Here's my shortlist, please give me the truth..

[Luxmum]

DC3 is 6 weeks old, so obv no idea what sex it will be. Of course, I have a shortlist fo names already, so can you tell me what you think? (I'm Irish BTW, hence the slight Irish slant with the names). Any pitfalls I am missing, other than the wierd Irish spelling?

Boy:

Hugh
Rory
Oisin
Lorcan
Pierce

Girls:
Faith
Sive (pronounced Sigh-ve)
Avril
Albha (pronounced Alva)
Faye
Hero (my secret love..)

Of the boys, I prefer Rory or Pierce. Lorcan makes me think of Orca (killer whale?).

Of the girls, I like them all except Hero. Hero is NOT a girl's name. If it was, wouldn't it be Hera? You can't call a child Hero. Albha is my favourite.

I had never heard of Lorcan or Sive but still find them nice.

I do not like Hero very much but it could grow on me.

Over all, a very nice shortlist!

I like Rory (even though you should be ashamed of yourself for spelling it the English way
Oisin is good too.
Hugh is nice aswell.

Faith, Avril and Faye are nice. The others, I am not so keen on. Please do not call your child Hero though...

Like Hugh and Faye

If you have to put how a name is pronounced in brackets after perhaps this is not a good name for a child? Will they have a lifetime of mispronunciation and spelling?

Rory, Albha or Faith.
Please not pierce...or Hero

Love Hugh, Lorcan and Rory

Love Faye, Avril and also Albha (had never heard of that name before, but it's lovely)

Lorcan and Albha are lovely.

Hero is a girls name BTW - from Much Ado About nothing.

i like faith and faye, but iam sorry really dislike all the others x

Rory and Hugh are ok.
I like Faith, Faye is tolerable. I'm dislike the others, some of them sound very awkward!

Love Rory not keen on the other boys names.

I like Faye and Faith but again not keen on the others.

I like Rory, it is becoming one of my favourite boys names! I like Hugh too, although I prefer Hugo.

I'm not overly keen on any of the girls names. Faith is probably the best from your list.

Hmm, I got Hero indeed, from Shakespear, but as it would never get past DH, it indeed, is a secret wish name..
I was wondering about the pronunciation, esp as I live abroad. Thanks for the comments, will remove Pierce and hero..

I like- Hugh, Rory and Pierce, Faith, Avril and Albha. Albha and Faith are my favourites.

I seriously hate Hero for a girl (middle name would be interesting choice though) and Lorcan just makes me shudder! I think I'm too boring feel free to ignore me!

Yes Hero is a girls name. In theory I always quite liked it. But the only time I've seen it used was in the Guardian, on a girl with a brother named Tybalt. This made me boak slightly, and I went off it. Sorry.

I think I like Sive and Hugh best.

Girl in my class at school was called Hero and the name always seemed fine to me but I take others' points above. Like all the others. Don't mean to offend at all but would the non obvious pronunciation of some of them(to a heathen like me!) be tricky for him or her later on? Love Rory BTW (though may be biased as saw Rory Bremner in RL and he was surprisngly swoonsome!)

From the OP list tthe one I prefer is Faith

I like the names Lorcan and Faith from this list.Lorcan is a fab name!!

I like Lorcan and Hero.

Hero actually predates Shakespeare - am surprised no one has mentioned Hero and Leander yet...

Boy

Hugh is my fav
followed by Rory, Lorcan, Pierce and Oisin

Girl

Hero is my fav. It is Greek origin and I think there was a Hero in Greek mythology??
followed by Faith, Faye, Sive, Albha and Avril

BTW I knew a Hero at Uni, she was bright, slim, long-legged, bronzed, swingy long dark hair, very glam and gorgeous - so I totally associate the name with those kinds of attibutes!!

I like these...

Rory
Oisin

Faith
Albha (pronounced Alva)
Faye

Oisin is a beautiful name

WRT "If you have to put how a name is pronounced in brackets after perhaps this is not a good name for a child? Will they have a lifetime of mispronunciation and spelling?"

I feel quite strongly that this isn't a good enough argument not to use a name. Because basically what you're saying is only familiar / Anglicised names are acceptable. And if you go down that road, and nobody uses beautiful Celtic names for example, like Oisin and Sive, then these names will die out, which would be a great shame, and a contribution to the erosion of Irish / Welsh / Scottish culture.

Use them with abandon I say, and the English will just have to learn how to say them! (Siobhan and Sian being 2 examples of Celtic names which people have got used to).

Any anyway I have to spell my surname every time I say it, and it's not even an interesting name - just an unusual spelling of a well-known name, but so what?! It doesn't bother me in the slightest, it;s just the way it is. These things only bother you if you let them / want something to moan about IMO.

am chuffed to bits that I'm not the only Hero lover!!
I'll pass teh list to Dh tomorrow, once my first scan gets the a-ok from the Dr.
Lowrib, i utterly agree with you, however, I live in Lux, and my DS2 has the irish spelling of a name, and everyone local pronounces it wrong, so wondered whether it's best to stick to the anglo/ie phonetic spelling... ? Otherwise it's Ruairi, and Sadhbh for Sive..and I cant imagine what my french Dr would make of trying to say Sadhbh, she never ever gets DS2 right, no matter how I correct her.

Hero is my favourite name of all time. Wasn't allowed to use it, will never quite forgive DH for that.

Of course it's a girl's name.

Do it, do it ...oh, please do it. For me, and all the other frustrated Hero-worshippers out there!

rory and faith