Irish names short list

[catcurl]

Grateful for any thoughts on our shortlist so far...

Éanna
Oscar
Iarlaithe

Baby will not be brought up in Ireland, but in an area where Irish names are common

Thank you

How do you pronounce 1 and 3?

Oscar is very popular in England & Wales - it's been a top 10 name for about 10 years. You might not be in England or Wales.

I'd need to look up how to say the other 2 names, and I would have guessed them to be girls' names.

Not sure if that's any help.

Eanna..Ay/ Na
Iarlaith..Ear/la
Both beautiful lrish names..go for one of these. Think Iarlaith is quite popular around Galway but not around where l am from . But love both

O'Shea is what I called one of my babies, it's such a gorgeous name

My quick search gave something like Air-na (silent r) and YaR-la. No idea if that's right. Not an issue if they are familiar names where you are.

Thank you for all the replies so far!

Pronunciations are

Ey-anna
Ear-la

Thank you

@catcurl , how do you say ear? It's ee-uh here, but where I'm from originally it's more ee-urr.

Iarlaith looks like Larlaith, and sounds like Early or Yearly.
It is an awesome name, and I would say go for it but use a known as spelling where you need random people to read it recognisably first time.

Oscar is awesome.

100% Iarlaith - absolutely beautiful

The way they’re spelt there, I’m fairly sure the pronunciation would be:
Aa-na
Uh-sker
Ear-le-he

Maybe there’s a regional difference

Éanna by a mile, one of my favourite Irish names, and just gone into the top 100 baby names in Ireland but not overly popular

I know an Éanna. It is not a name that travels well. It also sounds absolute dreadful in a lot of regional accents.

I love Iarlaith and considered it for DS but realised it is absolutely awful in an English (non rhotic) accent - sounds like Eel-a or Ale-a, which is probably even worse than my other bugbear - Awla for Orla!

Eanna sounds a bit girly to people in the UK I think. and may get anus jokes.

So I’d go Oscar.

All beautiful names. Eanna and Iarlaith may cause some problems outside of Ireland. I’m English and spent a few years living in an area with a lot of Irish people and never heard these.

My favourite Irish girl’s name is Aoife - although I’m not sure whether it’s a current or old-fashioned name to Irish people.

I really hope to not be offensive but apart from Oscar, I wasn’t sure if they were boy or girl names.

I like Eanna. I work in a secondary school and have come across lots of name that I wasn’t sure how to pronounce but we ask and learn.

I have a Finn but don’t think that’s in the same vein as the names you like.

I prefer Eanna
Do you like Enda. I like it's association to birds.

Some links to the pronunciation of Iarla here.
Iarlaith is an older spelling, but they’re pronounced the same nowadays at least. I haven’t seen it with an e at the end before OP. Are you sure that’s right?

https://forvo.com/word/iarla/#google_vignette

https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/Iarla

Link to Éanna as well -
forvo.com/word/%C3%A9anna/

Excuse my ignorance but are these boys names?

Éanna is my favourite Irish boys name. 💙 Also love Tadhg or Rían is you're looking for suggestions - though those are more popular so if you did move back to Ireland there'd be a few in his class.

Yes, all boys usually, although there’s a well-known female biologist/presenter in Ireland called Éanna Ní Lamhna.

I would spell it Iarlaith with no e for this pronunciation. The e at the end changes the pronunciation in Irish!

Love Éanna - but I would pronounce it as A-na (like the capital letter A, and then nah).

Yes, this is exactly the problem with this spelling (Iarlaithe). It’s not Ear-la, there’s an extra heh sound on the end I think? This probably varies depending on the dialect too, but definitely where I am Iarlaithe would be said Ear-le-heh.

Just looked it up and there was an Iarlaithe Mac Loga (St Jarlath). So it’s the same name basically, but the different spelling does mean it could be pronounced differently to your intended pronunciation (today at least, I’m not sure how it would have been said in the past). And it may vary depending on dialect. The spellings Iarlaith or Iarla are safer if you want Ear-la, though all this assumes people can speak Irish and that’s probably not the case where you are anyway?

I don’t like Oscar but the other 2 are great. I know 2 kids with those names. Also the Galway hurler Éanna Burke!
Are you looking for any more inspiration?
I love..
Conor
Rian
Conal
Cillian
Grian
Tadgh

Grian is very unusual as a first name @Manchesterbythesea, though there was a goddess called Grian apparently. It seems to come up as a name for boys now but it must be very rare?

Your man from Dublin band Fontaines DC is Grian Chatten. I’d never heard of it before that. I love it! I’m too old for any more babies but it would have definitely been on my list.