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Baby Names - English or Irish

alysee

By alysee,
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alysee

alysee

Posted
Posted

Naming the 6th is proving to be difficult. We don't want to repeat a letter. We have a M, C, D, B, L. Our kids have Irish or English sounding names. 

Hit me with the best names. 

Laura Corin

Laura Corin

Posted
Posted

How about Scottish for a change?

For a girl, I like Ailsa - it's pretty and the pronunciation is fairly obvious.  For boys, I like Alasdair, Alec or Alexander.  Recently, I've seen a few people nicknamed Xander, which is a fun variation.

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Carrie12345

Carrie12345

Posted
Posted

The only Celtic-esque one I have that isn’t already on your letter list is overused and nearing outdated, so I’ll keep it to myself, lol.

But I feel your pain. We didn’t want to repeat letters (I am one of 3 Cs, so it’s a thing for me) and #5 was very difficult, especially as a 3rd boy. I wound up breaking my syllable rule to make it work. 

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kristin0713

kristin0713

Posted
Posted

Do you want a very different sounding name or more traditional/common? Kelly was my first thought. I have an Evie, pronounced with a short e. It’s not technically English but was becoming popular in the UK when she was born 16 years ago. Still pretty uncommon in our experience. DD has two friends named Teagen, which I think is really cute. 

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alysee

alysee

Posted
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Posted
4 minutes ago, kristin0713 said:

I wasn’t thinking you wanted boy names too. I love Oliver (more common) and Graham. I knew a Graham in high school but haven’t known one since. 

I love Graham too but my husband vetoed it! 

Laura Corin

Laura Corin

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, alysee said:

I love Graham too but my husband vetoed it! 

There's an interesting pronunciation quirk with Graham.  As a Brit I pronounce it GRAY-uhm (two syllables) but my Texas husband pronounces it GRAM (one syllable).

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MEmama

MEmama

Posted
Posted

DS has an Irish name. He reports it’s more common here than there. Lol

I would stay away from names that use Irish or Gaelic pronunciation, assuming you live in North America. No one wants to spend their lives correcting people on how to pronounce or spell their name. The name might be lovely, but correcting everyone gets old by the first grade. 

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ktgrok

ktgrok

Posted
Posted (edited)

Rose or Rosemary

June

Jacob

Kate/Katie/Kathleen/Kay or Catherine/Katherine/Katheryn (katelyn and Caitlyn are popular, but you don't see many Kathleen/Katherines anymore...my grandma and my mom are both Kathleen, one went by Kay, one went by Kathy before going back to Kathleen, and I'm Katie, so I'm partial to these names)

Kelly (my sister...we like K names)

 

 

 

Edited by ktgrok
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wintermom

wintermom

Posted
Posted (edited)

I love Irish names, however the spelling of most Irish names is going to probably be an issue in North America for the child's entire life. I've got a name that I need to spell out everytime. It's tiresome and I wish that there was an easy nickname. Most Irish names do not have an obvious nickname either. 

Then again, with all the variety of spellings of names these days, most people end up having to spell out their names anyway. 

Congratulations on your baby!! Hope you find just the right name for your family!

Edited by wintermom
  • Like 3
alysee

alysee

Posted
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Posted
1 hour ago, MEmama said:

DS has an Irish name. He reports it’s more common here than there. Lol

I would stay away from names that use Irish or Gaelic pronunciation, assuming you live in North America. No one wants to spend their lives correcting people on how to pronounce or spell their name. The name might be lovely, but correcting everyone gets old by the first grade. 

Hahaha my kids have the Canadian/American version of Irish names because of my name. My first name has an unusual letter in it which was supposed to help people with the pronunciation but makes it actually worse. 

  • Like 3
wintermom

wintermom

Posted
Posted

Thomas

Theodor (could be Theo or Ted/Teddy)

John

Joseph

John Joe (if you want to do a double name)

Jack (it's common in Ireland that if you have the first name John, you'll be called Jack)

 

Kanin

Kanin

Posted
Posted

I love Kelly. One of my dearest childhood friends is named that. Love Alice, too! An Alice could nickname Allie or Al. I like nickname opportunities 🙂 

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Loowit

Loowit

Posted
Posted

I have a Seamus and he loves his name.  He doesn't mind having to correct pronunciation or spelling.  He actually gets a lot of compliments on it.

My other son and daughter also have traditional Irish names but we used the anglicized spellings.  DD wishes we had used the traditional spelling of her name, and is considering changing it legally at some point.

Other names I thought about for any future children were:  Siobhan, Mairead, Finn, Tadhg

I also really like the name Ophelia, but DH was very against it.  I shouldn't have let him watch Hamlet.

  • Like 1
ktgrok

ktgrok

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, wintermom said:

 

Jack (it's common in Ireland that if you have the first name John, you'll be called Jack)

 

Yup, my grandfather and my uncle are both Jack with a real name of John. One of my kids is also a Jack, but NOT John...my ex husband's name was John, so naming a son with my now husband that would be weird, lol. And we knew we wanted to call him Jack anyway, not John, so just went with Jack. 

1 hour ago, Pam in CT said:

I vote Siobhan and Seamus.

I had to literally look up how to pronounce Siobhan on youtube a few months ago, as a character in a book was named that and I had NO CLUE how to pronounce it. 

  • Haha 1
saraha

saraha

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Yup, my grandfather and my uncle are both Jack with a real name of John. One of my kids is also a Jack, but NOT John...my ex husband's name was John, so naming a son with my now husband that would be weird, lol. And we knew we wanted to call him Jack anyway, not John, so just went with Jack. 

I had to literally look up how to pronounce Siobhan on youtube a few months ago, as a character in a book was named that and I had NO CLUE how to pronounce it. 

This is where we learned Siobhan! Also a name pronounced “Queefa”! But with like nine letters and none of them like it sounds

Edited by saraha
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kbutton

kbutton

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

There's an interesting pronunciation quirk with Graham.  As a Brit I pronounce it GRAY-uhm (two syllables) but my Texas husband pronounces it GRAM (one syllable).

Gra'am is common among people I know--they make it two syllables, but the H is kind of silent. I have heard the other two though! 

Silas
Evelyn (also pronounced a couple of ways)
Fionnuala
Kevin
Winnifred

I'm a big fan of Call the Midwife, so I should have a better list, but I am blanking.
 

wintermom

wintermom

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

Yup, my grandfather and my uncle are both Jack with a real name of John. One of my kids is also a Jack, but NOT John...my ex husband's name was John, so naming a son with my now husband that would be weird, lol. And we knew we wanted to call him Jack anyway, not John, so just went with Jack. 

I had to literally look up how to pronounce Siobhan on youtube a few months ago, as a character in a book was named that and I had NO CLUE how to pronounce it. 

According to my school chums, it's pronounced "soya-bean." At least that's what kids called Siobhan in my school growing up. 😔 It's not easy living with a name that's hard to pronounce.

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TarynB

TarynB

Posted
Posted

A relative of mine named her son Harkin. I'd never heard it before. She says/thinks it is Irish. Anyone here ever known someone named Harkin as their first name?

Drama Llama

Drama Llama

Posted
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I love Irish names!  My kids have very boring Catholic names, along the lines of Patrick, and very boring religious/biblical names along the lines of Daniel. 

But if I wasn't such a boring person, I'd have named them things like Tadhg or Diarmaid or if they happened to be girls Aoife, Róisín or Fionnuala.

Which kind of names do you like, or do you prefer the middle ground?  Things like Eamonn, Seamus, Declan, Maeve, Aidan that most people know of?

  • Like 1
alysee

alysee

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4 hours ago, Clarita said:

My husband said I couldn't name my son Declan because I couldn't pronounce it correctly. 

 

We have a Declan 🤣

Drama Llama

Drama Llama

Posted
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4 minutes ago, alysee said:

We have a Declan 🤣

I love the name Declan.  If had the opportunity to name another boy, he might be Declan.  

If Declan is your style, what about Eamon?

  • Like 1
ktgrok

ktgrok

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, alysee said:

Our top 3 names so far

G - Alana, Alice, Ivy

B - Fionn, Reed, Nolan
 

 

How do you pronounce Fionn? Is the O silent, so it is like Finn?

 

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