Should I call my daughter Aoibhín in England?

In my accent, On and Awn really aren't very far away...

If I was asked to phonetically (in English) spell Siobhan, I would type Shiv-On

I was glad to see that my Irish pronunciation of OP's name was agreed with by other posters though - I've clearly learned something living here all these years, no matter what my children say when I try to 'help' with Irish homework :)

Reminds me that even after 12 years I still spell my god daughter’s name wrong- it’s become a bit on an ongoing joke that I can’t remember if it ends in an i or a y. It is a weird mental block that I think I’ve got it right this time and yet again it is wrong!

Yes we do!

Look I’m not arguing with you about it! My accent is none of your business and I don’t have to justify myself to you about how we pronounce every single name. The point of my post was that people in England will struggle to pronounce certain names due to their spelling! It has nothing to do with my accent! You pronounce it one way and I pronounce it slightly differently due to my accent which I cannot help! I do not wish to discuss this further or have to justify myself to you! Some people will just argue about anything 🙄

Then you don't say Siobhan as Shavonne then do you. @Mumofnarnia .

People called Shaun will have people in their lives who spell it wrong every time. It then becomes embarrassing to correct them. I should know. My name can be spelled 4 different ways. My sister in law uses the wrong spelling, despite her having seen how I spell it on birthday cards, Xmas cards, Facebook etc. Infuriating

We say Shawn for Sean.

@Mumofnarnia , By that reasoning, you'd say Seán as Shonne.

I simply referred to a coffee shop worker because they write the names on the cup and are not usually an important person in your life, to compare them misspelling the name versus an aunt, say, in a birthday card.

I knew a girl called Aiveen in the 60s, in Scotland.

You absolutely should not be calling people stupid. I adopted two girls with learning disabilities. You are right that they will not be able to get these names right and one of them, who has an IQ of 56, would struggle with the other names you mentioned. They cope with their learning disabilities as best they can. The idea that people are going around calling them "stupid" in this day and age is appalling. I would report your message to mumsnet only i want to call you out and for you to see this message.

Same difference, same pronunciation… just that you have spelled it differently! But different accents will pronounce slightly differently. However you have given more or less the same pronunciation of what I meant. So I didn’t pronounce it wrong after all. Just that my accent will pronounce it in more or less the same way I wrote it and that’s how we pronounce it in my town.

Usually more like Shivaun.

English: /ʃɪˈvɔːn/ shih-VAWN
Irish: [ˈʃʊwaːn̪ˠ, ʃəˈwaːn̪ˠ]

You tell me how it’s pronounced then because people in my town pronounce it the way I have just mentioned

No. I would have to be corrected, then I'd forget and be embarssed to ask again. Why waste her energy with that kind of stuff? It's a hard name for most people here.

I was watching something on tv yesterday and it had a 16 -yr old girl called Gwawr on it. How would you write Gwawr phonetically to make it easier for non-Welsh speakers?
Should the parents have avoided the name as she might grow up to be living in a non-Welsh speaking part of the world?
What if she stays in Welsh-speaking Wales all her life?

Someone else has a daughter called Elliw. She has lived in Welsh-speaking Wales all her life but I think went to university in England.
The university is one that probably has several Welsh-speaking students every year.

Those two names are not unusual Welsh ones, but not ones that transcribe into English easily.
Should the parents have opted for MN-approved names just in case their daughters decided to live outside Wales.

Do you say Aiveen or Eeveen though?

I’m as English as they come and I know how it’s pronounced. No problem at all in having an Irish name in London.

@Mumofnarnia , it's not pronounced Shavonne.

I think it is slightly different if your name has a variation in the local language. I assume you mean something like Julia or Laura? You're really facing an uphill battle there to get people to pronounce it in what is effectively a foreign way as the local pronunciation is built in to muscle memory.

Yeah, they will have to spell it. And then the person will stand a chance at remembering they are the Sean variation and not require it to be spelled again and again. Think friends at school. They will have to ask the spelling many times before they are likely to remember it. The same with adults etc. It’s not like Graham/Graeme, where the name is “Graham with a ‘h’”. It’s a long winded spelling which will need spelled out, time after time after time. Imagine a supply teacher attempting to read the name on the register. Or reading the name of a winning raffle ticket. I do think OP should use the name if she wants to. I like the name. But it’s important to be honest about the long term impact and how it will likely be frustrating at times.

But the result is the same surely. Someone called Sean will always have to spell their name out. Doesn’t matter if it is known, doesn’t matter if everyone knows the potentially spelling, if someone says hi my same is ‘Sean’ the first thing the person will ask is ‘how do you spell that?’

It will be a nightmare her whole life. Constant repetitions and spelling it out and correcting folks pronunciation.

I have an English first name and an Irish surname - in fact also 14 letters. I have never had an issue with the Irish surname as people will generally ask how to spell it as they are unfamiliar with it.

I encounter far more issues with the English first name as there two equally common variations - and I find that people invariably go for the wrong one without checking (Katherine as opposed to Catherine, though that’s not my name).

I can say that none of this bothers me in the slightest and it certainly didn’t feature in my decision to name my children (or if it did, certainly not in priority to their cultural heritage).

Having looked at this thread many times, I would have to check the thread title if I wanted to stand any chance of writing the name correctly. How many readers could look away from their phone and spell the name correctly, despite being on this thread?

The difference with spelling a name like Sean/Shaun, is that there are a couple of options and people will be familiar with the name and spelling. This name is entirely different to that and can’t be compared.

By adulthood you know if your name has standart spelling and noone makes a mistake in 90% of cases, or you have to point out on smth every time.