Can I please ask French and Irish speakers (or anyone really) about Eoin and Owen?

[FindTheLightSwitchDarren]

How would you pronounce these please?

I would probably say oh-win for both, (non Irish speaking, Irish woman here).

The reason I ask is a bit complicated, but it's to do with how Owen is pronounced in French. Owen, pronounced oh-wen, sounds like the letters o and n in French - I read a thread on here recently where a boy wanted to change his name as he lived in France and hated the o n thing - c'est oh-wen sounds like c-o-n, which is a derogatory word in French)! We have (vague) ties to France and it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that we could end up living there at some point. So, is Eoin more likely to be pronounced oh-win than Owen iyswim?

We are also considering Rowan / Rohan.

Finding boy names really difficult!

[drquin]

I'd consider whether the French would even pronounce Eoin anything like "oh-wen".
Until I moved to ireland, I loved in Scotland and had only ever heard Eoin pronounced the same as Ian.

Only in ireland did I come across the "oh-wen" pronounciation.

[Autumnfieldsofgold]

Just to confuse you, in Scotland Eoin is pronounced "yeo in"

Sorry not helpful at all!

[FindTheLightSwitchDarren]

In French, (I speak French but not Irish), Eoin would probably be more like Ewan with a soft N I think. The do have words with eo in them, but it would probably be eh-yo, so eh-yo-wan I think (with a very soft n)?

The thing is Owen is usuall oh-win in English, but I suspect because it's written with an e then in French people pronounce is as written - oh-wen. Or is Owen more like oh-wen in some English accents too?

This I all ludicrously complicated I know. Maybe I should just discount it.

[FindTheLightSwitchDarren]

X post Autumn! I used to know a Scottish Eoighann (so?), pronounced Euan / Ewan, so yeo-an makes sense for Eoin!

[FindTheLightSwitchDarren]

"(Sp?)" Not "(so?)"

[falalalaoops]

How about Eoghan?

[FindTheLightSwitchDarren]

Oh I like Eoghan... wonder if DH would go for it.

[GaucheCaviar]

I know a couple of French Owens, fwiw, the CON thing hasn't come up. I'll ask DH how he'd pronounce Eoin when he gets in.

[GaucheCaviar]

Pretty sure he's pronounce Eoghan ay-oh-gan!

[LivLemler]

I'm Irish but not a native speaker. I'd pronounce Eoin, Owen and Eoghan the same. Closest I can write would probably be OH-un.

[NotBurpeesAgain]

I am French. I have taught a couple of Owens. No issues with pronunciation and I had never heard about the C-O-N thing before the Mumsnet thread.
99.9% of French people would have no idea how to pronounce Eoin. It would probably be come out as "Ay - oh - inn".

[GaucheCaviar]

Yes I asked French DH and he went, uh, Wang?

[squoosh]

Eoin, Owen, and Eoghan are all pronounced the same by me.

[FindTheLightSwitchDarren]

Thanks all. I like the Eoin spelling best, but I knew an Eoin when I was at school in Ireland and even there he was always correcting people on the spelling.

We had more or less decided on Rowan / Rohan, but it seems to produce spelling and pronunciation issues too.

[MikeUniformMike]

How about a Breton name? Yvan is one I think. Perhaps there's a list online somewhere

[MikeUniformMike]

or Yoan

[OlennasWimple]

I had never heard of the Owen / con thing before that thread, and TBH I still can't see how it works ("c'est Owen" =/= "con", surely??)

[Qwebec]

I would not know how to pronounce the two other names. Owen is the only one that is clear to me. I don't think the con thing would be an issue, it is rather far fetched, not an impossible connection par very far fetched.
I don't mind learning a new name, but maybe he might mind having to teach everyone.

[TatianaLarina]

Ce Eau en = c o n

[cheminotte]

As a French speaker - no idea where to start with Eoin.
But my DS's name has 'th' in and my French family coped. If it's only a tenuous link, I wouldn't worry too much. Just give him a simple middle name so he can use that instead

[PattyPenguin]

The Welsh name Owen comes from Owain or Ywain, and was taken into French in Arthurian romances as Yvain (see Chrétien de Troyes).

There's also the French saint Ouen, after whom a whole host of places in France are named, including one in the suburbs of Paris.

May be alternatives?

[mathanxiety]

Eoghan and Eoin are two different names. One is Eugene (Eoghan) and one is John (Eoin). Pronounced the same as Owen to me.

Eugene isn't so bad - slightly retro but ahead of its time a bit, maybe.

TBH, I would avoid names beginning with vowel combinations for a baby whose name may be pronounced by French people. I would avoid too much of the letter R too. No Oisin, for instance.

Suggestions:
Patrick
Killian
Columba
Colman
Cormac
Declan
Lorcan
Fiacra
Ferdia
Liam (very popular in France right now)
Tomas
Oscar
Kieran
Brendan

[clearsommespace]

I know an Eoghan who lived in France for a while. People who saw his name written first said Ay-o-gan.

[Jiggler]

I know an Eoghan who lives in the UK and he gets called Yoggun a lot. Which I suppose is a fair attempt if you've no clue how Irish pronunciation works.

[BriechonCheese]

I have a relative named Eoin and he has never mentioned struggling with it in France - where he lives.

Like Liv above I probably pronounce it (I am Irish) OH-un, although it is hard to write it down specifically because so much is led to the language and accent.