Using an Irish baby name

[Peony123]

DH & I have chosen Aiofe for DC1 (if it turns out to be a girl).

I foolishly told my mother who is Irish. She really objects as the baby will only be 1/4 Irish and she thinks that having a name which can't be easily pronounced/spelt is a burden (this is her experience of having an Irish name).

DH's name is a mainstream Irish name and he likes it - he isn't at all Irish.

One of my friends is Irish and has a difficult to spell name but says go for it.

My experience of non-Irish people having Irish names has been as a teacher and they were disproportionately poorly behaved and I am not sure if there is a stereotype of them being chavvy (I am really not trying to offend anyone with this).

Obviously there are plenty of other nice names out there which we could pick from... Any thoughts?

Nice name and unusual.

Magalyxyz and chipmonkey, if I want to REALLY upset dh I call him a "plastic paddy" because he was born in the UK. Oooh, he doesn't take that one well at all!

eh, right. Tone it down a notch there please. It's ok for us to say it but not you, and I think that is the rule. ANybody who breaks the rule will be sent to the tower.

Ds1 was going to be Aidan but when he was born looked more like a Kieran I can't explain why. Then Ds2 arrived and I compromised that he could be Aiden as DH hated the idea both names ended an.

As for Niav it is a name that has been used several times when looking at my family tree so decided to continue the tradition.

How do you pronounce aoife?

eefa . Like Eva but with an f sound.

yes nice, but won't you always get people like me asking how its spelled or to pronounce it. If you really like it, go for it.

An Irish friend has a DD called Siomha - lovely name. Think it's pronounced 'Sh-hee-va' but anyone feel free to correct me...!

never heard of that one! reminds me of the irish for 'room' though. too close to the word for room for me..

...... wonders if it could have been Siofra??????

I know two Siofras.

I've got a Sorcha! Not too difficult to spell, you only need to be told once. Decided not to go with Saoirse or Searse; similar derivations, but would have condemned dd2 to a lifetime of mis-spelling!

I have a Roisin and an Odhran, can't do fada's on this.

My dsis has a Saoirse. When my then boss heard it, he asked if my sis was a bit of a Republican. He was from NI.

If I met a 35 year old Saoirse I might wonder mmm 'wrap the green flag 'round me boys'?? but I wouldn't assume anything much if I heard it on a baby now.... Apologising in advance here for the offence I'm no doubt causing to somebody!

Although obviously no 35 year old chose their own name, so obviously please just totally disregard my last comment.

I adore Aoife as a name, really wanted to call DD this.

But as we don't live in Ireland I did worry I would be condemning DD to a life of having to spell it/pronounce it all the time (I'm a teacher and I know how much time this can take up!).

So we went for Eva instead.

Except some people seem obsessed with her being 'Ava' not 'Eva', causing situations where people say "How's Aaaaava?" and I reply "Eeeeeeva is fine" and they continue to talk about Aaaaaava regardless, while I keep refering to Eeeeeva. rolls eyes

So the moral of the story is that try as you might to make things easy for people you can't as some people are too stupid to be helped so you may as well please yourself.

I have a Cormac and a Taigh.. they would have been Aoife and Sinead. Thay're only half Irish.. I also love Cathal for a boy.. and Love Brendan..

What about Una or Anu? they cannot be misspronounced.. Can they?

Aiofe is lovely, love Roisin and Aisling also but we have too many in the family now
my cousin just had an Aine if that's any good for you?

Clodagh??...I've only even encountered lovely Clodaghs

I love the name Oisin but doesn't go well with my childrens names.

I'm pretty stumped about how to pronounce most of the names suggested (but thank you all)! Is Clodagh as it looks? I believe we have Taigh in my family - how is that pronounced? What about Aine? I am beginning to think that if I can't spell/promounce a name then I should stay well clear or use it as a middle name.

I also am aware that I might not get the nuances right (like my suggestion of Erin) and use a name that just gets responses from my Irish family for being the wrong sort of name (if that makes sense). When I mention an Irish person I have met to my mother she tends to analyse their name - "oh, they'll be from Cork then" or similar comments. This may be an older generation thing or more about surnames than first names, but I am beginning to think that we could get this more wrong than right.

Clodagh is CLO-dah. Taigh would be spelled Tadhgh, pronounced TIE-g (like Tiger without the ER).

I think you could just have a hyper-sensitive mother, Sal321. Although I knew a lot of Darina's in Irish college who were from the midlands (of Ireland) and never met any from Dublin.

Aine is pronounced OnYa.

I wanted to call my dd Clodagh but lived in the uk at the time and decided against it. some said 'like Claddagh? oh yuck!' and that put me off it. I hadn't even thought that the two were remotely similar before then.