New here

[nearlyalegume.livejournal.com]

Hi, I've joined this community on a lazy Sunday afternoon because my fiance and I were discussing potential future baby names yesterday, and I'd like to run them by some impartial folks and see what you think.

There won't be any babies for a few years yet - we're not even getting married for 14 more months!

The plan is to have two children, or at least, that was the plan last time we discussed it, so we need two girl names and two boy names.

I've insisted that the first born boy have his father's middle name as his middle name, so he'll be Something James. The surname is Irish and monosyllabic, and so we're making lists of mostly Irish/Celtic/Gaelic names. I know that these aren't always everyone's cup of tea, but they'll sound right with the surname. The only stipulations are that names can't start with Q or end in an 'in' sound, and that the letter K is out.  I just don't like the letter K. Our recently-born nephew is Oliver, and his name works very well with the surname (which is the same).

My personal favourites are in italics.  I can certainly live with the others, but we all have our favourites in our lists of favourites, right?

Boys (alphabetical)
Adrian
Angus
Brian
Ciarán (Keer-an)
Cillian (Kill-ee-an)
Colin
David
Declan
Diarmid (Der-mid)
Dylan
Gareth
Hamish
Patrick
Rory

Girls (also alphabetical)
Ailis/Ailish (Eye-lish)
Aine (An-ya)
Cáelinn (Kay-lin)
Caoimhe (Kee-va)
Charlotte
Ciara (Kee-ra)
Erin
Freya
Gráinne (Grann-ya)
Imogen
Maeve
Olwyn
Rowena
Sinead (Shin-aid)
Siobhan (Shiv-on)


My favourite combinations are:

Ciáran James
Cillian James
Diarmid James
Cillian Rory
Rory Declan
Diarmid Patrick

Ailis Maeve
Ailis Elizabeth (my middle name)
Gráinne Maeve
Maeve Elizabeth
Gráinne Charlotte

Comments

[djador.livejournal.com]

I love Adrian and Cillian (or Killian)
Cillian James sounds great. =]

[politicking.livejournal.com]

i love:
Adrian
Brian
Colin
Dylan
Ailis
Charlotte
Erin

purely for less "how do you say this?!" or "no, it's spelled like ______, NO like ______" moments, i prefer the more anglicized spellings of certain names. just more of my style, you know?

Ciarán (Keer-an)- i can see this being said like Seer-e-an.
Cillian (Kill-ee-an)- i think people may say it more like Cill-ee-an/Sill-ee-an with the C spelling.
Caoimhe (Kee-va)- i love the sound of this, but the spelling gets me. it sucks because i don't think Kiva, Keeva, or Keva are nearly as pretty looking :\ but, i think they sound a lot better than people who will butcher Caoimhe.
Ciara (Kee-ra)- i'd spell it differently mostly because the name Ciara/Ciarra (pronounced See-air-uh or See-r-uh )is becoming a lot more popular.

all that said, i do really like those names, either spelling.

[americandiva.livejournal.com]

oo how i love gaelic names!


I love Caoimhe, Siobhan and Ciara.

Rory is great too!

[nearlyalegume.livejournal.com]

I get where you're coming from, but those are the traditional spellings, so I'm not going to change them. Kinda anal about that sorta thing, but that's just me. We'll probably not use Caoimhe (which is a shame, it's so pretty) for just that reason. A lovely name, but that's the one that people are most likely to have trouble with, and I don't want our child forever being called Kay-o-im-hee. It'd be fine if we lived in Ireland! I think that Cillian (thanks to Cillian Murphy, that actor-man) would be okay, and most people I know are familiar with Ciáran as well.

Thanks for the input!

[politicking.livejournal.com]

i feel the same way about Caoimhe, i think it sounds soooo pretty. but i know that someone's going to be like "Kay... Kai... Kay-o-im-he?" lol & i'd cringe everytime i'd hear it said all crazy like that lol.

[tryyingtoevolve.livejournal.com]

I like Adrian, Colin, Declan, Brian, Gareth, and Patrick for boys, and Charlotte, Erin, Maeve, and Sinead for girls. However, Sinead always makes me think of Sinead O'Connor, haha.

I really dislike a lot of the names with traditional Irish spellings because they seriously make NO SENSE when you're trying to read them. They just...don't. I mean, unless you're familiar, which most people aren't (although maybe you live in Ireland and I'm 100% wrong on this...)

I really love Adrian, Gareth, Patrick, Maeve, and Erin, though. They're gorgeous names:) And I like James a lot as a middle. Adrian James? It's got a cute nickname to go with it -- AJ:)

such beautiful names!!

[kimber-leigh.livejournal.com]

boys:
Ciáran James
Rory James
Declan James

girls:
Aine Elizabeth
Siobhan Elizabeth
Ciara Elizabeth

[http://users.livejournal.com/-----citylight/]

Ohhh I really like Meave! It's so cute!
And Caoimhe! If you're from america though, id suggest Keiva or Keeva.
How about Aoife? I've always loved that name.

James is lovely middle name! Rory goes lovely with it.

[nearlyalegume.livejournal.com]

I'm actually from Australia.

If I'm going to use a name, I'm going to use a traditional spelling, or not at all. That's why, as I said to politicking earlier, we'll probably not use Caoimhe. I really just don't like it when names aren't spelled traditionally. Personal thing. I'm a teacher, so I tend to encounter some VERY odd names and some equally odd spellings... another side effect is an increasing dislike of the hyphen...!

Mind you, the traditional spelling of Maeve is Maebh, but it's spelled Maeve often enough that it kind of makes it okay.

[nearlyalegume.livejournal.com]

I don't live in Ireland - I'm in Australia - but I can see where you're coming from. That said, names like Siobhan and Ciáran are common enough here that I don't think that people would have trouble with the pronunciation.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I love Maeve Elizabeth! Ciáran James is really pretty as well. I also like Adrian, I must say.
I don't like Diarmid all that much, since the pronunciation reminds me of Kermit (as in: the frog). Same goes for Hamish...The first thing I think of is 'Amish'. Not that that's very bad or anything, but it makes me like them less.
Oh, and as for the other girl's names, I really like Cáelinn & Ailish too =)

[bobinwales.livejournal.com]

I love Ciarán, Diarmid, Dylan & Rory out of your boys names.
From the girls I like Ailis, Caoimhe, Ciara, Erin & Imogen.

I love the sounds of Ciáran James and Ailis Elizabeth.
Also Imogen Elizabeth which is one of my top names!

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

I have a friend named Eilish and I like it better spelled that way.

I don't like it with the middle name Elizabeth because Ailish/Eilish means Elizabeth.

[http://users.livejournal.com/-----citylight/]

hah. i am also from australia and a (pre-school) teacher! lol.

[nearlyalegume.livejournal.com]

Not according to BabyNames.com...

Ailis (http://www.babynames.com/name/AILIS)
Elizabeth (http://www.babynames.com/name/ELIZABETH)

[nearlyalegume.livejournal.com]

Really? I'm at a high school... we're just getting the first wave of tryndi names at the moment...!

I'll bet you're inundated *eyeroll*

[anapology.livejournal.com]

Ailis look beautiful written down, but think eyelash, or oilish.. it doesn't sit well with me.
What about Isla/Ayla (eye-luh)

I LOVE Rory. Definitely go with Rory James!

Where are you from? Although you might be familiar with an name like Caoimhe and the pronunciation, it would confuse the hell out of most people.

[anapology.livejournal.com]

babynames.com is always soooo wrong!

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

My faves of your boys list:
ANGUS
Declan
Dylan (cos it's my brother's name)
Hamish

My faves of your girls list:
Aine
Charlotte
Freya
Maeve

[stace25.livejournal.com]

I think Declan is great and not very common but not way uncommon!
I think your girls name are all pretty but I like Ailis (in my baby book it says it's another name for Adelaide?) and Maeve.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

The whole Gaelic-names-on-non-Gaelic-babies thing is really trendy right now.

[bluekoala.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Ciaran. The accent is a big no for me though; it seems unnecessary, irritating, and might confuse people further when trying to pronounce it. Also, I don't know where you live, but I have a friend named Ciaran and when people say it in conversation it usually winds up sounding as though it has an "in" sound at the end...just a thought.

At any rate, I want to give you a big hearty thank you thank you THANK YOU for sticking with the traditional spellings (even though Rory is traditionally Ruari, no? whatever). They look SO much better and I also hate the letter K for the most part. For most of these, I don't understand the big to-do, like, "OH DEAR! Someone in my child's life may mispronounce his or her name!" Caoimhe, yes, but for most of the others it won't be that bad.

For boys I prefer Ciaran, Colin, Gareth, and Patrick. For girls I like Siobhan the most with Gráinne as my second favorite.

[satunian.livejournal.com]

For your boys names, it's all love and hate;
Love: Brian, Ciaran (don't know the special accented keys on my new laptop yet), Colin, Diarmid, Dylan and Patrick
Hate: The rest

Girls: Ailis, Aine, Caelinn, Charlotte, Ciara, Maeve and Siobhan are the ones I like

[the-good-ship.livejournal.com]

Like:
Adrian
Angus
Ciarán (Keer-an)
Diarmid (Der-mid) - though prefer Dermot (derm-ut) which is similar
Dylan
Hamish
Patrick
Aine (An-ya) - like the pronunciation, but not the spelling
Charlotte
Ciara (Kee-ra)
Freya
Imogen
Sinead (Shin-aid)
Siobhan (Shiv-on)
Ciáran James
Diarmid James
Diarmid Patrick

Other nice possible combos:
Ciáran Patrick
Adrian Dylan
Charlotte Imogen
Imogen Freya

PS. not too fond of "k"s either - "c"s are well better!

[http://users.livejournal.com/____tonightt/]

Maeve is a great name, thats on my top list

[kitchen-poet.livejournal.com]

Love Rory!! Perfect.

I like Maeve Elisabeth too. :)

[easter.livejournal.com]

I like Rory and Grainne a lot.

Actually, I like Mairi and Cliodhna (unsure of the spelling) too, but they didn't make your list.

[nearlyalegume.livejournal.com]

Also according to my baby name book. I really don't think it's the same name. Ailis is a variant of Alice, which is a totally different name to Elizabeth, with different origins.

[nearlyalegume.livejournal.com]

The surname is Irish. That's why we're going with Irish/Celtic/Gaelic names, because it sounds good, and it's a nod to the child's heritage. If the surname was Higgenbottom, we'd be going with ye olde English names.

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well I know Eilish comes from Elizabeth.

Oh, I checked another website. Eilish/Ailish = Elizabeth. Ailis = Alice.

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

But no matter what it's a pretty name. Except my friend sometimes gets called "eyelash".