Idris?

[hungrycat101]

Looking for some opinions on the name Idris.

My Mum is Welsh.
My Dad is English.
My boyfriend's family are English.

We live in London. This is our first child.

We both really like the name Idris.

My worry is, will we constantly be explaining that we have a Welsh connection and needing to justify the name choice?

Or am I hormonal and panicking unnecessarily!

Thanks in advance for opinions!

I love it! Sounds perfect for you OP. You might also like Emrys.

I love it too, almost wish I could have another to use the name!!!

Everyone's just going to think you were inspired by Idris Elba. Perceived insufficient Welshness is unlikely to come up.

Love it. My Nan had a brother called Idris. He was a lovely man. I love the name.

Thank you, OP, for prompting me to look this up on Wikipedia

Idris the Dragon

A small, red Welsh dragon who also sings in the choir for a time. Having been hatched from an egg in Ivor's fire, he lives with his wife Olwen and any of their twins, Daian and Blodwen, in the extinct volcano Smoke Hill. As well as singing, he proves useful by cooking fish and chips for the choir using his fiery breath.

Unfortunately, Idris runs into trouble when Smoke Hill goes cold and needs to be kept hot in order to survive. The gasboard provide a temporary furnace, but when that became too expensive (and decimalisation renders the slot-machine inoperable), the only other option for the dragons is a heated cage. Luckily, Mr Dinwiddy is able to provide a solution, and they now live in a geothermally-heated cave under the ground.

We went bowling the other day at the O2 and they had a son called Idris. Didn't appear to be welsh.

My daughter has a very welsh name. We do get asked sometimes (I was born in Swansea but moved when I was a baby!

Personally I love welsh names so go for it.

Hi @hungrycat101 Idris is a lovely name! 😊

Idris is also a name in Arabic so I wouldn’t necessarily assume an Idris was Welsh, especially outside of Wales.

Idris Elba is the strongest association most people have with the name Idris.

I really like Idris. Short and punchy and with a great heritage. The Welshness may be one quarter but behind that your son has many generations of greatgrandparents. Just do the maths. 2 gt grandparents, 4 2xggrandparents, 8 3x grandparents. and that’s only 5 generations.
If people ask just say, Welsh heritage on maternal side. After all as with most ethnic groups in Great Britain there are more people living outside the countries of origin than are currently within GB.

Don't do it unless you want to spend your lives explaining you weren't motivated by your love for the actor. He's a great man but I don't think many people would get the Welsh connetion.

I love it. It's easy for the English relations to pronounce. I don't see why you should ever explain.

My daughter has a very welsh name and we live in England. Not encountered any problems. Idris is a great name, easy to spell and pronounce. Definitely go for it.

Idris is a typically west African boys name and a beautiful one. Most people think of the actor yes but I am sure there are other boys called Idris out there who arent west african or have any connection. Speaking as a person with a name that often gets questioned where it comes from and no particular story. I can tell you that it's never bothered me and I like its uniqueness personally. Do what you feel is right for your child.

It's gaining popularity. Many will think you named him after Mr Elba.

If it helps, it would remind me of the Shadowhunter books as they live in a place named Idris but it would be a fleeting thought, the actor would never cross my mind!
I think it's absolutely beautiful!

I like it, but didn't realise it was Welsh. My first thought like others was of Idris Elba.

I love Idris, but we ended up not going with it because I felt like Idris Elba owned the name (which I know is silly!). We went with Ivor in the end. I do also like Emrys which was suggested by someone above.

@Rhi86 Can you tell me how Emrys is phonetically pronounced?

Is it 'emmrheese'?

I quite like it
What nicknames to people get from Idris?

@VladmirsPoutine ,EM-riss

We know an Idris, never really thought about it before my actually his mum might have Arabic heritage. Lovely name. Cader Idris is beautiful!

I know 2x Idris.
Both Welsh and I only think of it as a Welsh name.
I live in West Wales.
My son has a v.Welsh name and very much has to pronounce often as it looks like it could be pronounced 'Aiden', though the Spelling we have doesnt. Idris is really easy to pronounce and spell so I'd go with it.

@PedantScorner Thank you! I've never come across the name and I admit it's lovely!

I like the name. Good choice.