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Aoise
I came across this apparently Irish name today (prn. EE-sha) and it seems quite a few parents have picked up on it. I've never heard of it and some googling reveals that it actually means 'age' in Irish Gaelic. There's a post from someone on yahoo answers saying it's 'weird' to her for this reason. Apart from a few dubious forum posts where people claim it's Irish, it doesn't appear to be a genuine Irish name. Am I mistaken? and if so what does it mean? Is it just a common shortening of Laoise, Naoise etc? Thanks

We must hang up in the belfry where the bats and moonlight laugh
We must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past
Into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge
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AOISE (pronounced 'Ee sha' is derived from old Irish.
'An t-Aois' in old Irish was a wise person in the community who told people what to do for the future and Aoise is derived from this meaning. It is also where the word 'an tAOISEach' (leader of Ireland) is derived.
The similarity of 'Aoise' being linked to 'aois' (the modern day Irish word for 'age') is most likely linked to wisdom coming with age and is a modern day and over simplistic meaning
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Aos Si are ancient mythical god like creatures in Ireland, my country. They became fairies. This is where the name came from. Look up: Tuatha de Dannan and have a good read
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Aoise does mean age as does "aois".I would guess that people who are using it as a name were looking for an alternative to Aisha/Ayesha etc and picked up on this spelling.Aoise would not be usually used as an name in Ireland (though I did come across two Aoises when I googled) nor as a shortening for Laoise, Naoise etc.
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Thanks, that's what I thought, shame though because I quite like the sound. I'm not sure about it coming from Aisha though, I wouldn't have thought that people who like the name Aisha would be the same who like very Irish names and where would they find it as an alternative other than in an Irish dicitonary? so I'm still interested in where it might have come from.
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Might they have just heard the "aoise" sound in Naoise and Laoise and liked it not knowing "aoise" was a word?
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