Name for a upcoming new born

Breandán · **Posted:** Sun 26 May 2013 5:56 pm

An Cionnfhaolach wrote:

I understand what you are saying. However I don't agree with you, if everyone had that attitude we wouldn't have Irish language names today. Provided that the youngfella himself knows how to pronounce it and his family knows how to pronounce it properly I don't see the problem if he has to tell people how to pronounce it- if anything its a conversation starter and will make people remember him

. For names to become popular somewhere people will have to use them while they are uncommon. Who knows Feidhlim(í) could be a very common name in the future. My own name "Cian" was unpopular when I was first named it, 22 years ago, now its quite a common name.

When we named our eldest daughter Aisling, we expected there might be problems, but didn't let it stop us. (You only encourage ignorance by bowing to it.) As it turned out, when we moved to this house, we found out there is another Aisling two doors down from us and as a result everyone in town has already heard the name.

Similarly, with our youngest Caoimhe, quite a few people have said "I have a cousin who married an Irish boy/girl and they have a daughter named Caoimhe ..."

One thing to watch out for with the modern spelling Féilim is that you can't register accent marks in most English speaking countries. (Canada might be an exception ?)

Redwolf · **Posted:** Sun 26 May 2013 8:38 pm

It's possible that Canada IS an exception, given that French is an official language there. Hmmm...I wonder, if we could ever persuade the government to make English and Spanish official languages, would we finally be able to use fadas in Irish names?

Redwolf

franc 91 · **Posted:** Sun 26 May 2013 9:08 pm

A few years ago I had a pupil whose name was Aisling - her mother was Irish and her father was French and there was no problem about that at all. Now the mairie (town hall) accept anything - well almost - so we now have a lot of made-up artificial names for children, though I'm not sure the parish priest always accepts them. We have a cousin in Auvergne called Shannen (sic) which must stick out like a sore thumb down there and she's baptised as well - and there are any number of boys called Patrick (the French version is Patrice) or Kévin and girls called Fiona (la Blonde).

beagle · **Joined:** Mon 05 Sep 2011 1:45 am **Posts:** 267

.The modern spelling has been in use for years and is not problematical. I am sure many have heard the song "The Bard of Armagh" where his name is stated as Phelim Brady.It was the old form that I thought would be a problem.

Breandán · **Posted:** Mon 27 May 2013 2:49 am

beagle wrote:

.The modern spelling has been in use for years and is not problematical. I am sure many have heard the song "The Bard of Armagh" where his name is stated as Phelim Brady.It was the old form that I thought would be a problem.

Yes, possibly, but the new spelling, with its síneadh fada, will probably be blocked by name registration laws in many English-speaking countries outside than Ireland. (softnut hasn't specified a lcation but if it is Ireland then there should certainly be no problem with either version.

)

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