Non-ugly Irish girls' names

[skidoodle]

I'm looking for suggestions of Irish names (broadest interpretation of same OK) for a girl that are not hideous.

Irish boys' names are easy, but girls are way trickier as so many of them are just not very attractive IMHO. Others are lovely when pronounced properly but very lumpen in the mouths of non-Irish speakers, and DH (and family) are English.

So, what am I not considering? The more unusual the better here.

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Hi there - this thread is a little old. [[https://www.mumsnet.com/baby-names/most-popular-irish-baby-names
If you’re looking for an Irish baby name, find inspiration here]]. MNHQ

I just had a look on a Top 100 Irish Girl's names site and it is in there! Number 50 something I think. But when did you last hear of a baby in Ireland being called Mary?

Iseult is nice I think - an Irish princess.
People might possibly be able to get their heads around it as well.

In general Irish names don't sound nice to me (I'm Irish so they hold absolutely no exotic appeal at all).

And for god sake don't pick anything impossible for the non-Irish to pronounce like Sadh or Saoirse.

In the top 50!

Still, I've never heard of an Irish baby being called Jack and it's been the most popular boys' name for 10 years or so.

thumbwitch all Irish people have two auntie Marys, unless their Mum is called Mary and then they have one.

It was pretty much an unwritten rule for years that every family would have a daughter called Mary. There was the odd family with no girls, of course, so there are some exceptions...

Seriously, I've just been re-reading the thread and so many of the people who think they know the correct pronounciation are totally wrong (no offence, if you can't speak the Irish language, how would you know?)

Maybe this wouldn't matter to you though, but would be a PITA for the kid.

skidoodle - I think it was number 57. I don;t have any auntie Mary's actually. Nor is my mum Mary. We are a deprived Irish family obv! I have 3 sisters and we all have Maria as a second name though!

Attracta?

My mother is Marie, aunt Maura, sisters both have Mary as a second name. Interestingly I wasn't at school with a single Mary though (70s/80s). Maybe it is due a revival!

Assumpta or Concepta

Feel ashamed now for mocking...

donttry

No, it really would matter to me if the name was mispronounced, which reduced the choice of names considerably.

Most English people could manage Saoirse I would have thought - no tricky sounds. I just don't like it much as a name - Freedom? really? It's just like Seoirse gone wrong and for the wrong gender.

Unlike say Loinnir, which I love, but the narrow n is too hard for many Irish people to get right, never mind further afield. Also the first vowel sound has to be said properly for the real beauty of the name to be apparent and it's so subtle it would be lost in English.

Thanks for your lovely name suggestion. I've already got one of those

Immaculata. Ok I'll go away now.

Skidoodle I know at least 5 Jacks under the age of 10! It has got very popular in the last few years. I wanted it for dd1 (had she been boy obv.) but MIL really didn't like it. It would be a very popular name in my family, although they were all christened John and then known as Jack!

Yeah, Saoirse sounds a bit too "Up the IRA" for me IYKWIM.

re Iseult.

Sibeal? (hard to pronounce maybe but somehow "like" Iseult).

My sister's middle name is Concepta and when she tries to enter her details on some websites they can't cope and it ends up as Concept A

I'm a Fionnuala, wasn't the easiest name as a child but genuinely wouldn't want to be anything else - glad it grew on you

I love the name Sibéal, but we have a lot of them in my family already.

DH think we're all nuts to have so many people all called the same name, so he will say no.

PMSL @ Concept A. DH might go for that as a middle name.

For a boy he wants to use the saint's name Alfred the Great

I only ever met one Sibeal - she replaced me in a job I left and we overlapped by a week. Years and I mean YEARS later a friend in Bulgaria mentioned a Sibeal there and I asked her if she ever worked at X. It was the same Sibeal! Small world.

Cliona

Haven't read this whole thread but I (probably) will as am Irish married to an American and living in the UK and if it's a girl we'd like an Irish name.

Clementine Cliona is one of my favourite names but I've heard it pronounced Clee-ner by English people too many times. It would annoy me too much and I'd feel so bad saddling a daughter with a name people prounounced like cleaner...

My DH is very taken with Dearbhla at the moment. He loves the "bh" as "v" (we have nieces called Sadbh and Aoibhinn and he thinks it's very cool when people know how to pronounce it).

And please, dear god, no more Saiorses. I work with one (she's Scottish) and it's just so "Up the Ra". And it reminds me of Braveheart whenever she explains to people what it means .

Otherwise, am liking Muireann and Eimear too (though have friends who are sisters called that and they'd think it was super strange if I called a daughter Muireann Eimear ).

The pronouciation thing is a bit of worry for me as one of my old friends from Ireland who also lives in London is called Padraig and you'd be amazed how many of his English friends just cannot pronounce it...

i think all irish names are great - just bloody great

Caitni, I agree with your take on Saoirse. Ever Saoirse I've ever met has been oh wrap the green flag round me boys.

Sibéal is lovely.

Also liking the Sibeal love.

Maggie PSML at your description of Saoirses

Have now read the whole thread and most of the Irish names I like have been mentioned. I also have the Grainne/Granna connection (although Grace is a family name in my husband's family so it's on our long list).

Was also PSML laughing at the Attracta/Concepta suggestions - Donttry you rebel you! I associate these with Cork City (where I'm from) and knew a Concepta (shortened to Cepta [shudder]), an Immaculata (they were cousins [double shudder]), Jacinta and an Abina (shortened to Bina [bye-na] [triple shudder]) at school. Thought they were horrible names then and think they're even more horrible now!

And yes, Erin will always mean ox-tail soup to me (I can even get Erin soups in one of our local shops in North London! And kimberley mikados...and Ballymaloe relish...happy days ).

Saoirse is amazingly popular in West Belfast, according to dh's cousin who lives there in the Irish speaking enclave! I liked Emer until I found out that my neice who was at primary school had 3 Emers in her class. DD1 is currently at Irish College, and is being called Grainne, the Irish version of her middle name as her first name doesn't translate. Otherwise she would, allegedly, be known by the name Gobnait (I suspect this doesn't happen). But isn't that a great name?

Gobnait - noooooo! I knew a gobnait at Irish college, the poor soul. Not unusual in West Cork (home to Gobnait's well in Ballyvourney) but not a name I like...

Wats Barrys tea - yes. Superquinn sausages - no. I feel bad, because Barrys tea is the gift of choice for my family when visiting so I don't want them to know how easy it is for me to get