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

Not Irish, but dd's name is Alexa, which is Greek (although my uncle commented it was a 'yankee' name - WTF). She gets Alexi, Alexia, Alexis... It drives me absolutely insane. Dh's 80 year old grandmother kept calling her Alexi on Christmas day and I finally snapped and shouted: ITS ALEXAAAAAA!

So funny. Not for her, obviously.

Haven't read all of this thread, so not sure if anyone else has had this, but my nephew is called Seamus, my BIL is slowly going mad correcting people who call him 'shameless'.

I think it may have something to the Janner (Plymouth) accent rather than not knowing how to pronounce his name, but it is definatly driving BIL cuckoo.

watsthestory, your name is Cathal o'S? Weep. It would have to be "Kar-thal" or "Cat", won't go near o'S. There, I have butchered it

send'em my way

Me and dh had never heard of Cathal - I think he is 'successful' in that he is on the school syllabus. He is slimey, to be sure.

I would say Clodagh to rhyme with Skoda actually. Not to rhyme with. em. I'll get back to you.

That Cathal O'searcaigh or whatever he's called was comparing himself to Oscar Wilde in the papers today. Eurghghgh. He is a dirty ol' predator, he goes around Nepal swapping sex for food with 16 yr old boys who are too poor, hungry and uneducated to tell him to fcuk ffo.

But because they are 16 and not under 16, he refuses to consider himself a pervert.

And all of that does, for the moment anyway, put me off the name Cathal. Eurghghghgh dirty ol' bugger.

No MadameChOlet, I'm chipmonkey across the world wide web! No imagination, see! There is a suzywong on Mumsnet too but she's a different person!

Yes, Clodagh rhymes with Skoda in my book!

WatsTheStory, when did phonics ever come into it with Irish names!

i am irish, from the north of ireland but live in scotland. it was very important to me that dd had an iriah name. she still would have no matter where i lived. like keevamum and ninja - i have a caoimhe. some people have a problem with it but to be honest - how difficult is it to repeat "keeva", even if you never see it written?!
i have been asked why i called her a "foreign" name. when i explained that i was irish, therefore it was not foreign, i was told that it would be better if everyone was just called something english! I was astounded at the arrogance of it!

i did think very hard about giving my baby an irish name even though i dont currently live in ireland. I am irish, as is she so why not have a name that reflects that?

I like the idea of a Peig survivor group! Not having to help my kids with Irish homework has got to be a good enough reason for leaving the country

I have that one. For a while my daughter was speaking gaelic with an English accent. Awrigh' mum, can we do my homework na'?
Only joking she had a lovely English accent. Very posh. Sad to see it merge into a Graham Norton accent!!

my little boy is called Niall he gets called Neil all the time...

My dd1 has learned all her Irish in Cork, but insists on speaking it with a Belfast accent. Her current teacher is from Kerry and VERY dishy...drifts into daydream....he's called Martin.

My middle name is Siobhan and my Mum told me off hundreds of times whilst I was growing up for saying it wrong.
My mumsnet name is derived from nn I was called when younger Queenie and Bhannae (pronounced Vonnay)

I had my first dd by an Irish man and did not choose an Irish name as I am haunted by my own lack of ability to pronounce my own

I went on to marry an Italian and gave my children names which reflected their heritage on his side as, a) I could say and spell them and b) dh is Italian speaking.

I am not Irish and find having an Irish name a bit silly given that. In fact my father is Jamaican but from Spanish roots(my great grandparents) and my mums side comes from french romany descent.
Given that my dd1 has aquired a Thai stepmum we are true multi-cultural bunch here lol.

Does the Irish male name that sounds like Coleen get used any more? The emphasis is on the first syllable unlike the female name. Thought this was a gaelic name but only knew one person with the name - Aran Islands?

Colm? Used a lot in Donegal/Derry. (Local boy, became a saint).

Thanks St Leger but no, it wasn't Colm. It was pronounced Co-Leen? Very unusual I think?

my DSs are called Lorcan and Torin, chosen because we wanted Irish names (my whole family is Irish, although I was born here and have always lived here..) but wanted reasonably phonetic to avoid the problems outlined here.

although my cousin in Ireland teased me that Torin was a typical London-Irish name, found in a book (allegedly common in ireland, cornwall) and a name that no born and bred Irish person would ever have heard of

i love both the names though. there's an Anne Enright short story about a chap called Fintan and at the end the narrator character says how she always thinks about him, just because the name is so lovely... I hope people will think about my lovely boys like that