Irish girls names

ittakestwo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120781961#Comment_120781961

Yeah and there is so many nice irish names that dont have this problem. But i think some people like that fact it is difficult to pronounce to make it sound unique. Thankfully my parents did the irish names that can be easily spelled and pronounced outside of Ireland.

newmember2

Can't get more Irish than Gráinne!

trixiebust

Aisling

whats_my_name

I love Saorlaith & Ríona.

I also have an Irish name and while it did cause issues with people overseas I found it an ice breaker & always a conversation starter!

Day Lewin

A few more old-fashioned Irish names:

Síle

Fionnuala, or Nuala

Nora

Eithne

Bríd

Bebhinn

Una

Sinéad

Mairsile

Nóinín (Irish for Daisy)

Patser

My daughter's name is Aislín - (Irish for Little vision, pronounced Ashleen) Bear in mind though, you end up having to spell any non standard name again and again

Reati

Name your child the name you love. Don't mind this "ugh, it's hard for X to pronounce" nonsense. Irish names are not some uniquely difficult thing. Polish, Indian, Russian, Asian etc names can be pretty tough for folks outside of those cultures. My entirely family have Irish names most with a scary fada and unsurprisingly, the only issue I've had with Irish names tends to be from monolingual English speakers. Many folks ask about the name. I think another poster said it's a good ice breaker.

Pick the name you love and just make sure you pronounce it correctly :)

fits

I have a fairly bog standard English name and surname and I still had to spell out and tell people how to pronounce when I lived in a non English speaking country so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Would worry more about if it causes problems at home - which some obscure names can.

iniscealtra

Well said @Reati Choose a name you love and ádh mór with the baba.

iniscealtra

I live in Ireland and wouldn’t consider any of the above names ‘obscure’. People are generally very accepting of a persons given name and if they aren’t they are d***s and few and far between. It hasn’t been my experience that people in Ireland behave like that and if they do they should be called out for it and not supported by trying to placate them. Jasus you’d swear everyone was called John or Mary in this country like Father Ted by some of the above responses.

I work with teenagers. The variety of names is pretty wide, plenty with fada’s and plenty without. Plenty Irish names and plenty international ones. Over twenty years I’ve come across a lot of names more unusual names than above and no-one bats an eyelid even in Ireland.

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785454#Comment_120785454

Agreed, you might get away with it as a girl but if it's a boy you're getting a nick name.

travkp

Personally I couldn’t care less if people can pronounce it or not or need to learn how to spell it. Came on here to ask for name suggestions not to be told ‘don’t name your child an Irish name cause of x y and z’. Honestly people have too much time on their hands if they can come on a discussion about names and write a post about why you shouldn’t call a child a name 🙄

Anyway thank you for your suggestions so far but still feel like I haven’t found the ‘one’ may be it’s because I absolutely love my daughters name (which no one has had a problem pronouncing even though it has fadas and is Irish, madnesss I know!!) that I finding finding another girls name I love hard.

ittakestwo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120787047#Comment_120787047

Why would you care if people can spell it or pronounce it. You wont have to live with the name. People are making a point that given a kid a hard name to pronounce and spell will factually have inpraticallities for the kid when older and travelling outside of Ireland.

For instance if parents like the sound of the girls name Orla they could spell it that way but oh no not being pretentious enough spelling it that way. Need to spell it Orlaith despite the problems it will give her abroad when older.

travkp

Who said I was gonna give her a ‘hard’ name to pronounce/spell, also define a ‘hard name’. People have trouble pronouncing /spelling the name Tom for instance, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t name your child that name just because someone ‘might’ have difficulty pronouncing it 🙄. My own name is a what you would call a ‘hard’ name to spell and pronounce and I have lived abroad for many years and never encountered any negative comments about it. Also changing the name Orlaith to Orla to facilitate others is ridiculous, Orlaith is the root and correct form of the name while Orla is the simplified spelling of it. Spell a name how you want but I certainly wouldn’t change it to benefit others. Also how often do you actually spell your name on a weekly basis?! Except for school where you’re writing your own name down and the teacher (s) know your name when ever do you need to spell it out?!

I find these comments so strange, like as if you walk along the street telling random people your name and start spelling it out 🤣🤣 nearly as bad as the person who said she has to explain her name 20 times a day!!

HeidiHeidi

I love Liath.

Or Étaín.

suvigirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120789134#Comment_120789134

Other countries don't all just speak English y'know?

Other countries have their own languages and their own names. I say my name to people and then automatically spell it, it's not a big deal and No one thinks it's unusual that I do that.

I do not understand the shame people have for their own irish names

iniscealtra

Post colonial shame ?

iniscealtra

@suvigirl Good luck with the name. One more suggestion.

One of the Clare hurlers is called Séadhna which is nice. I have also met a girl at work with the same name. Not so common but an old name. I quite like it.

Higgins5473

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120780591#Comment_120780591

100%…my name is in Irish, the only place where people have issue with it, go to the trouble of translating/using the English version is Ireland. even without seeing how it is spelt, I say the Irish version and within no time it’s the English version being used, which I would say is not my name at all.

iniscealtra

Síomha

Donnfhlaith or Donnla

travkp

Ohhh like that, how do you pronounce it?

Moonbeam

4 kids with Irish names and surnames and we live abroad . We can’t pronounce their names or them ours but I love that my kids have unique names and they are not big standard English names .

I also find that they go to more trouble to learn how to pronounce our names and we find that nearly everyone in Europe is bi or tri lingual anyway once you leave English speaking countries.

HeidiHeidi

I have a fully Irish name/surname (first name usual enough, easy to pronounce, surname not wildly unusual either), and the only ones who won't even attempt it are Irish people - if I'm in a queue or waiting room and they call Xxxxxx Ní ........ (silence), I know straight away it's me.

I've lived abroad and worked with a lot of foreigners over the years, and they'll always give it a go, or ask (and listen to the answer!) or both.

I do get sick of having to spell my surname every single time though. And 50% of the time they'll still get it wrong.

Kaybaykwah

I still think Colleen hits it out of the ballpark or slap shoots it in North American terms.

iniscealtra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120791598#Comment_120791598

Síomha = she va

Originally a saints name. There is an Irish singer with the same name if you Google it. I like the name a lot.

Síthmaith f Old Irish (older spelling)

From Old Irish síd meaning "peace" or "fairy mound, tumulus" and maith meaning "good".

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1_QKVf7D_h0

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADthmaith

StreetLight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120783837#Comment_120783837

That's a lovely name, but I can just imagine how it would be mangled by a Brit into something approaching a slur for a female body part.

iniscealtra

@StreetLight Fanny is a very common girls name in France.

suvigirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120821371#Comment_120821371

Finland too!

Kaybaykwah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120821168#Comment_120821168

Shiva —— also happens to be the Hindu God of the Moon, of Creation and Destruction.

Madd002

Fiadh for a girl, cousins daughter born last week in meath & sister's friend in Dublin also called her Fiadh both born same day & not known to each other.😊