Eilidh

[missponike]

I am not Scottish. I grew up in England and am from English heritage.
However. I had a best childhood friend called Eilidh. Pronounced Aylee.
I'm due to have a baby and have always loved the name. It was what I called my childhood dolly too!
Would it be too weird to use that name now?

Not weird IMO. I love it. My son has a Welsh name and we’re not Welsh. Also my other kids have Greek and Hebrew names and we’re not those either.

Not weird. It's a very pretty name.

Of course it's not weird. You can choose any name you like.

I love it. I am Scottish though and living in England with English DH, I confess we spelled our DS Gaelic name the anglicised way to save him grief having to spell it to people EVERY SINGLE TIME 🤣
so that’s worth bearing in mind

This is my concern. I don't want her to have to explain and spell the name all the time!
My husband is Irish so used to Gaelic spellings but not so easy in England!

@missponike i hear you! But the Gaelic names are SO beautiful! X

@Toooldforthis36 do you mind sharing the name and how you anglicised it? Only because I always love hearing Gaelic names.. ☺️

I am Scottish and my daughter is called this and she often has to tell people how to pronounce it! However I obviously love it as a name

Oh how lovely!

Ruaridh/Rory! We also had Ewan/Euan in discussion!

but for girls I loved Fionnuala, Seonaid, Catriona 😍

@Toooldforthis36 oh I love that. We had thought of Oisin for a boy!

LOVE OISIN!

@Toooldforthis36 yes. Me too! Thank you ☺️

We did this - DH grew up in Scotland and had a Scottish friend with a gaelic name, which we used. Yes we have to explain the spelling and pronunciation every time. And also we get lots of people asking why we chose it (because we like it!) I still love it, I don't regret the name choice at all even though I have heard some awful pronunciations (saying -idh like -id) and see every kind of awful spelling including people who insist on using the anglicised version. 🙄 I feel a bit sorry for my child who has to learn to spell it and it is not intuitive or phonetic at all. But it's a gorgeous name. I would have considered Eilidh if we had a girl and DH still likes it for the next one. Go for it if you have thick skin and can put up with the mistakes and slight inconvenience.

What was the name you went for in the end? I'm pretty sure we will go with Eilidh and it's reminded me as a child I never had any problems with pronouncing names. I had another friend called Eimear and it wasn't hard at all..

As your DH is Irish just wanted to mention that Eilidh will likely be mispronounced in Ireland too.

It's not a name that's commonly used here and would need an accent on the e to give the ay sound for those sight reading.

Eily is a name that was widely used at one stage though not now. It was usually short for Eileen/Helen and pronounced Eyelee.
Eibhlís /Eilís is Eyeleesh, so many Irish people will tend to get the ay part of Eilidh wrong at first.

It's a lovely name though.

This is my concern. I don't want her to have to explain and spell the name all the time!

In that case, don't use it.
I live in a big multi-national City and am used to names from all sorts of culture, but I was going to ask how you pronounce it (until I saw it in your OP).

I have a really common name, but one of those that can be spelled more than one way, and quite frankly it is a bit annoying to have to specify every time. I have a friend who has (what I consider to be a fairly well known) Irish name who has to spell it every time she gives her name. She feels it is a right pain and was determined to give her dc easy to spell names.
She also gets asked "Oh, are you Irish then?" when giving her name. I think it a bit strange for a child to have to explain, 'no, I'm not from the culture my difficult to pronounce, and difficult to spell name is for - my parents just picked it out the blue.'

I know an Eilidh who is routinely called Eyelid - she says it doesn’t bother her and it became a bit of a family joke. It is pronounced how it’s spelled - it’s just not in English!

If you love the name, use it. It’s in the top 25 here so English people are going to start encountering the name more and will just have to learn to deal with it.

I hear you. It wasn't out of the blue. There was some consideration and lots of thought put into it with well meaning intentions.
I have an unusual name myself. It's Arabic and I'm not from that culture at all. I hated it growing up but have grown to really love it.
So I understand the whole name thing. I will definitely consider other names now. Thank you.

It's beautiful but you/dc will have to spell / pronounce it very often.

I've just tied myself in knots trying to pronounce it and got nowhere close. She would spend her life correcting people, and spelling it.

@amylou8 it's pronounced Ay-Lee. I did put that in my original post. I can see where the confusion comes from though. Although, surely when you introduce yourself you say your name and people just go with it. It's not a hard name to say. Just the spelling.

Although, surely when you introduce yourself you say your name and people just go with it. It's not a hard name to say. Just the spelling.

Yes, but, throughout life, you have your name read out (publicly) by many, many different people who have not heard your name, but are just reading it from a list.

You've had a name change fail @mrDarc and @missponike

@missponike is there not an Irish name you like? At least then it would have a connection to your husbands heritage, which DD could tell people - other than just say 'No I don't have Scottish Heritage, my parents just wanted to make my life hell'😂😂