6 month countdown - boys names

desiredbard

and I will be a daddy.
http://www.de-ridder.info/personal/update.php

We dont know what it is yet .... we have girls names but have difficulty finfing a nice boys name.
I would like nothing foreign and if possible nothing to english either.
Fionn is however not an option

Shelli

There's loads of nice Irish boys names:

Tadhg
Conor
Sean
Neil
Cathal
Cian
Ciaran
Cillian
Colm
Daire

Try looking at websites, there are loads out there.

Congrats by the way, we are expecting the arrival of our babs in just under 6 months too!

embee

http://www.babynamenetwork.com

There are thousands of names here, from Aboriginal to Zimbabwean baby names and everything in between. I picked a Welsh name for my daughter, from this site.

Congrats on the pregnancy!

dame

If you're picking an Irish name then will you at least make sure you use an Irish spelling? In my opinion there's nothing worse than an Irish name with a made-up English or phonetic type spelling.

eg
Ciaran (fada on second a, not sure how to do that with this keybpard), not Kieran.
Sean (again fada), not Shawn.
etc.

Nevyn

Shawn and Shaun are scots gealic verisons of Séan.

Aside: dame go into System Settings, International & select the Input Menu, and make sure that "Irish" is selected. Then you use use the key Alt GR which is beside the space bar you press that and what ever vowel you want.
áéíóú.

I like names that have a link back to family even if it is a second name.
My daughter was born on her grandfather's 50th birhtday and so her second name is Roberta after him which is quiet a contrast to her old irish first name.

Also mine are name after people from irish myths and legends and they enjoying hear the story of those who had the same name, why thier name was chosen for them, helps them with thier identity.

newwifey

We are due another arrival in about 5 months and have a boys name picked but no girls name. Have a sneaking feeling it may be a boy anyway.

We have settled on Odhran (fada on the a) pronounced oran and spelled orinn or orann but we will be going with the irish spelling

dame

Thaedydal wrote:

Aside: dame go into System Settings, International & select the Input Menu, and make sure that "Irish" is selected. Then you use use the key Alt GR which is beside the space bar you press that and what ever vowel you want.
áéíóú.

Thanks Thaedydal.

Sctos Gaelic is not Irish.

To those wondering how to spell Irish names and sticking in fadas where they feel like;
the fada on a vowel lengthens the vowel. So if you want to pronounce it as Oran (as in Oranmore, Co.Galway), then putting in a fada on the a will mean a native Irish speaker will pronounce it Oraaawn.

I suggest the original spelling of old Irish names. Do some research or you'll come up with a nonsense.

Each to his own I suppose but getting beautiful traditional names wrong really bugs me to be honest.

Nevyn

Well I first read of the names we choose in Táin Bó Cúalnge so I am happy that they are indeed the old irish verisions.

But what an 'irish' name is will change with different people new cultures coming
to live and have children here.

There are Dafos, Chucka, Shajed, Dion, Cardy as well as the James, John, Robin, Paul and Mary in my children's classes.

desiredbard

dame wrote:

If you're picking an Irish name then will you at least make sure you use an Irish spelling? In my opinion there's nothing worse than an Irish name with a made-up English or phonetic type spelling.

eg
Ciaran (fada on second a, not sure how to do that with this keybpard), not Kieran.
Sean (again fada), not Shawn.
etc.

Oh of course.... I would not dare to do it without.

Blush_01

Thaedydal wrote:

Shawn and Shaun are scots gealic verisons of Séan.

Aside: dame go into System Settings, International & select the Input Menu, and make sure that "Irish" is selected. Then you use use the key Alt GR which is beside the space bar you press that and what ever vowel you want.
áéíóú.

I like names that have a link back to family even if it is a second name.
My daughter was born on her grandfather's 50th birhtday and so her second name is Roberta after him which is quiet a contrast to her old irish first name.

Also mine are name after people from irish myths and legends and they enjoying hear the story of those who had the same name, why thier name was chosen for them, helps them with thier identity.

Also, Alt Gr, Shift and the letter (Á,É,Í,Ó,Ú) for Áine etc..

I love Eoghan but don't like the name spelled any other way. Also, Odhrán is usually pronounced orawn, like Úna is oona, rather than uh-na (although people have less of a problem with that due to its existence in other languages).

Pherekydes

How about Toirdealbhach? Sometimes seen as Turlough. The correct pronunciation is Tray-lock. Also, Cathal, Diarmuid and Oisín are nice, if you're into the Irish names. Good luck with the pregnancy and birth.

desiredbard

Slow coach wrote:

How about Toirdealbhach? Sometimes seen as Turlough. The correct pronunciation is Tray-lock. Also, Cathal, Diarmuid and Oisín are nice, if you're into the Irish names. Good luck with the pregnancy and birth.

Encountere Iain yesterday which has a nice ring to it.

Do not mean this nasty but the sites above are even more sceptic perverted[/] then http://www.20000-names.com/ is.
McArthy as a first name, and the American misspellings of some names.:mad:

Actually we (I) am loooking for an Irish name which is not going to raise to many eybrows and involves respelling the name for 30 minutes, to still end up with a "typo" when abroad.

Niamh is confusing enough, I have seen Niamf Niamph Neve Niav etc
Same thing for me: Baz Boz Baaz Bass Bos Boss (I like the last one)

Thing is I was born in Holland and my parents made a point from it to include the identity in the name. I think its a good thing. Now the baby is going to be Irish, the last name will be dutch (mine).
I think it would be stupid to give him/her a full dutch name. So I set my heart on Irish firstnames, (No Kyley's Britney's or Brads), but nothing to severe either (I hate long names that can be abreviated).
If possible no mainland connections either although James might be an option.


OK thats narrowing it down isnt it, Irish not to long and not exceeding 2 syllables if possible (and 8 characters)

Nevyn

BRAN:meaning "raven."
AODHAN meaning fire
COLM meaning dove
CONALL "strong as a hound/wolf."
DAITHI (Daithí): Irish/Gaelic name meaning "swift."
DONAL: Irish nickname for Gaelic Domhnall, meaning "world ruler."
OISIN (Oisín): "Little deer."
OSCAR: "Deer-lover." Irish name composed of the Gaelic elements os "deer" and cara "lover."
RONAN (Rónán): "Little oath/seal." Irish name composed of the element rón "oath, seal" and a diminutive suffix.

There are plenty of them but I guess you have to findone that fits and feels right and one that the dutch half of the family won't struggle to pronounce.

luckat

Hmmm... read and listen, write down names you think you like the sound of, find out about your own ancestry.

If you read the great kids' version of the Fiannaíocht by James Stephens you'll find all the names of the Fianna (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ift/). Good fun, too!

You can also try the Red Branch Cycle, though I've never been able to stand that crowd, personally.

You're quite right about not making things difficult when they go abroad. Pain in the ass to be always explaining one's name and spelling it for people.

By the way, Shawn and Shaun aren't actually Scots Gaedhlig, they're transliterations of the sound of Seán into English, Thaed. Scots Gaedhlig (there should be an accent grave on one of those letters, I think) has spelling more like the proper Irish spelling discarded here in the 1960s - no 'w'.

SarahMc

What about Seamus, isn't that the Irish version of James? I, like Thaedydal, like the idea of names cascading through generations of family. The traditional method in Ireland is first born if girl is called after mother's mother, if boy, after father's father.

Ruu_Old

What could be better than (mo aimn)Ruairí or Rúaidhrí (I think that is the Scot spellage).:)

crosstownk

Thaedydal wrote:

Shawn and Shaun are scots gealic verisons of Séan.

I know I'm being pedantic, but its Seán - not Séan. Believe me, I know - I sent a batch of 1000 business cards back because of this:D . I also think that Shawn and Shaun are anglicisied and Amercanised (Not Gaelic/Scots Gaelic) versions of Seán, which itself is an Irish version of the Hebrew name, John. The letter W does not exist in either Gaeilge or Gaelic. The the letter S in both languages does not require a 'h' to to give the 'Shh' sound of Seán - it requires the 'e'.

Regards,

Seán.:p

Nevyn

Yes you are right it should be Seán some times my dyslexia gets the better of me.

dame

Along with no "w", there's also no "k" or "y" in the Irish language.

dame

Thaedydal wrote:

But what an 'irish' name is will change with different people new cultures coming
to live and have children here.

There are Dafos, Chucka, Shajed, Dion, Cardy as well as the James, John, Robin, Paul and Mary in my children's classes.

A name is not made "Irish" just because there is a child of that name in an Irish classroom, wherever the child comes from/was born. Fashions for names will change but an Irish name is an Irish name and that will never change.

When I went to school there were three Caroline's and two Joanne's in my class but nobody would ever suggest they were Irish names.

Nevyn

What is mean is these will be the names of irish people rather then being lingustically irish names haveing a root in the irish language.

LegacyUser

I found it hard to find nice Irish boy names...but found this one....Rian!!...unusual..but not weird!! (Pronounced REEN)

crosstownk

kaiser1 wrote:

I found it hard to find nice Irish boy names...but found this one....Rian!!...unusual..but not weird!! (Pronounced REEN)

A friend of mine has a little lad of a similar name - but she spells her young lad's name "Riaghan".

I'm a fan of Irish names, my eldest is called Niamh and the most recent addition is Liam.

man1

dame wrote:

If you're picking an Irish name then will you at least make sure you use an Irish spelling? In my opinion there's nothing worse than an Irish name with a made-up English or phonetic type spelling.

eg
Ciaran (fada on second a, not sure how to do that with this keybpard), not Kieran.
Sean (again fada), not Shawn.
etc.

Kieran is a completely separate name to ciaran, not connected at all!

Rogueish

I have to say that I love the name Senan.

jaggiebunnet

Ruu wrote:

What could be better than (mo aimn)Ruairí or Rúaidhrí (I think that is the Scot spellage).:)

No better name at all - which is why i called my son Ruaidhrí!

dewsbury

I have an Irish name but would have preferred not to.

In my (lengthy) working life I have often worked with non-Irish (mainly ENglish) people.
In these cases I found it a hassle to be constantly spelling and re-pronouncing my name. In many cases these people just avoid using my name at all.

Similarly, a day to day basis (e.g. simple tasks like when you hire a video) do you really want to be spelling & re-pronouncing your name???

Keep it simple, easily pronouncable/spellable!!

I hate to say it but I find the tendency towards Irish names a somewhat nauseating symtom of the new confident celtic tigers. Very much a phase..

luckat

I like Irish names, and I'm glad to see Irish people confident - hope it's not a phase. (Is it a phase when French people give their kids French names, or Spanish people...?)

dame

It's mch better than calling our kids Megan or Chloe or Ben or Jake - now there's a phase! A little individuality is wonderful. I'd rather have a different name than have to run through my address as well to confirm that I'm a different Ben Murphy, not the Ben Murphy from down the road who's overdue returning his DVD's!

nesf

dewsbury wrote:

I hate to say it but I find the tendency towards Irish names a somewhat nauseating symtom of the new confident celtic tigers. Very much a phase..

Well, all patriotism aside, Irish names weren't exactly unused before the celtic tiger, though I appreciate the issue you have with foreigners and your name. People have trouble with mine (Pádraig) even though it's one of the more common and least intimidating ones. Though, if I used Ó Súilleabháin instead of O'Sullivan I'd imagine that things would be far worse for them..

Name choices go through phases, there is a lot written on how the cycle goes and how some drop out and how some names are never that far from popularity. What I find odd is the use of common nouns as peoples names. I swear some day I'll be introduced to some poor thing called Siúcra and have trouble keeping a straight face.

simu

Siúcra, Cabáiste, Páipéar Leithris, Coinín and Folúsghlantóir will all be big in years to come. But seriously, there's nothing wrong with Irish names imo. They're certainly better than names taken from soaps and famous people and so on.

nesf

simu wrote:

Coinín

Oooh, good one.

"Coinín! Go clean your room!"

InFront

dewsbury wrote:

In my (lengthy) working life I have often worked with non-Irish (mainly ENglish) people.
In these cases I found it a hassle to be constantly spelling and re-pronouncing my name. In many cases these people just avoid using my name at all.

This is a good point. As someone with a non-irish background, I have always had really big problems with spelling and remembering Irish names, and I know it annoys some people when I constantly get it wrong or have to ask them to spell it again!
Also as someone with a mildly unusual name myself, it actually ended up getting "anglicised" to a slightly different version, and is now the one I use the most. It doesn't bother me at all, but my parents complain about it.

So I guess the suggestion is that for the sake of your kids' patience, just keep it easy and maybe try avoid unusual versions? If something is too wordy/ hard to say/ spell he may just end up getting nicknamed.

simu

I don't know. I find, for example, those very easy to say four letter American names - chet, chad, jeff, zach, seth etc - impossible to remember. Better something more unusual imho!

nesf

InFront wrote:

So I guess the suggestion is that for the sake of your kids' patience, just keep it easy and maybe try avoid unusual versions? If something is too wordy/ hard to say/ spell he may just end up getting nicknamed.

That happens anyway. I've yet to meet another Pádraig or Páraic my age who didn't pick up the nickname Podge in primary school and have it continue to stick since then.


That said, I don't get annoyed by it but I will correct someone if they call me Pat or Patrick.

simu

Patsy would be bad, though.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Luke.

Then you can pick him up every morning and say, "Luke... I am your father..."

littlebug

simu wrote:

Siúcra, Cabáiste, Páipéar Leithris, Coinín and Folúsghlantóir will all be big in years to come. But seriously, there's nothing wrong with Irish names imo. QUOTE]


I have met a child called Uisce. I kid you not.

My 2 have lovely Irish names, not to be trendy but because the language is important to us. We thought they were simple enough names but both of them are constantly being mispronounced and mis-spelled even by our own families. It's hard to keep correcting people but my 4 year old corrects them herself now.
The surname adds to the confusion.

littlebug

littlebug wrote:

I have met a child called Uisce. I kid you not.

My 2 have lovely Irish names, not to be trendy but because the language is important to us. We thought they were simple enough names but both of them are constantly being mispronounced and mis-spelled even by our own families. It's hard to keep correcting people but my 4 year old corrects them herself now.
The surname adds to the confusion.

I was about to say I had "uisce" as a username on another board and I think it would be a nice name... maybe not then =/

Can I ask what yours are called?

littlebug

bluewolf wrote:

I was about to say I had "uisce" as a username on another board and I think it would be a nice name... maybe not then =/

Can I ask what yours are called?

I think part of it was that the day I met her she was an annoying little madam who kept all the glitter to herself ! (kids art class). I was telling a friend about her name and she just said (think broad mayo accent) "Wawwwther like" which made me giggle. Maybe if she's been a polite pleasant little girl I'd have liked the name.

My kids are called. A... hang on.... that'd mean putting my babies names on the internet and making us identifiable! Ok loads of people probably have the same two names as my two but being the paranoid individual that I am I'll pm you!

miju

when we were expecting our legendary little son josh who is five now we had about 3 boy names and 3 girl names picked out

course when we saw him for the first time none of those names "suited him" and we called him joshua which was a name that wasn't ever mentioned while the missus was preggers

nesf

littlebug wrote:

Maybe if she's been a polite pleasant little girl I'd have liked the name.

I read that as peasant first time around and it still made sense...

dame

littlebug wrote:

I have met a child called Uisce. I kid you not.

That'll be copying the celebs calling their kids Apple (Paltrow-Martin), River (Phoenix) and Peaches (Geldof). Just to be ultra-cool they pick an Irish word instead of an English one.

I actually like the name Cara for a girl though. It's a noun too - friend in Irish, but I don't think as a name it has an Irish origin, or does it?

Geordie_Girl

littlebug wrote:

I have met a child called Uisce. I kid you not.

I think part of it was that the day I met her she was an annoying little madam

I've met a girl with this name too. And she was a proper little bully.

There can't be that many of them! (Uisces not bullies.)

littlebug

Geordie_Girl wrote:

I've met a girl with this name too. And she was a proper little bully.

There can't be that many of them! (Uisces not bullies.)

That sounds like her alright!
Actually her parents could be reading this so we should be nice. It's just an unusual name (each to their own) and sure can't they all be little monsters sometimes!

LegacyUser

Its funny but its probably best just to have an idea of the names you like instead of saying to yourselves "if its a boy he'll be called...or if its a girl she'll be called..."

We had a couple of boys names picked out and a couple of girl names aswell....but the minute we saw our son after birth we just knew he was a Daniel....

Its only when you have your baby in your arms and look at him that you realise what name probably suits your baby.

niamh1975

Hi,

I love irish names. But yes they can be confusing to non irish folks. I remember once at work a yank read my name badge and said that "Nigh-am -H" was a great name!

foxinsocks

dame wrote:

It's mch better than calling our kids Megan or Chloe or Ben or Jake - now there's a phase! A little individuality is wonderful. I'd rather have a different name than have to run through my address as well to confirm that I'm a different Ben Murphy, not the Ben Murphy from down the road who's overdue returning his DVD's!

what's wrong with megan?!

newwifey

I know a guy called Uisce Waters!
I kid you not.

Anyway back to the boys names.
We have settled on Odhran, but I do like Luca but hubby hates it.

Raytown Rocks

I too am a fan of Irish names.
Have 2 girls already Shauna and Clodagh
And have a little boy on the way in 3 weeks ( please god)
He too shall have an Irish name ( nothing too mad) but sworn to secrecy until the moment of arrival.

WindSock

nesf wrote:

Oooh, good one.

"Coinín! Go clean your room!"

Or ''Coinín is at it like a bloody rabbit again"