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[Opinions] Re: Hey!
Yeah, oh well. Most people go all ~OMG IRISH~ when they talk about Irish names, and so they give me that impression - as pretentious and trendy.And since French, Spanish, German, and Greek all contributed to English or came from similar roots, I can understand their phonetics, even if I don't use them in everyday English. Gaelic was shut out from English's development, and so it baffles and slightly angers me on a very basic level.Maybe my reasons aren't particularly logical, but that doesn't stop me disliking Irish names one jot.
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As I said, I too find it annoying when people like Irish names just because they're Irish, but that doesn't mean you can make a sweeping generalisation that everyone who uses one is pretentious.I don't see why Gaelic angers you at all. I know about the history of English including the languages I mentioned, but that doesn't mean all the elements from those languages were brought into English. Look at the top names in those countries; does Alejandro make phonetic sense in English? Does Théo? You're used to these names and to the languages they come from, so maybe you don't notice the difference.
Understanding of Irish phonetics will gradually work its way into people, unless they are as close-minded as you obviously intend to be.I don't mind you disliking Irish names, it was just the reasons you gave that I found offensive and narrow-minded.
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Baffles and slightly angers you...Why on earth?
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For very basic reasons, as I stated, and not ones I am going to spend a lot of energy defending as they don't merit it.
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Have you ever considered the slight possibility that maybe you just dislike trends, naming fads, etc. rather than the Irish names itself? Coming from Ireland myself, I grow up with names like Cian, Seamus, Caoimhe - how is it pretentious for Americans/Australians and anyone else with Irish heritage to honour their ancestry? You could make the same argument for people who give their kids Russian or Dutch names, which are just as arguably hard to pronounce correctly.Why is it that people hate things they don't understand anyway? So you don't speak Gaelic Irish - that's a reason for you to hate the names?
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