I like strange Gaelic names...

santo614 · March 2011

DH and I are really only considering names with Gaelic history. I know that they are not everyone's thing, and it doesn't matter to me that people won't be able to pronounce them at first. That being said, which of these names do you like?

Boy:

Cillin (KILL yeen)

Coinneach (KUH-nek)

Conaire (KUH-na-ree)

Cael

Caireach Carrick or Carrig

Girl:

Caoimhe (Cay-va or Key-va)

Aine (Anya)

Ailsa

Iona

Aimiliona (Ah mi LEE na)

Caireach (Care-ick or Kee-rick)

Eile- Ayla

Like I said, I know many people will not like any of them, but what I'm really looking for is which you do like, or other similar Gaelic name suggestions.

damabo80 · March 2011

YOU may not care that your baby is going to go through life getting his name butchered, and having to continually correct people, but s/he might. For that reason, in good coinscience, I can only say I like Carrick and Iona above.

TUGOsQueen · March 2011

I love Gaelic names but you better have a strong comparable LN.

I like ones that are a little more obvious for the pronunciation. or at least use similar Americanized sounds. Ex. we're used to seeing and pronouncing Sean so Seamus works.

Many of them require a pronunciation key written next to it.

For a boy I like Teague, and a girl Ciara which would be slaughter since it is Kiera.

mrsfirefly · March 2011

damabo80:
YOU may not care that your baby is going to go through life getting his name butchered, and having to continually correct people, but s/he might. For that reason, in good coinscience, I can only say I like Carrick and Iona above.

Agreed. And since your LO will one day have to have his/her name on a resume, I'd go with one that is pronounced like it is spelled. Having an unpronounceable name can really impact a job hunt.

EXL311 · March 2011

I would definitely go with a Gaelic name that is more easily pronounced. The people close to your child will learn the pronunciation once and it won't be a problem after that. However, your child will come across a lot of other people who will constantly butcher their names. My name is Deirdre and I can't even tell you how often I have to repeat the pronunciation to the same person before they can finally get it. Then I can see them again another time and they can't pronounce it again. It's really frustrating and annoying to have to correct people constantly so some people just call me Deidre and I don't say anything anymore.

Mattel · March 2011

I think a lot of these sound beautiful. If you really like one of them, I would go for a more obvious spelling, as one of the pp's mentioned. You lose some of the Gaelic charm of the spellings, but I think it would be a good compromise between your favorites and the baby that will grow up with that name.

kbratton2king · March 2011

Cael and Eile

LuciaLucentum · March 2011

I don't care for any of the boy names, but I really like Cillian and Cian, which are similar to many of those you have listed.

I think Aine, Ailsa (my favourite) and Iona are great from the girl list.

redshe · March 2011

I have a unique name which people find hard to pronounce etc. and as one of those people I can honestly say I love my name and find it quiet amusing seeing people trying to pronounce it Big Smile it is also a good ice-breaker and conversation starter.

I'm not sure which of your names I like the best though, maybe Cael.

But I do love Cian and Aoibheal (Ah-veel) for a girl (even though these are not on your list)

AnneShirleyBlythe · March 2011

I like Gaelic names and I don't think you should dumb them down for Americans at all. They are real, legit names and IMO should only be used in their original form.

BlueRidge8 · March 2011

AnneShirleyBlythe:
I like Gaelic names and I don't think you should dumb them down for Americans at all. They are real, legit names and IMO should only be used in their original form.

Agreed.

kjgilhoo · March 2011

I don't know if I have a favourite out of your list. I do like gaelic names though, but I don't think I'd have the courage to use them with their proper spellings. As PP's have said, spell them how they are meant to be spelled rather than "westernizing" them.

The more they become used correctly, the more familiar they will become. Ex. Siobhan. Many people know that this is Sha-vonne. Same goes for Seamus, Fionn, Ciara, etc.

jgengo0 · March 2011

damabo80:
YOU may not care that your baby is going to go through life getting his name butchered, and having to continually correct people, but s/he might. For that reason, in good coinscience, I can only say I like Carrick and Iona above.

Yes

magsugar13 · March 2011

Please do not dumb them down if you choose to use one. Im sure your child and the people he will come in contact with will have enough intelligence to figure out how to handle his/her different name.

buckeyeki · March 2011

I always liked Aiofe (pronounced Eeef-ah), but since we have a very German last name it would sound absurd. I think it's basically the Irish version of Ava.

mrshansen84 · March 2011

I love them too... too bad my hubs a traditionalist. : )

chocolateaddict · March 2011

I was born and raised in Ireland and would love to name my kids Irish names but I just can't do it. My name is Orla and it is constantly butchered. I have gone past the point of caring but I don't want to do that to my kids. I chose to give our kids Irish middle names instead. Our DD's middle name is Maeve and it is still butchered. Half the people we know say her middle name is Mauve and the other half think it is Maven. Our second DD's middle name will be Aoife. There are lots of Irish names that are easier to pronounce - Brona, Aisling, Sinead, Niamh. I would definitely go with something that doesn't need a pronounciation key written beside it. Your kid will thank you later.

SpruceGrouse · March 2011

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I love Gaelic names and I speak a bit of Scottish Gaelic. My name is the english spelling of a Gaelic name (Sheena) in Gaelic it is spelled S?ne which is actually the name Jane and it is pronounced the same way. They went with the english spelling so it would be less confusing.

some other ideas in the Scottish Gaelic spelling:

Girls:

Seonag (Joan or Shona)

Morag (Sara) I love this one because it sounds strong, it is very common in Scotland.

Fl?raidh (Flora)

Mairead (Margaret) pronounced ma-eerat

S?leas (Julia) pronounced sheeluss

Boys:

Coinneach (Kenneth)

I?saph (Joseph)

Tormod (Norman)

Te?rlach (Charles)

Cailean (Colin)

santo614 · March 2011

Thank you for all of your suggestions! Many of the suggestions given are names already used in my family, or similar (SIL Ciara, BIL Conor, DH Ian, DS Kiernan, and Iona is a family name for me). I love all of those names.

We regret using the more Western spelling (Kiernan instead of Ciarnan) for our son, so I think we will definitely be true to our roots this time.

I did worry about what it would look like on a resume, but we're both military so maybe they'll follow in our footsteps and never have to worry about that :0). No seriously, we have a strong, prominent Scottish last name, one that is thankfully easy to pronounce. I have friends who put something like "C. Padraic Br____ (last name)" or "A. Iona Br___ (last name)" at the top of their resume, so interviewers are off-put by difficult pronunciation. I don't want to pick my name based on such a small part of life.

I think no matter what you name your child, there is a chance they won't like it. My name is very simple and I wish my mom were more creative. It's a chance we all take.

santo614 · March 2011

PS- Re-reading people's other suggestions, which I really like hearing.

My husband really wanted to have 3 boys and name them Seamus, Aonghus, and Fergus. I vetoed that. :0)

We really liked Killian or Cillian, until we thought about the fact that my DH is Ian. We couldn't get past Kill-Ian sounding like a weird subliminal message. It's often got a slash above the second i in Gaelic, which makes it Kill-YEEN, but there's really no way to annotate that in the US.

I love Aoife, DH doesn't.

Is Cian too similar to Kiernan? Sound too gimicky for sibs?

Scout05 · March 2011

lrachelle80:

AnneShirleyBlythe:
I like Gaelic names and I don't think you should dumb them down for Americans at all. They are real, legit names and IMO should only be used in their original form.

ITA. I love them.

Ditto these ladies. We picked an unusual Irish middle name, because it has meaning to us, and we're spelling it the correct way. It's a little easier w/ a middle name - just because it won't be used daily or have to appear on things like resumes or rosters - but still. The names you have are lovely, and people can deal.

I like Cillin for a boy, and Aine or Ailsa for a girl.

redshe · March 2011

AnneShirleyBlythe:
I like Gaelic names and I don't think you should dumb them down for Americans at all. They are real, legit names and IMO should only be used in their original form.

Agreed Smile

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