Any thoughts on these Irish names?

[ninja]

Dh Irish and DD1 has an Irish name - so I may regret this but gives us your views....

Girls

Maebh (Maeve)
Aine (Onya)
Molly (+DH's contribution - to my mind not really Irish but quite pretty)

Boys

Fionn (Finn)
Aodhan/Aidan
Fearghal/Fergal

Thanks x

ps, not keen on madey uppy spellings, but where there is an anglicised version, such as Aidan or Maeve, why not use it?!

Dun Laoghaire correct. Bualadh Bos!!!

I used to know a Welsh-Italian bloke whose name was Giovanni Allodi but he called himself John (English version of Giovanni) for ease. It's not quite the same thing as anglicised spelling I know, but it made his life easier not having to spell Giovanni to all and sundry.

I live in Ireland and have a fairly common Irish name but have never met a non irish person who could pronounce it properly (it's Aoife btw).

DD has a VERY Irish name, not at all common, and most Irish people don't get it, they just say Ooooh, how lovely...

When I told an American friend I was pg again, she said I hope you're not going to call this one another stupid Irish name no-one can spell or pronounce. It took every bone in my body not to hit her! I replied with the same argument as someone else here, you wouldn't expect a Polish or African or Chinese person to not call their child a name of their country just because someone from another country might not be able to spell it, would you? No! You'd call your child what you want and then expect the rest of the world to like it or lump it!

Oh I'm still angry about that! Grrr! I half wanted to call this baby Toirbhealach if it's a boy but DP doesn't like it, just to spite her! (it's pronounced Tur-lock) btw.

From your list I like Finn and Aine...

For interest, this was just released:

Most popular names in 2007

Flowermum, that is a flawed arguement however, as in Poland they speak Polish and in China they speak Chinese!

I think it is insanity, even in Ireland, to spell Turlock Toirbhealach. I would have to sit down and learn that. I am Irish btw.

Why get angry about something which is so patently obvious, ie, Irish names are extremely difficult to spell and to pronounce. And not just for non-Irish people. If you walked down Grafton street and asked a hundred people to have a bash at spelling Toirbhealach, I'd be amazed if one person managed it!

Some people in Ireland speak Irish very well, though.

Thanks for the link Flower. Interesting to see how Rachel is so much more popular in Ireland than in England. It was #7 the year my dd was born, and not even in the top 100 in the UK.

Clodagh is #39. I had thought that that was still fairly unusual. (I like that one).

Chipmonkey that is true. I know, from a former identity on MN (don't know you in RL) that you did your Leaving through Irish.

Would you, several years on (!) have known exactly how to spell Toirbhealach?! Please, hand on heart, tell me!?

Also, what percentage of people do their leaving through Irish, or, do honours Irish?! And........ how long do they remember what they learnt?

I like the more manageable names, like Cathal, Cormac, Tadhg, Oisín, Lorcan, Diarmuid..... I'm not anti- but I think there is a limit to what you can reasonably expect people to cope with.

Use Irish names if you want to, it's the parents choice, but what I'm saying is, if you call your child Toirbhealach, then you have no reasonable grounds to get the ache if people struggle.

My dd1 is doing Honours Irish...pity she has a Catalan name! (Poncey parents)

Farking 'ell, she must be a genius. Your Catalina!

My ds is coping with Pass Irish, he has an Irish name....DD2 is still in primary, with a Turkish name....watch this space.

Wow, You have one with a Catalan name and one with a Turkish name! That's interesting. I'm intrigued now. You'll have to pm me their names.

My two both have quite poncey English names that I chose while I was still living in the UK. Now that I'm back in Wicklow I do sometimes feel frightfully frightfully in an embarrassing way, calling out "Florence, Hugo, Come on! In to the nissan micra, we are going to Lidl immediately".

...... because I don't feel my children have the lifestyle to go with their Florence/Hugo type names iyswim.

Maybe I should have called them Clodagh and Oisín. My x Pils would have choked. Sh1t. Too late now.

ha ha Wats... even my 5yr old says everything in Lidl tastes of ginger. I said, what even the nappies? They taste of ginger too? Yes. She's a card my little *Augusta.

Cuckoo, I didn't do my Leaving through Irish, you must have me mixed up with someone else!My Dad was a fluent Irish speaker and was raised speaking Irish ( in Westmeath of all places!) but sadly didn't speak Irish to me as a child so my Irish is bog-standard school Irish. Now, truthfully, if you said Tur-lock to me, I would not have spelt it as Flowermum does BUT if I saw Toirbhealach written down, I would pronounce it correctly and would remember how to spell it if shown once. But spelling was one of my strong points in school.
My surname is the most obsolete, obscure purely Irish names you would ever come across. I have to spell it everywhere I go, even in Ireland and it is rare that I find someone who will pronounce it correctly on first reading it. But I don't mind. I would prefer that any day to changing the spelling of the name I grew up with.

I did Honours everything in my Leaving, even Maths but it doesn't matter now, motherhood has turned my brain to mush.

Honours maths, bloody hell. I hope your husband appreciates your sacrafices for motherhood!! You could be running IBM or something.

Sorry, presumed you were an SAHM. You may well be running IBM.

Well, as the Ting Tings would say "that's not my name".