Baby boy names Ruairidh

[Louisaa2020]

Hello, we have found out we are having a baby boy. I love the name Ruairidh but my husband is not so sure due to the spelling. What do you all think? Is it going to be spelled wrongly all the time? Any other name suggestions? We wanted something not too common. We thought about Rory instead but unsure?

Thank you for reading

We have a Ruairí, it's pronounced Roo-ree. It has a fadá over the last 'I'
We've not had any problems really, some people can't say it first time. School have never got it wrong.

No, that's not right.

As pp have said, there is a distinctive Roo sound in Irish.

There are also 3 syllables, Roo-uh-ree.
The middle one is often skipped over (often by those not so fluent in Irish) or there's just a hint of it sometimes, so the name then sounds like Roo-ree. You'll hear both.

The link below has some Irish speakers saying the name.

https://forvo.com/word/ruair%C3%AD/

It's spelt Ruairí in Irish, there's an accent on the final i.

@WhoppingBigBackside I’m not sure why you are being so aggro about this.

My point is that it’s not really a hardship to have to spell your name out over the phone. I have a standard name with different possible spellings so I do this often. It is not a big deal and it doesn’t take materially longer to spell Ruairidh/Ruaidhri/Ruairi etc than it does to say “Claire with an i” or spell out “Katheryn”.

I also doubt you would be saying any of this stuff to eg Indian parents planning to give their child an Indian name, where the spelling and pronunciation might be equally unfamiliar to many people in the U.K.

i'm not being "so aggro" about it. I'm only pointing out that it will be misspelt.

I'm not suggesting that someone shouldn't use it or any other name.

You are condemning the boy to having to spell his name out for the rest of his life.

I'd go with Rory or Rudi.

Ok @WhoppingBigBackside well Claire, Sara, Steven, Lindsey, Louis, Philippa, Catherine, Rachel, Jane and John (to name just a few) will also be misspelt and I have never seen anyone suggest that they shouldn’t be used for this reason.

But pretty much every time an Irish or Scottish name is suggested that is the response.

Yes Ruairidh will likely be misspelled but it’s not a serious problem. And it’s a beautiful name.

I'm from the north east of England and wouldn't know where to start with pronouncing or spelling that name.

If that's not an issue wherever you're from then go for it but if they will be going to school in England then I personally wouldn't.

My husband is Turkish and suggested all kinds of names but it was important to me that DD had a name easy to write and pronounce in both countries/languages.

At our school we had both Ruari and Ruaridh and teachers who weren't Scottish had no idea how to pronounce it.
Saying that, I'd always said "Roo-ree" but my mother insisted it was the same as Rory.#

If you're not in Scotland I wouldn't use it.

Thanks, I stand corrected! I guess the two Irish Ruairis I know in England have maybe anglicised their pronunciation to make it 'easier' for people 🤷‍♀️. I do find a lot of people in England assume Ruairi is pronounced Rory, but are unfamiliar with Ruairidh.

@JumpinJellyfish , I'd say pretty much the same to anyone who was naming their child one of the names you listed.

Louis appears often on here with someone saying it's pronounced Lewis in most of the world or somesuch.

In the UK nobody is going to look at a name like Claire and think 'How do I say that?'. Claire will probably get 'Clare' a lot.

If someone wanted to name their baby Chláir, then I'd say the same, Chláir will get 'Clare' a lot.

Chláir shouldn't be difficult to say because people are familiar with Chloe, but the fada will get missed out a lot. (I don't know if Chláir is of the same origin as Clare)

The Clare in County Clare is from a word meaning plank apparently.

Yes, they may have anglicised the pronunciation for simplicity. On the other hand, lots of Irish people don't speak much Irish, so it's also possible they have always said Rory for Ruairí. But it's not how it should be said in Irish iyswim.

I had a colleague at work with this name and without knowing, i thought his name was pronounced Rye-o-Rid. it literally led to a breakdown at work, people refused to email him, talk to him because of the huge breakdown is understanding how to pronounce his name. I think as a consequence, he was always a loner. sadly

Lovely name, I’m west of Scotland so there were plenty of them at school and university when I was there years ago.

Unfortunately MN is quite English focused so you will get a lot of the comments being like “omg I couldn’t possibly ruin my child’s life with a name they have to spell.” However if you like it go for it!

I know of a sibling pair named Ruairi and Sadhbh.

Rur-ree and Si-ve :)

I mean unless you go for a very simple well known name like John or Emma then you may have this anyway.

I have a pretty simple first name, easy to say and spell, that is not that common but well known because of a celebrity. But for some reason people find it hard to hear, especially over the phone, so there's always confusion, some alternative is written down. I also have 3 letter surname but the last letter is often misheard. So I end up spelling the whole thing every single time.

So I wouldn't base decisions on a name that is hard to spell because there are so many variations of simple names you may end up spelling it out anyway.

Variations of Ruairidh are very easy to pronounce anyway.

This

I love Ruairidh. However if you live in England or if he ever moves outside of Scotland you/he will need to be prepared to Anglicise his name.

Rory/Rudi are no comparison really.

To me Ruairidh and Rory are the same beautiful fabulous gorgeous name. Love it however you want to spell it.
AFAIK the dh at the end makes the i long, ie you need a fada without it.

So you work with a shower of ignorant, socially inept nitwits?

I wouldn't let that put you off. If you love it.
I think it's a lovely name and it's not difficult to pronounce once someone is told.
It's like other Irish names Niamh, or Siobhan , Meadhbh, the spelling is different but people soon learn how to say and spell them

Great name if you are in Scotland but setting him up for a lifetime of spelling issues.

It should be pronounced "rooree" but tends to end up being "rowree" (as in rowing a boat) by people not familiar with Gaelic.

I love it 😀

If this is true it is ridiculous and it sounds a horrible place to work. Does everyone there has an conventional English name?
Where i worked there were a variety of names from different cultures (as there are at my grand children's school now) and no one batted an eyelid they just learned how to pronounce the names. Usually people only need telling once and Ruairidh isn't difficult to pronounce anyway.

It's gorgeous! I worked with one (Irish fam, in England) everyone learnt the spelling quickly enough. He pronounced it Rory