Orla?

[Lululime2024]

what do you think of the name Orla?

I have an Orla! Love it, have had no issues with weird nicknames or anything like that (just pre-empting someone coming on and saying it looks like oral!).

I think it's a pretty but not twee name.

I like it! Short, simple, not overused, lovely for all ages.

Beautiful

I’m afraid I really dislike it. It’s hard and to my ears an unpleasant sound.

I like it well enough, although I'm Irish so know approximately a thousand Orlas.

Where do you live? For some accents, in particular a lot of English accents, it will be Aw-la which would irritate me a bit.

Lovely but I agree with a previous poster I'm not even Irish and I feel like I know thousands of them.

It's very popular round these parts

Not keen. For some accents, in particular a lot of English accents, it will be Aw-la

It's a lovely name

I really like it too and I've been considering it. Does anyone know if it's really popular now in London?

Lovely in an Irish accent.

The way the English (or most English?) say it - Awla - is awful.

Love it

Love it but popular, know several.

Love it. I know two, one spelled your way and one spelled Orfhlaith.

It only works if you have an Irish accent.

One of my favourite names!

I'm Irish and I really dislike it, just so common here and an ugly sound, though it has a nice meaning

Personally I'm not keen on the sound, or the awkwardness of when autocorrect changes it to oral (which will happen from time to time). Plus kids can be cruel (same as lana, when kids realise when it spells backwards).

Obviously it's up to you though. Plenty of people do use it.

Lovely in a Scottish or Irish accent but loses something in an English accent.

Like PPs, I know about 200 Orlas. It’s a perfectly fine name that gets used a lot, but the non-rhotic English pronunciation doesn’t do it for me.

I was going to say exactly this. Orla doesn't sound good without that rhotic 'r' sound that Irish and Scottish people have in their accents, and the strong 'a' sound at the end. If it's pronounced 'awluh' it isn't at all nice.

I love the name, but unless you have ties to the Emerald isle it doesn't really makes sense why you'd use it.

One of my favourite names, and DH too. It was on all our short lists. We were so close to using it, but we realised that we each pronounce it differently (both Irish) and I couldn't face a lifetime of hearing his pronunciation.

One of us pronounces the initial 'or' as in 'gore' and the other as in 'for'. Subtle, but I couldn't do it 😂🤔

How else do you say it?!

You pronounce the R. Or (and oar and ore) sound nothing like aw in most English speaking accents, but most accents in England itself are non rhotic.