Our families both have a long tradition of giving 2 middle names to children: 1 honor name + 1 “I wanted to make this the first name but wasn’t bold enough” name. I love the idea of giving my child multiple names to choose from (both my husband and I go by one of our middle names).
We both have strong Irish & Scottish history, but are currently living stateside. Here are some ideas we’re considering:
First Names:
[name_f]Isla[/name_f] ([name_u]River[/name_u] in [name_f]Scotland[/name_f] close to [name_m]Perth[/name_m])- 99% sure this is what we’re going to name her
[name_f]Fiona[/name_f]
[name_f]Rowena[/name_f]
[name_f]Honor[/name_f] Names:
[name_f]Ruth[/name_f]
[name_f]Jane[/name_f]
[name_f]Kathleen[/name_f]/[name_f]Kate[/name_f]/[name_u]Kay[/name_u]/[name_f]Catherine[/name_f]/[name_f]Katriona[/name_f] (my middle name, and the one I usually go by)
[name_f]Marjorie[/name_f]
Middle Name:
[name_u]Adair[/name_u]
[name_f]Delphine[/name_f]
[name_f]Saoirse[/name_f] (we would pronounce it SEER-sha)
[name_f]Aoife[/name_f] (pronunciation close to “[name_f]Eva[/name_f]”-not sure how well this would work in the US)
[name_f]Greer[/name_f]
I know this is a lot, but I’d really appreciate any ideas!
I really like the flow of [name_f]Isla[/name_f] [name_f]Catherine[/name_f] [name_u]Adair[/name_u] and [name_f]Isla[/name_f] [name_f]Catherine[/name_f] [name_f]Greer[/name_f].
For first names, I actually prefer both [name_f]Fiona[/name_f] and [name_f]Rowena[/name_f]. [name_f]Fiona[/name_f] is classically beautiful, and [name_f]Rowena[/name_f] is so underused. [name_f]Isla[/name_f]/[name_f]Iris[/name_f]/[name_f]Isis[/name_f] names just seem wrong at this point in time.
For your honor names, I actually like [name_f]Katriona[/name_f], but since it is the name you go by, I would choose another, like [name_f]Kate[/name_f].
Second middle name I like is Saorise.
So, for full names… [name_f]Fiona[/name_f] [name_f]Kate[/name_f] [name_f]Saoirse[/name_f], [name_f]Rowena[/name_f] [name_f]Kate[/name_f] Saorise.
My favorite is [name_f]Rowena[/name_f] [name_f]Kate[/name_f] Saorise.
Other Irish/Scottish girls names I like are [name_f]Caoimhe[/name_f], [name_f]Eilidh[/name_f], and [name_f]Orla[/name_f], but I don’t know if any of these work for you since you were concerned about [name_f]Aoife[/name_f]'s pronunciation.
First of all–thanks for the feedback everyone! So far I’m liking [name_f]Isla[/name_f] [name_f]Jane[/name_f] [name_u]Adair[/name_u], [name_f]Fiona[/name_f] [name_f]Kate[/name_f] [name_f]Saoirse[/name_f] & [name_f]Isla[/name_f] [name_f]Kate[/name_f] [name_f]Delphine[/name_f].
We’ve also considered [name_f]Caoimhe[/name_f] (I love this name, but very likely Americans will struggle with the pronunciation). My husband strongly dislikes [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] (he thinks it sounds super old, but I think it’s sweet), but [name_f]Niamh[/name_f] is nice.