Saoirse?

Oh Lord its a big no. So many issues with it.

It's a beautiful name

This thread is almost 18 months old...

Saoirse is an Irish name
...it is NOT from the English language...The phonics in the language are different as in all languages....aoi is pronounced with the sound ee

Oh god I can’t handle watching anymore Saoirse Ronan interviews… can’t find the Ellen one I was looking for, however, she says about the Americas saying Sur-sha rather than Ser-sha in Good Morning and comments in vid below (Graham Norton) that she doesn’t have the pronunciation right.

This vid makes me feel a bit sorry for her!!

Cheers for the slaggin… hope it brightened up your evening.

There’s an interview where she says she tells Americans to say it Sur-sha I will try and find it when kids in bed.

You could be right 😂

Notions

That's very interesting @SunnyFog. Perhaps Sursha is a remnant of the now extinct Antrim Irish dialect so.

Possibly Saoirse Ronan had a friend from Belfast (or Scotland) and that's where she heard and borrowed the Sursha pronunciation. Maybe? As per the link I posted upthread I don't think that's how she says it herself in Ireland. Her father called her Seersha in an interview I saw iirc so I think she grew up with that pronunciation, but it is possible Sursha was once used in the Irish of the North East. I think perhaps it's said similar to Sursha in Scottish Gaelic? I'm not sure.

...and it is reflected in how Irish words are pronounced.

My Carlow relatives all pronounce the long E sound as a long A.
Caoilfhionn is pronounced Kaylin.
Beagle is pronounced Bagel.
Etc.

There isn't a Carlow dialect of Irish but there definitely is a Carlow accent of English.

Saoirse Ronan was born in 1994 in New York City to parents from Dublin. She moved when she was three to County Carlow. None of those places have an Irish dialect.

The name Saoirse was pronounced “Sur-sha” in the early nineties as I remember. In Belfast then the Irish word saor was pronounced sur - just as in English chair was pronounced chur. The sound change from saor to saoir was not widely known, so Saoirse was also pronounced sur-sha. I do remember people talking about this and whether they were recreating the extinct Antrim Irish dialect or just getting it wrong.

Maybe someone has some audio recordings from the nineties of people saying these words.

@Cherrythomasina

I think the issue has been she wants Americans to say her name in the southern Irish accented way.. probably specific to where her family originates from exactly too.

Americans saying Seer-Sha is liable to be a very strong, nasal S-EAR-Sha, rather than a gentle sear-sha, seer-sha, sor-sha as you would find in Ireland…

Hence we now have this Americanised Sur-sha fiasco.

She muddied them a lot😂
I mean, surely most Americans can say Seer- sha just as easily as Sur-sha.

Ser-sha's not right either, unless your accent makes all ee words sound like that.
Ber for beer and so on

@Cherrythomasina

Multiple ways, accent, area… I am more of a Seer-sha person… Ronan has muddied the waters somewhat, what with trying to get Americans to pronounce her name properly.

As far as I know Saoirse Ronan is mispronouncing it.

She says sur-sha, but it's supposed to be seer-sha. I think she has even said in interviews, that her pronunciation isn't correct.

I don't mind Saoirse, but I think it's kind of boring. It feels like in the last 5 years everyone who wanted an Irish name has picked Saoirse. It's the Niamh and Aoife of the 90s.

I like Irish names a lot, but I think there are much nicer ones.

Just adding this clip @Mooshamoo . She starts speaking about her name halfway through.
(I don't think the bit about Soresha at the end is right though?)

I mean you can pronounce Bill as Boll or Jim as Jam if you like and that's your right and absolutely your choice. But it doesn't mean it's the way that combination of letters is usually pronounced (though it does depend on accent too).

Saoirse Ronan has confused everyone. She said her name was pronounced Sersha or Sursha at various times on tv - but she doesn't seem to say it like that herself really, but more like Sairsha which is ok. (The way some native Irish speakers say aoi is a bit of a cross between ai and ee, hard to explain.)

It can be pronounced several different ways actually.

Saoirse Ronan pronounces her name "Ser-sha"

Saoirse is pronounced Seersha not Sersha @shezbez.

I am not Irish or in Ireland my name is Irish and so is my other daughters (I don't know y) saoirse is a lovely name my only regret is she is going to have a hard time spelling it x

My daughter is called saoirse pronounced 'ser sha' I love it an would fit perfectly with isla

I met only my second ever Lasairfhíona at the weekend.

I love that one, haven't met any in the wild though. You could call them lazer for a nn.

Mór will be a gorgeous name for her. Especially if she comes from sturdy stock.