We usually manage Siobhán, Sinéad, and Seán reasonably well here. Poor Saoirse Ronan's name gets mispronounced an awful lot here, though (I've heard "surshuh," "sursee" and "sorshuh")...I think maybe she's too polite to correct people!

Of course, some people will get even the simplest names wrong! I grew up seeing my given name (Audrey) mangled more often than not (I don't know what it is about that name that makes people think it should be pronounced "Andrea," but I got called that so often as a kid I started to answer to it!)

Redwolf

Actually she herself says "Sorshuh"!

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Well, I think you should stick to your guns, even if some Irish people can't pronounce their own names properly.

If we went by the rule of avoiding names that people were unable to pronounce or spell properly, most names would be ruled out by now.

Even in this day and age, I still get people pronouncing Brendan as "Brandon" (and nothing like the Irish Breandán either) and spelling it "Brenden" or "Brendon". That's when they don't call me Brian or Barry.

It doesn't matter what name you choose other people will always find a way to mess with it. It is human nature.

So, like I said stick to your guns and give your children whatever name your wife wants.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Cé smoite go dhaoine le Gaeilge líofa cé atá in ann "Bríd" a rá i gceart - ní thar lear ach in Éirinn fiú? Nó aon ainm eile leis an R gaelach. Ach sé m'ainmse é is níl mé ag goil a athrú le aon duine a shásadh.

Agus tá an rud céanna fíor i gcás chuile theanga ar domhan. Nuair atá tú sa mbaile, i do cheantar féin, tá an t-ainm sin ciotianta agus an fuaimiú nadúrtha dúinn. An bhfuil Francaigh nó Spáinaigh (mar shampla) in ann ainmeachaí Béarla ar nós - John, Mary, Elizabeth a rá i gceart? Cé méid Béarlóirí nó Gaeilgeoirí atá in ann ainmeachaí ar nós "Jean", "Étienne", "María", "Julio", "Eduardo", "Guillermo" srl a rá ceart.
(Be proud of your own ethnic name. It doesn't matter if foreigners can't pronounce it properly, you might have difficulty with their name too.)


Some of my favourite names -

Antaine - Irish for Anthony
Macdara
Oisín
Daithí
Donncha
Micil - a Conamara version of Michael
Cathal
Iarlaith / Iarfhlaith - translated to English as "Jarlath". - Common in parts of Galway.
Ruaidhrí (Ruairí) - silent letters only make the name more interesting.
Toirdhealbhach - the more silent letters the better
Tomás - Irish for Thomas but much nicer.

Bríd
Sorcha
Áine - people will tell you it's the Irish for "Anne" but actually it's an unrelated ancient name.
Anna - found in Conamara
Gráinne - No not "Grace".
Neasa
Bairbre - Irish for "Barbara", used to be common in Conamara, but not among the younger generation.
Deirdre
Sadhbh - lovely name, But in Conamara it's pronounced as "sow", so could get some ribbing in school.
Tóireasa / Treasa - Irish for Threasa


This is how we say "Anna" in Conamara. In particular Leitir Móir.

. .

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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Can you imagine poor little Toirdhealbhach in an American kindergarten? "'Tor-duhl-bak?' or is 'turtle back?'" Ah heck...let's just call him 'turd'!"

Anna was very close to being "Sorcha," which is one of my favorite names, but I couldn't face years of correcting people who pronounced it "sortch-uh" or "sorka."

"Treasa" and "Gráinne" are two favorites of mine.

In Ireland they'd ask is that the Irish for Sarah.

I don't know how related the Irish "Anna" is to the English one.
It's not pronounced the same. Naomh Anna is the patron saint of Leitir Mór. And there is a holy well there in her name.

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___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

'Poor Saoirse Ronan'? She's a hateful looking yoke and this is from her wiki entry:

The fact is people will pronounce as they will. What if you were faced with a click language?

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

In Ireland they think every name is a translation from England. It's so retarded it barely needs to be dignified with a response but I suspect Anglicisation books from the Victorian and Edwardian periods are to be blamed.

I recall once having an argument with my mother who insisted that Cormac is the Irish for Charles...(Cormac is Cormac and Charles is Karl; the 'k' changed to a 'ch' in much of France in the Middle Ages)

Another thing, why are so many men so compliant when it comes to doing what they are told by their wives and girlfriends? I don't like controlling, domineering or bullying people and I wouldn't be able to handle being told I had no say in the names of my own kids. Why not the first child's first name to one, the second name to the other, the third to the first etc then vice versa for the next? Or one gender to one etc Or both above, or make up names together?

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

Well if you are referring to me not getting my choice with the names, it wasnt a case of "no we are having my names"
More a "I really like this name can we use it" , and considering she has only just given birth to the child you sort of feel she has earned since it was a slightly bigger effort on her part than mine.

Obviously if she came along and said "I want Oliver Humphrey the third", I wouldn't let it slide.

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Bíonn rudaí maithe mall

So clearly you aren't married, then. Sometimes being strong means being able to bend in the wind. Besides, as Dáithí mentioned above, equality takes on a whole new meaning when one party has been through hours of excruciating pain, not to mention months of unrelieved discomfort, and the other party hasn't. Is it "compliant" to recognise when someone else has done most of the hard work?

But actually, I was only joking in my previous post. My wife and I discussed our choices and arrived at a mutual decision (which could actually means she subtly let me have my own way ). It was lucky that we both love Ireland equally much and both knew we wanted Irish names for our children.

Sometimes you also have to resist pressure from other members of both sides of the family. People who can barely spell common names in English feel intimidated by foreign names.

In a way it helped that whatever names we chose, English or otherwise, one side of the family or the other would have problems pronouncing it, because English names are hard for Japanese people to pronounce and Japanese names are hard for English people to pronounce. Irish names have the balancing effect of being equally difficult for everyone to pronounce (in our case at least).

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).