Irish Girls Names

[mommiedearest]

Hi

I don't live in Ireland any more and my husband (who isn't Irish) and I have just had a baby girl, who we have called Aine (it is pronounced Awnya - sort of rhymes with sonya)which is a really old Irish name

I think it is a lovely name - Aine means radiance and light and she was the Celtic godess of Fire.

However, some people have been really negative about the name, which is really upsetting.

Am I mad for giving her this Irish name??

My three girls all have Irish names - one of which is mentioned on this thread. I did give them really nice English middle names too, just in case they felt like not using the Irish names but they really like them. People often have difficulty spelling them but once they have got the pronunciation it isn't a problem.
Anyway DH has a bog-standard English name and people often get that wrong too.

I never realised people would have trouble with my dd's name until we started telling people her name and getting raised eyebrows....

children and adults struggle with it and we get people giving that what-did-you-say? look

it is the "r" in her name that people struggle with

it is fairly common in Ireland

i love the name!!

aefondkiss whats her name?

btw how is eimear and eimhir pronounced?

"eemer" I think

BUMP

emer
fintan is a great name
I was to be called siobhan, my mam wrote it down ofr my nana and she apparently said sy-ob-han you cant call a baby sy-ob-han
so that was the end of that LOL
apparently nan wanted to call me suzy after her dead dog

Its a nice name, not silly or too strange sounding, she will have to spell it and repeat it a bit but there are loads of truely mad names, I have to spell mine all the time, but I like thatit is different and not silly.

at least it is a proper, old Irish name and a lovely one at that (ok I am biased)

Anyone for Princess Tiaammi - - I know, I know this Jordan a.k.a. Katie Price thing has been done to death, but I couldn't resist!

Aoibheann is a great name .

HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE IT ?
oops shouty capps

pronounced aveen - i associate this name with pointy nosed skinny girls so could nver use it but it is nice

We are finnish-african family in Finland, so idea naming our daughters is to find names fitting to both languages.
We named our dd2 Oona, selected during the pregnancy, not knowing name origin is Irish.

Only two years later, when her little sister happened to born at the very same date, my brother mentioned the day to be St. Patrick's day; March 17th ...

I have a Gaelic name and have to say it has been the bane of my life - looks lovely written down but has silent vowels which baffle most people. Even when I spell it out there's a puzzled silence. I think my parents could have had a bit of foresight, tbh.

I wanted to call my daughter aoife (eeefa) but chicken out cause we live in the uk - now of course she goes to catholic school and is best friends with an aoife!

Just scanning through this and I can't believe how many of us have daughters named Róisín !!!!

áine is one of my god-daughters names the others are:
Philomena
Fionnuala
Aife
Niamh
and Georgina !!

She'll love having an unusual Gaelic name - once she goes through the for F**ks sake what were you thinking of mother phase ..... I know ...... I'm a Siobhán !!!

I love the name Naoise but dh says it sounds too girly to be a boys name! Can it be used for a girl?

It's fee-on (ffion) mynameismum
Our dd nearly had that one but we've given her another Welsh name. I was slightly worried about her starting school (in Holloway) and noone saying it correctly but her reception teacher turned out to be Welsh too so she got off to a fine start.
Mommiedearest - I love that name for your new dd, the Irish names are so beautiful. Our ds has a Welsh version of a gorgeous Irish name. I think it's time to reclaim them all.

Hi Claireybee

I wouldn't use Naoise for a girl, it is most definately a boy's name. I think it sounds masculine - Neesha in phonetic English.

I knew a Naoise too, so for me it can't be anything other than male. If you read the Celtic myth cycle involving him, you will see it is a man's name for sure!

Yes I agree the background definitely makes it a mans name but I agree with dh that the phonetics are more feminine (to the English ear anyway!). Think maybe is because we are accustomed to girls names ending in a. Plus we know a Miesha (said just like Naoise but with a m not n) and she is a girl! DH says he met a lady through work called Neesha too so I suppose we could use it that way but then you lose the pretty spelling!

Aine is a lovely name and I went to school in Dublin with at least 3 Aine's.I now live in London and am married to an Indian so we are struggling slightly to find a name that both families can say never mind remember, esp since I'm not sure where I even want to live?!!?

Lots of little Ciara's around here at the mo, I lke that.

Like Aine too so long as your surname's not bike!

I love Caoimhe. Considered this for DS of he had been a girl

The only Naoise I know is a girl! I'm in Co Meath.