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

Were you spelt with a 0 for an o? I agreed with Den yesterday. You might notice the occasional tiff here too though, but many more people so less personal 'stuff'.

C0co. That was me!

There are much more people here, so you can go from board to board and not feel like people are bearing a grudge from a conversation on another thread on a different board.

Maybe the truth is that after 15 yrs of living in England I am just more comfortable on an UK board??

You are from NI is that right? You are a good sound protestant from Northern Ireland and now you live in Cork. YOu are 42 and your eldest dd is about 12 is that right???
You see, I shouldn't know all that?? But the Irish board is just too small!
And I have the memory of an elephant

I was in England for 8 years, and back to Belfast for a while before Cork - so I like the double perspectives from both boards. I also like being about 42, so you can be my friend. DD1, aka Toxic is almost 15, ds is 16. None of my 3 have Irish names, dh and I were both in school in NI where Latin was the dead language of choice. But all 3 have a name which can be put into Irish if the occasion demands like Rose could become Roisin. Cork names seem to be a mix of Irish, 'English' ones like Mark and Lucy - lots of Prods in Cork! - and a load of gone but not forgotten in Cork like Gillian and Keith.

Glad I haven't freaked you out! I thought I might have done... I got your children's ages wrong. sshsh. I'm useless.

I'll be your friend. I don't do friends under 32. That's my 'cut off'.

I like Jillian with a J. It is more jaunty and care-free with a J. Keith is still just keith though!

Better go feed my son......

Also on Rollercoaster, you're not "allowed" to say Bad Things about obstreticians or scan clinics or your thread will be deleted!

Oh really? Interesting!

Tell me you're not Susie Wong though Chipmonkey. Tell me....

She might just be! And there is a regular here who makes guest appearances on rollercoaster with a different name, and I know who she is. I should get a life!

Blimey. All very mysterious. How do people remember to keep their different identities in detail! They would either make a good author or a good schizophrenic. Did I spell that right..

Is it Dee00? I know she used to live in England.. Are you too discreet?!

My son is called Finn but the correct spelling would be Fionn (male version of Fiona) but I actually prefer the 'look' of Finn written down and it's easier to spell (although we have had a few Phins!!)

I like Fionn/Finn. Dee - I don't know where she wafted in from, I thought she was Dennis's imaginary friend for a while. Now I don't think so. I can only have one name.

Hello,

Having found out last week that I am pg with number 1, already my mind has begun pondering names, even though it's very early days (I'm only about 6 and a half weeks). My mum is Irish, so I've often thought I would like an Irish name for any DC, but DH isn't too keen on names no-one knows how to spell, like sunnyd mentioned in her first post. So for a boy, I think I would go with Patrick - Irish, but dead easy to spell, everyone knows the name Patrick. It's girls names I am struggling with. I have cousins called Aoife, Niamh, Cliodhna, Eadaoin, Eimear, Grainne..I love all those names, but no-one here would have heard of them, so they would have a lifetime of spelling their names for people. So now I'm looking for an easy Irish girls name. I thought maybe Cara, that's easy and (I think) is Irish. Any other suggestions? Any advice gratefully received.

I know an Aoife and, once you've heard it, it's not difficult to pronounce - so sympathies to the OP. I have a similar problem - my dd's name is Mary-Anne. it is pronounced (funnily enough) Mary-Anne. not Marry-Anne. If it were to be pronounced like that she would be Marianne or (eek worse) Marion and she's fecking not. we have a small minority of perpetually guilty friends. dd has started deliberately mis-pronoucing their names in revenge...

Irish names are mostly easy to pronounce - spelling seems to be a problem for many English people.... How do they cope with Polish, Indian, Turkish names? (I had a friend whose dad was Polish, he had been a pilot in the war. He chopped off most of his surname and used the first 3 letters!) There are Irish names books available, including a Collins Gem.

How do you pronounce Niamh? Is there an associated nickname as well? The little girl I know is called by her parents by a rather different name and I can never get my head around how Niamh can be pronounced in that way!

DS2 once had an Irish pal called Fergus, simple you might think, but he (DS)thought his name was was Burgers!!

I love Fergus!! My son was nearly a Fergus, but it sounded horrible with sur name. Really, really bad. lIke Moses Martin. That bad.

We have a Clodagh living next door to us, if I ever meet someone with a name I dont know how to pronounce I just ask, and then make a point of getting it right in the future, its rude not to, I have also met a few Aoifes, the first was a patient I was looking after, I had to call her in from a packed waiting room had no clue how to pronounce it!

Hi Juanitad,

I think Sorcha is pretty and the spelling is pretty obvious with how it's pronounced.

Most people also know Caitlin which is really pretty

how is Clodagh pronounced?

thanks

thanks, watsthestory. Niamh = Neeeve? Blows my mind.