

DD with an Irish name (complete with fadas) living in UK and gets on fine, people get a bit thrown by it written down but once they hear it spoken they get it, unless they’re particularly rude/ignorant and can’t be bothered to pronounce it properly.

I’d choose Aoife because Orla is super popular!

Agree with points about orla in an English accent. Makes my teeth itch. I have a more difficult Irish name than Aoife and lived in England. No real issues after you told people how to pronounce.

Aoife is a beautiful name but only pronounced correctly in Ireland. I’d go for Orla.

exactly this, I saw the name some months ago on a doggie page on FB I and several people messaged asking how to pronounce it. Bit of a nightmare for a child to carry it IMO.

Aoife is a popular name now, not difficult to comprehend.

if you would go with Aoife why not Orlaith?

Orla - I think it looks and sounds much nicer. As a pp said, Aoife is too similar to the ubiquitous Ella/Eva type names.

You could go with Orla Lilian. Aoife will be a spelling & pronounciation headache. Orla is becoming far more popular in the UK...The new Prince and Princess of Wales have even got a dog called Orla.

get a bit thrown by it written down but once they hear it spoken they get it, unless they’re particularly rude/ignorant and can’t be bothered to pronounce it properly.
Disagree. Some people are neither rude or ignorant but struggle with names especially names that aren't spelt how they sound/sound how they are spelt (in their language)

No real issues after you told people how to pronounce.
Maybe not, but with everyone who hears/sees the name for the first time.

And I'm sure people will get the hang of it quickly enough.
Maybe, but some will struggle. Some won't hear the difference between Órla and Awla.

I have a very simple name that is phonetic in english but is not an english name, , yet it frequently gets misspelled or mispronounced.

I think Aoife will get Aiofe a lot.

I have an Orla and our second choice was Aoife. In the end, it came down to Orla being easier to spell as our surname causes confusion.

I agree that it depends where you are. It really grates on me when I hear Awla or Oarla.

However, Orla is also really popular. We are near Glasgow and there's 2 in DDs class at school and 6 in her drama group!

@Sboncen Im not sure that’s right re Aoife - it’s definitely becoming more well known now. My 11 year old niece (living in Yorkshire) is Niamh and when she was born people didn’t have a clue what her name was, but in the last maybe 5-7 years it’s suddenly become very popular and I’d say a good number of people in England would recognise now. Aoife seems to be going exactly the same way, just a few years behind. It’s like Siobhan was in the 1970s.

Both lovely names I think I'd go with Orla as I happen to know several lovely Orlas ( I'm in Ireland). On the second name thing for the year that is in it would go think of Orla Elizabeth it goes lovely and lily was often a nickname for Elizabeth.

Agree with @Ifyouknowyouknowyouknow . I love both names but imo Orla doesn't sound anywhere near as nice in non-rhotic accents. So depends where you live really.

I have no idea how to pronounce Aoife, couldn't even take a stab at it, which may well be my failing, but it will annoy her her entire life

@Ifyouknowyouknowyouknow , go to the Search field and enter Aiofe if you don't believe me.

FWIW, Niamh wasn't unheard of where I'm from, and it still gets misspelt and mispronounced (Naimh and Neev)

@Ifyouknowyouknowyouknow , in thec1990s there was a popular Sunday night tv programme where the female lead was acted by Niamh Cusack, so probably the name is familiar to more people than you think.

Went to school with a Siobhan in the 1980s and people struggled with her name - shoban, shyvonne, sigh-o-ban...Shivaun, Sibhoan etc