Is Saoirse cruel?

[Anonymous]

I say middle name. I think that is enough of a nod to your heritage.

Alternatively, do you have an irish last name? You could hyphenate or give her your maiden name as a last name, and then defer to DH for the first name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not this again. The answer is no, don’t give your child an Irish name. Since you don’t live in Ireland and you are just an American who has some Irish ancestry, it makes absolutely no sense.

As someone who actually grew up in Ireland, it truly baffles me why Americans do this!

America is a blend of all cultures. Would you tell someone of Italian ancestry that they can’t name their kid Giovanni, for example? Any easily pronounced Irish name is common in the US. The only issue is how difficult it would be for others to pronounce Saorsie.

[Anonymous]

My DD has a not-easily-pronounced Irish name (although not as bad as Soirse) and, while most people say it's a pretty name, she does have to constantly tell them how to pronounce it and forget spelling it. I don't think most of her friends can spell it correctly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again. The answer is no, don’t give your child an Irish name. Since you don’t live in Ireland and you are just an American who has some Irish ancestry, it makes absolutely no sense.

As someone who actually grew up in Ireland, it truly baffles me why Americans do this!

America is a blend of all cultures. Would you tell someone of Italian ancestry that they can’t name their kid Giovanni, for example? Any easily pronounced Irish name is common in the US. The only issue is how difficult it would be for others to pronounce Saorsie.

I get the concern about spelling, but I don't get why Irish, and only Irish, names require some sort of proof of recent connection. Why do I have to prove I'm Irish to use Sean, when no one screams about how I need to prove I'm English to use Henry?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again. The answer is no, don’t give your child an Irish name. Since you don’t live in Ireland and you are just an American who has some Irish ancestry, it makes absolutely no sense.

As someone who actually grew up in Ireland, it truly baffles me why Americans do this!

America is a blend of all cultures. Would you tell someone of Italian ancestry that they can’t name their kid Giovanni, for example? Any easily pronounced Irish name is common in the US. The only issue is how difficult it would be for others to pronounce Saorsie.

I get the concern about spelling, but I don't get why Irish, and only Irish, names require some sort of proof of recent connection. Why do I have to prove I'm Irish to use Sean, when no one screams about how I need to prove I'm English to use Henry?

The Irish are clannish.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Woah I didn't expect people to have this much to say! I'm actually a Maeve so that's not an option for DD but I appreciate all the thoughts.

[Anonymous]

Please don’t saddle your child with that name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you name your kid something Native American, or Mormon, or African American, it's probably going to be a name that didn't originate in America. If your heritage is Irish, then an Irish name makes sense.

But you don't need to pick the very hardest names to spell. Saoirse, Caoimhe, Aoife, are too hard. The issue, to me, is less the teacher not knowing how to pronounce it (they'll learn) and more the work email that goes astray because someone mistyped Saoirse as Soairse or as Saorsie or something.

I'd either pick something that's got no more than one difficult feature spelling wise -- like Ciara, or something like Maeve or Eilish that has an Americanized spelling. There are lots of beautiful options.

I also wouldn't name a kid a very political name.

Lordy. I'm pro-Saoirse, but I work with a Ciara, pronounced Keera, and she has coworkers who have worked with her for over a decade who still pronounce her name See-yar-a.

That's on them, though. Don't pander to those who can't be respectful.

It isn’t on them though. It will be on your kid. Almost every encounter will start with someone being confused. I can’t imagine how annoying that would be or how much that would put me at a disadvantage to the people with whom encounters avoid that hurdle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again. The answer is no, don’t give your child an Irish name. Since you don’t live in Ireland and you are just an American who has some Irish ancestry, it makes absolutely no sense.

As someone who actually grew up in Ireland, it truly baffles me why Americans do this!

America is a blend of all cultures. Would you tell someone of Italian ancestry that they can’t name their kid Giovanni, for example? Any easily pronounced Irish name is common in the US. The only issue is how difficult it would be for others to pronounce Saorsie.

The problem is that many Irish names are unique in that they don’t follow standard English spelling rules. There would be no fuss if op wanted to name her child Maeve or Nora or Kathleen or Eileen. The issue is the proper Irish pronunciation of Saiorse deviates wildly from the American pronunciation rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again. The answer is no, don’t give your child an Irish name. Since you don’t live in Ireland and you are just an American who has some Irish ancestry, it makes absolutely no sense.

As someone who actually grew up in Ireland, it truly baffles me why Americans do this!

America is a blend of all cultures. Would you tell someone of Italian ancestry that they can’t name their kid Giovanni, for example? Any easily pronounced Irish name is common in the US. The only issue is how difficult it would be for others to pronounce Saorsie.

I get the concern about spelling, but I don't get why Irish, and only Irish, names require some sort of proof of recent connection. Why do I have to prove I'm Irish to use Sean, when no one screams about how I need to prove I'm English to use Henry?

The Irish are clannish.

That’s quite true actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again. The answer is no, don’t give your child an Irish name. Since you don’t live in Ireland and you are just an American who has some Irish ancestry, it makes absolutely no sense.

As someone who actually grew up in Ireland, it truly baffles me why Americans do this!

What an ignorant comment. There are more Irish in America than in Ireland, and they have every right to name their children with Celtic names.

No, these people are American, not Irish. If you do not have Irish citizenship you are not Irish! Gah! This is why Americans of Irish descent are the worst.

It comes from the historical legacy of discrimination when many arrived in the US 170+ years ago. No matter how much these first Irish immigrants and their descendants worked hard and tried to assimilate, they were always singled out, othered. Same way a third-generation American of Chinese origin is still called “Chinese” even if they’ve never been out of the country and only speak English. So what do you do? You band together, find strength in community, and try to retain the aspects of your heritage that you can, even if it warps over time and looks fake or nominal to “real” Irish people. I think that’s why Irish-Americans can be so loud about their “Irish” identity - it was ascribed to their forebears willy-nilly. Irish-Catholics in Boston were still being discriminated against when JFK was elected president, fully 100 years after they’d established a presence in the country.

Yes and their Irish great-great grandmother immigrant to the US was named Mary or Kathleen. Not Saorsie. It’s like someone in Dublin naming their child Brooklyn :)

Totally, the Irish immigrant side of our family had a Mary, Kathleen, and Frances...but the other side was from a non-English speaking country, got Anglicized nicknames as soon as they came to the US, and named their kids things like Alice, Rose, and Edward. There are generational trends, and all the way into at least the 60s immigrants wanted to give their kids "easy" American names so they wouldn't stick out and would assimilate easily. So I don't think this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again. The answer is no, don’t give your child an Irish name. Since you don’t live in Ireland and you are just an American who has some Irish ancestry, it makes absolutely no sense.

As someone who actually grew up in Ireland, it truly baffles me why Americans do this!

What an ignorant comment. There are more Irish in America than in Ireland, and they have every right to name their children with Celtic names.

No, these people are American, not Irish. If you do not have Irish citizenship you are not Irish! Gah! This is why Americans of Irish descent are the worst.

It comes from the historical legacy of discrimination when many arrived in the US 170+ years ago. No matter how much these first Irish immigrants and their descendants worked hard and tried to assimilate, they were always singled out, othered. Same way a third-generation American of Chinese origin is still called “Chinese” even if they’ve never been out of the country and only speak English. So what do you do? You band together, find strength in community, and try to retain the aspects of your heritage that you can, even if it warps over time and looks fake or nominal to “real” Irish people. I think that’s why Irish-Americans can be so loud about their “Irish” identity - it was ascribed to their forebears willy-nilly. Irish-Catholics in Boston were still being discriminated against when JFK was elected president, fully 100 years after they’d established a presence in the country.

Yes and their Irish great-great grandmother immigrant to the US was named Mary or Kathleen. Not Saorsie. It’s like someone in Dublin naming their child Brooklyn :)

Totally, the Irish immigrant side of our family had a Mary, Kathleen, and Frances...but the other side was from a non-English speaking country, got Anglicized nicknames as soon as they came to the US, and named their kids things like Alice, Rose, and Edward. There are generational trends, and all the way into at least the 60s immigrants wanted to give their kids "easy" American names so they wouldn't stick out and would assimilate easily. So I don't think this

Sorry, post unfinished. I don't think the assimilation pressures early to mid-20th century immigrants felt are necessarily representative of "tradition," just like I don't think a third or fourth generation American trying to reconnect with their heritage is experiencing it the way someone in Ireland or another country is.

[Anonymous]

No one will pronounce Sari the way you want. It’s like Sair-a vs Say-ra for Sara. She will get bored of correcting people or teaching people how to say or spell it. That said, it could be worse. My son has a friend named Fionnuala.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a mess. Sari said like hair? How in the Irish Catholic Church is that going to make sense in the US?! You're going to call your daughter hair? What?

Nobody will pronounce it right unless they're Irish and nobody will spell the vowels right in the right order.

Yeah. I’m already confused and very accustomed to names from a variety of countries. Irish names are a mystery to me.

I’ll take a name from Ethiopia, France, or Iran any day of the week over an Irish one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again. The answer is no, don’t give your child an Irish name. Since you don’t live in Ireland and you are just an American who has some Irish ancestry, it makes absolutely no sense.

As someone who actually grew up in Ireland, it truly baffles me why Americans do this!

America is a blend of all cultures. Would you tell someone of Italian ancestry that they can’t name their kid Giovanni, for example? Any easily pronounced Irish name is common in the US. The only issue is how difficult it would be for others to pronounce Saorsie.

The problem is that many Irish names are unique in that they don’t follow standard English spelling rules. There would be no fuss if op wanted to name her child Maeve or Nora or Kathleen or Eileen. The issue is the proper Irish pronunciation of Saiorse deviates wildly from the American pronunciation rules.

Exactly!