Looking for names of Irish origin, but not with the traditional tough to pronounce Irish spellings (I’m intrigued by them but hubby likes the more modern touch… at least we agree on Irish). My daughter’s name [name]Brenna[/name] is the exact kind of style we’re looking to achieve.
This is where it gets hard… I don’t want a name beginning with “M” or “B”. Also, would prefer not to have a name ending in “n” or “a”… This pretty much leaves the “y” or “ie” ending. Tough one in the Irish world!
I could break on the rule about the endings if I find the perfect name.
Names that we’re considering so far but are not sold on:
I love the name [name]Brenna[/name]! I have a son named [name]Brennan[/name], or I would consider [name]Brenna[/name] for our first daughter. Yes, it is hard to find an Irish name that fits that style, especially for girls, I think. [name]Clare[/name] is nice… [name]How[/name] about [name]Tierney[/name]? [name]Kerry[/name]? [name]Nora[/name]? (though that ends in A…)
I love the names Caoimhe, Aine and Saoirse, but the obvious difficulty would be pronunciation. The first two could easily be changed to phonetic spellings of Keeva and Anya though.
Some others that break your rules but are much easier to pronounce:
Bellamy
Fallon
Finola
[name]Kathleen[/name]/[name]Caitlin[/name] is pretty much the gold-standard Irish-but-approachable-and-known. These are my two favourite spellings but there’s a bunch of them. [name]Caitlin[/name] is pretty traditional and I massively prefer ones without the trendy -lyn ending.
[name]Rosaleen[/name] is a very old Anglicization of [name]Roisin[/name] that makes it straightforward but [name]Rosaleen[/name] is like the opposite of [name]Caitlin[/name] in terms of popularity - this could be good or bad. It was used as a allegory for [name]Ireland[/name] in the poem Dark [name]Rosaleen[/name].
[name]Erin[/name] is of course not actually-Irish as much as it is American-Irish-missing-home, but I like it.
I realize these all have -n on the end, please don’t kill me!
[name]Aisling[/name] has an okay ending but not a straightforward pronunciation - it’s like [name]Ash[/name]-ling. I really love it though.
Wait, wait! There’s [name]Clare[/name]. [name]Clare[/name] is very, very Irish thanks to County [name]Clare[/name] which is itself named after St. [name]Clare[/name]. And its simple as it gets, spelling/pronunciation-wise. A favourite of mine, along with [name]Caitlin[/name].
Of course, my little girl is [name]Brenna[/name] [name]Claire[/name]! So [name]Clare[/name] is off the table as well… Ha, I really screwed myself! Thanks for all suggestions so far… and keep em coming! Maybe I should drop all rules? [name]Just[/name] any names of Irish origin please, but maybe keep to the anglicized versions if you don’t mind?
Also… any thoughts on [name]Neely[/name]? I’m not totally sold on it, but I wasn’t on [name]Brenna[/name] at first either… and that’s more than grown on me! I thought it was similar in style to [name]Brenna[/name] but maybe it’s too… I don’t know?
I like [name]Nora[/name], which I’ve known on some Irish immigrants, more than [name]Neely[/name], but it ends in -a?
I think [name]Maeve[/name] could work well depending on how strong your M-aversion is? [name]Maeve[/name] is relatively simple to pronounce, too, and flatters [name]Brenna[/name] without being “more of the same” iykwim. I also like [name]Moira[/name] which feels very Irish to me, but it’s also very vintage and not everyone’s taste.
[name]Deirdre[/name] is one I love but my Irish-Aussie husband finds it too old.
I did see some goodies but I maybe have a higher tolerance for weird due to being used to it - my husband is carrying on about how he wants [name]Niamh[/name] and [name]Siobhan[/name] for girls and [name]Eoin[/name] for a boy.
