Think very hard about giving your baby an Irish name unless you live in Ireland!

[sunnydelight]

DD is called Aoife. I am Irish and my mum died when I was pregnant so giving her an Irish name seemed very important to me even though I was living in the UK (as well as giving her her grandmother's name as a middle name). Five years later I want to scream. No, she is not called EeTHa, or A-o-fie. I have a smile permanently pasted to my face explaining that of course I wouldn't expect anyone to know how to spell or pronounce such a strange name, but it is pronounced Ee-fa. I even write it phonetically in brackets when I fill in forms now. I remind her swimming teacher (with a smile on my face) every week, ditto the guy who runs the gym club. I am glad that I am not allowed to watch her ballet class so I don't have to listen to what they call her. We have just had a friend around (first Aussie playdate so every excited) and her friend's mum called her EeTHa throughout. I have already explained how to pronounce it so resorted to the usual "mirror it back the correct way" every time. No deal. Don't do it to your babies, please don't do it

My DD name is Phoebe. You would think after friends everyone would know how to spell it but no she gets Febee or phebe. Drives me mad!

I decided to give DD1 an irish name as parents are irish. Dh and I decided on Caoimhe (pronounced Keeva)but then we gave it the anglicized spelling so people wouldn't be too confused....we've not had too many probs but I can imagine we would have had loads had we kept the irish spelling. Love the name Aoife too.

When I was pg, was convinced was having a girl so chose the names Aoife, Aoibheann or Aibhlinn, all of which I love.
Then I went and had a lovely boy

how do you pronounce:

Aoibheann or Aibhlinn

Aoibheann - Eve-een
Aibhlinn - Ave-leen

is Aoibheann like yvonne?

Sounds more like 'even' than 'e-vonn' when pronounced

I went to a catholic school so lots of Siobhans and Sians there and I sort of grew up with all those names.

Recently came across a mum whose daughter is Sian - but mother pronounces it Sigh-Ann. At first I thought she was being 'exotic' and naming the child after a tribe of american indians, wasn't there one called the Sheyenne/Shayenne/Chayanne?

No doubt the child will spend her life 'correcting' people to the incorrect prounounciation.....

i have a 'Kyran' too tigger.....only a couple have pronounced it 'kai-ran'..if you know what i mean.

I was watching a programme on Discovery where a load of National Express drivers were taught to Riverdance. One of the professional dancers was called something that sounded like "Dervla" - how would that be spelt, out of interest?

Dearbhla

Thanks. Beautiful name, and it really suited the woman.

We had a Fidelma at school
and also a Sian who was always being called Shaun by the teacher.

Or Deirbhile

mine was a Catholic school too...several Carmels and a Nuala

I lived in North Wales for 5 years and love Welsh names. I really liked Ceinwen but glad I didn't use it as it's seems silly as we are neither welsh nor living in wales an longer. DH vetoed Twm (welsh Tom) which I loved!

Sian had a brother called Teilo (sp?)

i think aoife is lovely and know a few in scotland.

LOL

I know someone called Shueng in Chinese, but she introduces herself as Michelle because apparantly Shueng is too taxing for the cloth-eared.

Interesting thread and I couldn't agree more. I love names like Maeve and Clodagh, but I just don't think they 'fly' in the UK.

An English primary school teacher (and my friend) told me that she presumed any child with an Irish name would be a bit of a scamp!

Also, I might be more controversial than I want to be, but I think that the Irish people who are most successful in the UK are the ones who assimilate most and arentl inclined to name their children Aoife or Cathal.

When I was pg, my ex FIL made jibes such as, I suppose you'll be calling the poor child Seamus. I said, what, after my father Douglas and my Grandfathers Richard and william?? Em, don't really think so...

In my daughter's class of 27 children here in Ireland, interestingly, only two have Irish names. Tadhg and Oisín. Maybe it's because here, nobody is trying to make a point, even to themselves. That point being I presume, I'm not having an identity crisis, my children may haave an English accent but they're still Irish...

Often, even here in Ireland, Irish names are anglacised, eg Maedhbh is Maeve 90% of the time. So when I came across people in England who'd given their children names like Saiorse or Diarmuid or Maedhbh, I did used to think, oh ffs, blend in a bit more!!

And finally, I am Irish, I learned Gaelic, I have a tiny smattering of it, and I still have to concentrate to spell Dun Laoghaire!! So what chance has an English person got? It's just making life difficult for your child to give them a name like Caoimhe or Aoife.

Am I going to be blasted off the board for saying this??? FWIW, I like the names Tadhg, Oisín, Diarmuid, Cathal, Clodagh and Maeve. They're all nice.. HERE in Ireland.

To the OP, I think Aoife is a really flexible name though. An Irish girl I knew when I lived in the UK just used to introduce herself as Eva. Not saying that you should do that, but your daughter always has that option. Should she want it.

Can't believe somebody has a Seamus!! That is so cool. I'd love to meet a baby Seamus.

I'm in Ireland too and have to say there are a lot more Kyles and Andrews in my ds's classes rather than Oisins!
My surname is very Irish, to the point that unless someone got an A in Irish in their Leaving Cert they have difficulty pronouncing it and if I ever go to the UK on business, people look very, very scared in case they might have to pronounce it! Having said that, we have a lot of immigrants here now, and it would never occur to me that these people should have to call their children Irish or English names to fit in. Surely most people of average intelligence can make an effort to remember how to pronounce a name after they've heard it a few times?

DD2 in Cork has 3 Adams and 2 Aarons in her class...