Éala

[jasminesunflower]

I just noticed that this name is new to the top 100 in Ireland and I know next to nothing about it.

How is it pronounced? Where does it suddenly come from?

Would it be EH-la or AY-la or EE-la?

I guess AY-la, like Éabha (AY-va)?

Google says "eala" means "swan" but with the fada (Éala) it doesn't anymore, I suppose?

Ayla

Ay as in Ay, Be, Cee

I always find it quite weird — associations with éalaigh (escape, evade).

I’ve met too baby Éalas lately. I do like it. I take it is made-up rather than a literal meaning I’d anything else.

Think it’s going to head the way of Fia/Fiadh.

See as I don't know the correct pronunciation I would assume it was E-AH-LA.

Yes Ay-la. Lovely name

Six years ago I knew one Aela. (as a travelling teacher I met a lot of children). My sister's friends cousin was also called Aela though it might have been the same girl, I never clarified.
Now it's a super popular name (with many spelling variations)

I would associate it more with swan (I know Eala doesn’t have a fada over the E)

I think it's a bit of a made up one.
Eala means swan and is pronounced ah-la.
Éala does not mean swan and is pronounced Ayla.
I don't know if Éala has a meaning. A lot of people think the name means swan but the pronunciation of Ayla makes a much prettier name. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

It's one of those modern Irish names, chosen by parents who would like to be traditional but are bored with real traditional Irish names so go looking for something else

It's pronounced AY-lah. The first syllable rhymes with 'hay'.

People like the sound.
It reminds me of names like Ailey and Ealish, which seem to be Scottish/Welsh. For some reason all the girls I ever met called Ailey were from extreme hippy families - off-grid, home-schooled, goats in the kitchen.

I'd guess it's an Irish-ised spelling of the name Ayla, which has been used in America since about the 1980s.
www.behindthename.com/name/ayla-3

Ailey and Ealish, which seem to be Scottish/Welsh
@SunnyFog , not Welsh or Scottish

Eilidh and Eilish are scottish,

AFAIK, you won't get the Ay sound in Welsh, but Ei is close.
Eili would be too close to the boy's name Eilir