Saoirse or Niamh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's recap. The Irish on the thread all say 'no'. There Americans are familiar with a range of names, for various reasons-- Siobhan, Sinead, Aoife, etc. Deirdre and Fiona were probably terribly strange at one time.... I say name with the true spelling. The more exposed, the more they become more "familiar" names to everyone! I have faith that we can learn.

Deirdre and Fiona are pronounced pretty much the.way they are spelled. A name that seems totally to invent sounds is just ridiculous.

Wow, so Celtic is ridiculous. OK.

[Anonymous]

So how do you pronounce Deidre and Fiona outside of America?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's recap. The Irish on the thread all say 'no'. There Americans are familiar with a range of names, for various reasons-- Siobhan, Sinead, Aoife, etc. Deirdre and Fiona were probably terribly strange at one time.... I say name with the true spelling. The more exposed, the more they become more "familiar" names to everyone! I have faith that we can learn.

Deirdre and Fiona are pronounced pretty much the.way they are spelled. A name that seems totally to invent sounds is just ridiculous.

Wow, so Celtic is ridiculous. OK.

Not PP, but I don't think she's saying that Celtic is ridiculous. However, to an American not familiar with Celtic grammar or alphabet or phonics, then names where the letters we see do not correspond at all to the pronunciations used in this country and its primary language may seem to be overly creative or made-up, even though they aren't.

This child is going to be raised an American, in America, in a land where English and Spanish are the majority languages. Celtic is such a far outlier that it will be very challenging for this child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I asked about Graeme once on here and it was pretty soundly rejected in favor of Graham.

That's not how I remember that thread. What I remember is THERE IS ONLY ONE CORRECT WAY TO SPELL IT, NAMELY GRAEME, AND AMERICAN GRAHAM-SPELLERS ARE COLONIAL BOORS!!!!!!11

[Anonymous]

I just had to Google how to pronounce niamh. You've got to be kidding me. I don't care what the heritage is. If you're going to name your kid that in America, 99% of people your kid encounters are going to look at it like its the equivalent of naming your kid Brhabve and saying it's pronounced "Bar-SHAH-goo."

[Anonymous]

I like Niamh. It reminds me of Ballykissangel. If you changed the spelling to "Neave" I would think that you don't know how it's supposed to be spelled, like mothers of Makayla and Baleigh.

[Anonymous]

A Maura here, with Niamh and Aoife and Grainne and all kinds of "weird" names as cousins, and I love both of the names. If you are going with an Irish name, I would go with the Irish spelling. "Neve" is not an Irish name. People will figure it out - the people that matter, that is.

If that seems to difficult, I'd go for an Irish name that is easier for Americans to pronounce based on spelling.

[Anonymous]

I don't like the way either name sounds.

[Anonymous]

Siobhan has the same non-phonetic spelling but at least people tend to be more familiar with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I asked about Graeme once on here and it was pretty soundly rejected in favor of Graham.

That's not how I remember that thread. What I remember is THERE IS ONLY ONE CORRECT WAY TO SPELL IT, NAMELY GRAEME, AND AMERICAN GRAHAM-SPELLERS ARE COLONIAL BOORS!!!!!!11

Well, then there's also the issue of how to pronounce it. Americans seem to want to say "Gram". It's Gray-um.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I asked about Graeme once on here and it was pretty soundly rejected in favor of Graham.

That's not how I remember that thread. What I remember is THERE IS ONLY ONE CORRECT WAY TO SPELL IT, NAMELY GRAEME, AND AMERICAN GRAHAM-SPELLERS ARE COLONIAL BOORS!!!!!!11

Well, then there's also the issue of how to pronounce it. Americans seem to want to say "Gram". It's Gray-um.

Yes, you're right. Thank you for reminding me that American Graham-pronouncers are also colonial boors. I had forgotten.

-a colonial boor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So how do you pronounce Deidre and Fiona outside of America?

Some Americans seem to pronounce Deirdre as "Dear-dra". It's Dear-dree.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, and how about Fiona?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, and how about Fiona?

I'm British and always thought of it as an English name (it was quite common there in the 80s). It's always been pronounced as spelled as far as I am aware. Fee-oh-na.

[Anonymous]

Wait, Niamh = NEEV??? Wow.