Gaelic Names

[ickle pand]

A lot of the names I like for our LO are Gaelic and come with unusual spelling and pronunciation. I'm really conscious of baby having to spell their name their whole life since I spend 30 years spelling my maiden surname (which was only Key so not complicated at all). Should I let this put me off? I definitely don't want to anglecize a Gaelic name because it takes away part of the beauty of it for me.

What do others think? Especially other Scots/Irish people.

 

[JJKCB]

depends really, my heritage is almost all Irish (my mams family, dads family and step dads family although im 3rd generation English) and even i cant pronounce half the irish names from reading them but some are easier than others

some easier names to spell:

girls:
Anna
Brogan
Caitlin
Deirdre
Moire
Morag
Una

boys:
Alasdair
Aaron
Bearnard
Brian
Calum
Cairan
Cormac
Daniel
Iain
Isaac
Lucas
Marc
Morgan
Michael
Niall
Rob
Samuel
Tomas

 

[ickle pand]

I suppose we have a different situation, we're Scottish and living in Scotland but have a few English family members. It's not so much that I'm looking for a Gaelic name, just that the names I like are Gaelic, if you know what I mean. They're the ones with silent letters that don't give much clue to the pronunciation, like Niamh or Eilidh (but not then, I'm keeping them a secret for now lol)

 

[Kallie3000]

I live Gaelic names! Just keep it short if it is unusual ( not a 10 letter name!) so that spelling it out is simple. My name, Kallie, is completely phonetic but I've always had to spell it out. Just do what you want!

 

[Annie77]

I love Gaelic names and have a Caitlin.

Other Gaelic names I like are

Ailish / Eilish
Erin
Aoife
Aine
Eilidh
Mairead ( though the philpott tragedy has put me off this a bit)
Caiomhe
Niamh
Roisin

Aidan
Shea
Sean
Eoin
Colm
Padraig
Liam
Conor

It's up to you what name you choose - family and friends will learn its spelling.

 

[ickle pand]

Well one of the names has about 9 different spellings so I might go with the easiest one.

Thanks for the advice

 

[windswept]

I live in the outer hebrides, and there are a lot of Gaelic names up here, often with people having a Gaelic and an English version, which I often find confusing and never know when to use which (I'm not a gaelic speaker)!

But what i struggle with the most are the names which need a very Gaelic pronunciation, eg Domhall instead of Donald (pronounced 'Dole') or Caitriona (pronounced Kit-tree-a-onna) - I love them here and in this context, but think of the kids going off to uni in Glasgow and no-one getting it right to say, never mind write...

But I do love names which can be said, but not necessarily spelt.

I totally understand why you worry about spelling - I have spent my whole life dropping the h from Cristina.... And I also had a maiden name that required spelling. So it is a consideration for my name choices! It's not a hardship, but it's a pest to have to spell every time. But what I would hate more is for someone to read the name and not pronounce it right... Niamh is one of those names, I'm afraid!

Very intrigued as to what your name choice is... Nosey me!

Cx

 

[LDC]

I wanted Niamh for a girl, I just love it. We decided against it due to people not knowing how to say it (I could imagine LO being at school and during registration them saying nim-ph god knows why).

There is another mum on here who has called her daughter Niamh, I asked her if there had been confusion and she said yes.

Saying that we settled on Esme (es-may) and people say es-me which I find really annoying. So next time if its a girl I'm definitely having Niamh!! I figure, after initial confusion people will remember, it will just be when writing her name that people are likely to spell it wrong - I have this with my name though, which is very straight forward to spell!!

Xx

 

[wannabemomy37]

I wanted Niamh for a girl, I just love it. We decided against it due to people not knowing how to say it (I could imagine LO being at school and during registration them saying nim-ph god knows why).

There is another mum on here who has called her daughter Niamh, I asked her if there had been confusion and she said yes.

Saying that we settled on Esme (es-may) and people say es-me which I find really annoying. So next time if its a girl I'm definitely having Niamh!! I figure, after initial confusion people will remember, it will just be when writing her name that people are likely to spell it wrong - I have this with my name though, which is very straight forward to spell!!

Xx

Just had to look up how Niamh is pronounced and apparently there are two ways: Nee-av or Neev, so that alone is confusing. Nee-av sounds pretty tho.

 

[lozzy21]

I called my LO Niamh so that shows i dont care lol.

It was just what we liked and thats how you spell it. Some people dont know how to say/spell it but then some people cant spell my name right. You cant get any plainer than Laura and over the years iv had Lora, Lara

 

[lozzy21]

I wanted Niamh for a girl, I just love it. We decided against it due to people not knowing how to say it (I could imagine LO being at school and during registration them saying nim-ph god knows why).

There is another mum on here who has called her daughter Niamh, I asked her if there had been confusion and she said yes.

Saying that we settled on Esme (es-may) and people say es-me which I find really annoying. So next time if its a girl I'm definitely having Niamh!! I figure, after initial confusion people will remember, it will just be when writing her name that people are likely to spell it wrong - I have this with my name though, which is very straight forward to spell!!

Xx

Just had to look up how Niamh is pronounced and apparently there are two ways: Nee-av or Neev, so that alone is confusing. Nee-av sounds pretty tho.

How you pronounce it depends on your accent. A friend from dublin, us and every one else we know would say Neev and a work mate from northen ireland would say Neeav.

 

[ickle pand]

That's what I was going to say Neeav is definitely more Northern Irish sounding.

 

[threebirds]

I love Irish names, but would probably not go for one that is really difficult for others to spell / pronounce, although some of these are so pretty.
Names I like but probably wouldn't use:
Naoise

Aoibhinn
Caoimhe

More straight forwards ones:
Liam
Cahal
Killian
Dara / Daragh
Cian
Brendan

Cara
Aine
Aisling


Good luck deciding x

 

[1948LC]

I also love Irish names. I've only ever had one person pronounce my daughter Niamh wrong an that was the Health Visitor when she was born and I was to polite to correct her so every time we saw her it was the same pronounciation. Everyone else has said her name perfectly.x

 

[Sinead]

My name is Sinead and i have had to spell it out all my life. You just get so used to doing it that it doesnt bother me anymore. Irish names are becoming more popular so spelling and pronounication may ne less of an issue. I wanted to call my dd Aoife and my ds Oisin but dh didnt want Irish names. If you like the name go for it, i love have a slightly unusual name

 

[ickle pand]

That's reassuring. There are so many lovely names out there but it's hard to find one that's not commonly used but is still a "real name". I think Irish gaelic names are more common than Scottish Gaelic ones but there is a crossover. Baby can have a non Gaelic middle name in case they really hate it lol!

 

[Annie77]

I always thought Caitlin was quite straight forward but we did get birth and christening cards with all types of spelling; Kate-Lynn, catelyn, kaitlyn etc

I don't think it's the names fault though - there are increasing numbers of people who choose to spell 'normal names' in an unusual way so we are all left wondering how to spell names.

For instance I have met Ana, Ema, Hanna, Jon, Briann, Elizzibeth !

I also looked at a link for Scottish register of names for Scotland 2012. There were obviously some parents who actually didn't know how names were supposed to be spelt and got it wrong when registering - Pheobe instead of phoebe or caoimhe spelt as coaimhe
for instance

 

[ickle pand]

I'll be double checking my spelling before I register then. Pheobe is a totally different name to Phoebe lol!