Jay Bee wrote:
There is how you would pronounce them if they had continued to be used down thru the ages from Old Irish till now and how one would pronounce them by looking at them, which is two different things. Since there has been a break in naming, I would say you can say them as they are spelt.
Anlón/Anluan, Branán, Iollann ('ullann')
The 'io' digraph used to represent a short sound (like in 'sir' when said Darby O'Gill-like) and the nearest sound would be like u now
As for what I mean by the names changing, names like 'Ímer' (Emer) and 'Aodán' (Aiden) are not really traditional, more they are a sort of mix of present and past. Émhir was the form popular in Derry and the surrounds before it died out and I think the latter name changed thru time like Aodhán, Aoghán, Aoyán, Íyán/Éyán, Íán, becoming Ian or something similar. I support the é of Aiden is the Munster pronounciation of ao added to the Old Irish spelling
"Ian" is etymologically related to Eoin, being a form of the name that is "John" in English.
Redwolf