Original Spelling

[woah-jackson.livejournal.com]

Is using the original (in this case Gaelic) spelling of a name just too much for modern times? Since I'm Irish, some girl names we were toying around with include...

Name (pronunciation) - meaning/origin
* Éile (AYL-yeh) - ???
* Muirín (MWYR-in) - born of the sea
* Beckett (BEK-et) - author Samuel Beckett
* Cearnaigh (KEER-nee) - fox, victorious
* Máire (MAW-y-reh) - rebellious, bitter

We both like Máire (very similar to Moira) the best, but I thought I'd throw them out there to see what you fine folks think :) Thanks for any feedback!

And you guys should see some of the crazier ones, haha. For example, "Bairrfhionn" is pronounced "Berrin" and "Caoimhe" is pronounced "Keevah." Crazy Irish!

Comments

[erzsebet.livejournal.com]

I love the pronunciations of the names, but I think the accents on some of them might make them a bit difficult; not everyone knows how to do the accents on the computers so Éile would become Eile and so on.

Muirín I can see getting pronounced wrong by so many people.

Love Beckett and Máire, and I think 'Maire' looks nice (though I'm not sure what that would do to the pronunciation?).

And Bairrfhionn looks like it should be pronounced as barfin' to me, haha.

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

I actually loooove Caoimhe! but that aside I don't think it's too much but they're going to spend all their lives saying 'pronounced...' but you know it's not as anoying as people make it seem if you ask me. I really like Máire too =)

[compulsivelyme.livejournal.com]

Unless you live in Ireland, no one is going to be able to pronounce those names except for Beckett.

[penguiny7.livejournal.com]

I'm so familiar with Irish names that I'm not one to judge, but I think Máire would do okay. My favorite "crazy" Irish name was always Caoilfhionn.

These are my favorite Irish girls' names for some ideas:
Aíbgréne
Alastríona - this could probably work in the US
Aoibheann
Fíona - this one's easily recognizable
Fionnghuala - my favorite spelling though is Fionnuala, plus you could always use Finola which shouldn't have pronunciation issues.
Fionúir - but I prefer the Anglicizations Fennore or Finora
Gráinne
Maeve - easily usable too
Mairéad
Muirne
Muireann
Órfhlaith
Saoirse
Saraid
Sorcha
Úna - another easy to use one

[ribcage-diagram.livejournal.com]

I love Sorcha and Saoirse from this list!

[arbus.livejournal.com]

for girls irish names, i love fiona and saoirse.

from your list, i love beckett, but for a boy.

[julia-michelle.livejournal.com]

I made a post about this same topic a few months ago. One of my favourite names is Niamh (Neve, essentially) and I LOVE Maeve, but I don't think it's realistic to use them :(

[nandy-pandy.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. I mean, sure, you're going to have tons of people completely butcher the name, but I don't think you should change the spelling just to make it easier on other people. I have one name that nobody can pronounce properly, and another name (the one I go by) that nobody can spell, and it's not as annoying as it seems! (Although I would have told you differently when I was a teenager, but tbh, everything pissed me off back then.)