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Original poster

Pronunciation of Saoirse

67 replies

lalaland1985 · 21/12/2016 23:40

Saoirse is my choice of name if I have a girl. I am sure it's pronounced Seer-sha however quite a few family members think it's ser-sha. Who is correct?

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WaitrosePigeon · 28/12/2016 11:59

No, she spells it Saoirse.

mathanxiety · 27/12/2016 22:10

'Sore-shur' is most likely to be the name Sorcha (badly mispronounced).

WaitrosePigeon · 27/12/2016 21:53

Girl in my sons class pronounces hers Sore-Shur

SunnyDayDreaming101 · 27/12/2016 20:32

Could be Confused

MartinRohdesBellybuttonFluff · 27/12/2016 20:26

Pronounced Seer-sha here as well.

mathanxiety · 27/12/2016 20:22

Sunny, are you mixing Saoirse up with Sorcha?

TheFear - Saor and Saoir- are pronounced differently.
'Aoi' is 'ee'. (As in 'Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú?')

TheFear · 27/12/2016 18:05

I'm Irish living in Ireland and I would say sayr shah.
Saor as in free is not pronounced seer

TyrionLannistersShadow · 27/12/2016 17:59

Irish, living in Ireland all my life and it's Sear-sha for sure. DEFINITELY NOT Say-sha like someone up thread suggested.

SunnyDayDreaming101 · 27/12/2016 17:52

Sor-cha is the most common pronunciation where I stay

MikeUniformMike · 27/12/2016 16:00

The uncertainty of the pronunciation on here would be enough to put me off and I'm not keen on using names from a different language/culture. It is a pretty name though. and if you love it then why not.

harrietm87 · 27/12/2016 13:05

mathan yes - she does say inairsha! By trying to make it easier for people to say shes actually led to more confusion.

Original poster
lalaland1985 · 27/12/2016 11:24

I'm not in Ireland I'm in Scotland. I love the name and don't see the problem in using it here. Could be different if we lived in England.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 27/12/2016 07:00

(Orla is not transliteration but the Modern Irish spelling. The version with -aith ending is people trying too hard.)

mathanxiety · 27/12/2016 06:58

*Unless she pronounces inertia in-air-sha, which would be a Dublin accent pronunciation..

mathanxiety · 27/12/2016 06:57

It should be Seer-sheh or Sare-sheh. There is a divide in Irish between Connemara and Ulster Irish on the one hand and SW Irish on the other. It mainly affects some vowel pronunciations.

Saoirse Ronan is just plain wrong to say it rhymes with inertia.

(Seoirse - 'George' - is Shore-sheh as the S is slender.)

harrietm87 · 26/12/2016 23:55

I'm from NI too and have only know. Seer-shas! I agree that it's seersha or saresha. Saoirse Ronan is the latter - the inertia thing is just to help English speakers.

BeastofChristmasIsland · 26/12/2016 23:06

I would say sare-shuh but I'm from NI.

babyblabber · 26/12/2016 21:29

Seer-sha

I'm Irish and honestly have never heard any other pronunciation myself

OhStuffingBalls · 26/12/2016 21:12

Nobody could pronounce Sinead or Siobhan in the UK 20 years ago.

I wouldn't worry about people not being able to pronounce it on first sight. Its a beautiful name.

Confettina · 26/12/2016 21:03

Realistically you would need to transliterate it if you ever wanted anyone to be able to pronounce it - I'm assuming you're not Irish?

Strangely it's ok to transliterate Connor, Orla, Neve, Kevin etc but not Saoirse.

SallyGinnamon · 26/12/2016 20:49

Are you in Ireland OP? If not you might be setting your DD up for a lifetime of mispronunciation and misspelling.

(I'd have pronounced it saucy. Sorry)

OhStuffingBalls · 26/12/2016 20:42

Sare-sha or Seer-sha. Seer-sha is the 'pure' pronunciation, I think, but in the part of Ireland my family are from its definitely more Sare-sha.

timelytess · 26/12/2016 20:38

Seer-shuh.

ScarletForYa · 26/12/2016 20:36

Sare-shah.

Confettina · 26/12/2016 20:35

Oh God, loved this name but caused so much fuss over pronounciation, whether I could use it as not Irish, the IRA connection and whether it could be anglicised (apparently not, although other Irish names can be) we decided not to use it.

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