Saoirse - Which pronunciation (or mispronunciation) will we run into most frequently?

[Anonymous]

Most people will not pronounce or spell it correctly. But it's a beautiful name. If you love it and you're willing to do a lot of correcting/explaining, go for it!

[Anonymous]

I had a colleague with one of these names and she actually put the phonetic spelling in her email signature and business card. E.g. Saoirse ("SEER-sha") Smith. She was also very good natured about it.

I think the issue would not be at work or school, since the people who interact with her every day will figure it out quickly. It's the random daily interactions where your name will always be butchered and misspelled. If you're fine with that, then go ahead.

[Anonymous]

If you love it - screw what other people think, just don't come whining to all of us later

[Anonymous]

Why do this? Maybe make that his/her middle name at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SEER-cha, more or less. It defies phonetic spelling. That is how I would say it. But I think people will say SOW ir se

It is an ugly name, both in its spelling and how it is said.

If you are not Irish, it just looks like you are picking the name to be hip and different, like you are trying too hard.

[Anonymous]

There is a famous actress with that name who was in a lovely movie possibly called Brooklyn? Because of that I learned how to pronounce the name.

I have learning disabilities so would have pronounced it Sah-royce prior to learning about the actress and seeing 20 interviews where she explains how to pronounce her name for all the Americans.

[Anonymous]

I know very little about Irish names and have no idea how to pronounce this. If I were to have to say it, I would likely guess "sah-OR-say" and just expect to be wrong.

If you plan to live in the US, please don't do this. Your child will be surrounded by awkward moments around her name forever.

[Anonymous]

I guessed it was Sor-see before I learned how it was really pronounced. I still forget and need to be reminded from time to time.

[Anonymous]

SEER shuh

[Anonymous]

idk why but I read it like Cersei as in Cersei Lannister on Game of Throwns.

It's not a good name.

[Anonymous]

Names like Saoirse ad Eoife only work in Ireland. Its brutal growing up with a hard to pronounce name- please don't.

[Anonymous]

Baby at our daycare is pronounced Share-Sah

[Anonymous]

Reminds me of my friend's daughter Caomihe, pronounced Kee-vuh...why she did that to her kid I have NO idea

[Anonymous]

One thing you mightn't know OP is that Saoirse Ronan got flamed a bit in Ireland last week for the way that she taught people in the US how to pronounce her name! There's slight regional variation in name pronunciation (see different versions of Caoimhe in this thread) and her way is not the most common. So even in Ireland it can be problematic!

[Anonymous]

I'm ethnically Irish (I can get a sunburn in 20 minutes) but I did not pick a difficult Irish name b.c I live in America. I think it's a really cool name but it's too hard.

Also it has some political overtones as well that you might not have considered...b.c the name means Freedom.