Irish people, what do you think of Fíbí?

[BeautyPageantDropout]

Recently I've met an Éimí (Amy) and today I read about a Fíbí (Phoebe).

What is going on?

This is no different to when Americans get all kreative with the spelling and call their kid Emmaleigh rather than Emily. And everyone agrees it's a bit naff.

If you like the name Phoebe just go with that, rather than trying to Irishify it in a comical way.

I'm not being a purist and asking for a return to the days of Gobnait and Dymphna (may God watch over all the poor Gobnaits and Dymphnas) but the advent of Éimí and Fíbí is a bit silly to me.

No offence to any Éimís and Fíbís if they're reading. I'm sure yiz are wonderful.

I understand Gobnait is Irish for Abby/Abigail.... my daughter never forgave me for her name during Irish lessons

I feel I would like people to stop butchering my language 😔

lol poor girl.

Abigail is such a pretty soft sound. Gobnait sounds like the noise an angry turkey makes.

They really just made it up on the spot I think. Everyone had to have an Irish name so they randomly linked names that sounded vaguely similar even though they had no real connection. Grace/Gráinne, Sarah/Sorcha, Jane/Sinéad.

Not Irish but Welsh, I see this happening increasingly often with “Welsh” names too.

Loti is the currency of Lesotho, not the “Welsh” for Lottie, there is no Welsh version of that name for example.

Alffi is another highly questionable Welsh-ification of an English name.

I'm Welsh, and the welshification of names does happen.
I can think of a Nansi, Elsi, Soffia, Lia, Lwsi, Ema and Anni, but I'm not sure if Esmi, Ffîbi and Êmi are in use. I think Nansi has been in use for quite some time.

My age group had Caren, Meri and Jên.

Oh dear, Alffi!

Good to know we're not the only Celtic nation doing this! It must be a tug of war between names they actually like and them wanting to have an Irish (or Welsh) name.

I think Fíbí made me go wtf so much is because it's no different to an English person calling their daughter Feebee. And everyone would laugh at poor Feebee.

Many Welsh origin names were anglicised. Meredith (Meredydd), Lloyd (Llwyd), Gaynor (Gaenor) etc. Is welshification any worse?

How do you feel about Grania, Shevaun, Kian, Kieron and Keira, @BeautyPageantDropout ?

I don't like Welsh (or Irish) names being anglicised - Seren, Eira, Caitlin etc.

I wouldn't personally call a boy Kian over Cian or Kieran over Ciaráin but I'm not an absolute purist about it. I'd choose the spelling of Maeve over Medb or Meadhbh for example. And there are far more Irish Kevins than there are Caoimhíns and in the 90s Killian was far more popular than Cillian. I think in the last 20 years there's been a more concerted effort to be authentic in spelling and to reject the K! But then there are names like Orla which people mistakenly think is an anglicisation when it's not.

Never seen Grania before.

I meant the anglicisation of Orla as 'aula'. I think Grania was in a Jilly Cooper I read many years ago.

The trend here is to use 'very Welsh' names, or the Welsh versions of names (Lleucu not Lucy, Efa not Eve) so maybe something like Phoebe would look 'too Saesneg'. Ffibi is in the dictionary, as is Lili.

Loti isn't too bad. Charlotte is Siarlot so it would work as a diminutive.

Happens in Scotland too, with names being Gaelicised in a similar way, E.g. Aibidh (Abbie), Leacsaidh (Lexie), Meusaidh (Maisie). Seem to happen mostly with names of that ilk, but is it really any worse than older transliterations like Peadar (peter), Raibeart (Robert) or Màrtainn (Martin)?

I can't make up my mind about them.

Pretty sure Gobnait is Deborah in Irish but maybe it covers Abigail too!
Looks like I'm in the minority, I really like Fíbí, gosh I wish I had heard of it when naming my dds!

Unlike the other examples, Jane isn't randomly linked to Sinéad. Sinéad is derived from the French Jeanette and is cognate with Jane.

Both Abigail and Deborah have been used to translate Gobnait @Happiestwhen. I'm not sure why Abigail was used. Usually there was some reason, like the names sounding vaguely similar in one or more dialects, or the meaning was similar, but I'm not sure why Abigail was picked. Deborah and Gobnait are both associated with bees so that's the link there.

It's not really.

There's some very tenuous link to bees with both names iirc, so the "close enough" rule applied.

@HoratioNightboy
Good point.

Hats off to the parents of Fibi and Eimi for chutzpah at least.

i’m dyslexic and really struggling with this thread.

Fibi makes me cringe a bit I have to say.

I don’t think it’s the same as Maeve which is anglicising an Irish spelling - Fibi is Irishifying a Greek (?) name for no good reason!

Eabha is another one I’ve wondered about in that category, but I guess it’s more mainstream now.

No, I don't like Fíbí at all!

What's the link for Abigail and bees?
A-bee-gail, of course!

Just use Phoebe, if you like it, it's not a name I m fond of in general.

No need to irishify anything. It's a bit twee.

abi is Latin for bee, and Deborah is from the Hebrew word for bee.
St Gobnait was famous for her bees and is patron saint of beekeepers.
Gobnat is the feminine version if Goban which means smith.

@Happiestwhen , Gobnait - Wikipedia

@TwirlBar , Unlike the other examples, Jane isn't randomly linked to Sinéad. Sinéad is derived from the French Jeanette and is cognate with Jane.
I agree. Sinéad is the equivalent of Janet. I thought the equivalent of Jane was Síne. Siobhán is the equivalent of Joan.
The Welsh versions are Sioned, Siân and Siwan.