Named daughter Saoirse - Seer- sha

[Kira22]

Wrote post earlier but had spelling errors! I put cha instead of sha. Many of you pointed this (quite rightly out) as being different sounds- I'd realised as soon as I wrote it I had got S and C muddled (I am dyslexic) but wasn't in time enough to edit. MNHQ kindly took original post down. Just spent awhile going through it and somehow lost entire original post, DOH!

In short, daughter is called Saoirse - named after the girl in the film Song of the Sea www.imdb.com/title/tt1865505/ We fell in love with the name, we pronounce it Seer-sha - the Irish people in the film also say it this way.

I know the actress, Saoirse Ronan (who I actually don't know at all/never seen her films/just get informed alot about her when I say my daughters name!) pronounces her name SUR-sha. She says herself Seer-sha is also another, very common way. Different accents, regions and all that jazz.

An older couple today were basically telling me I was saying my own daughters name wrong today and that they had Irish in their family and it is Sur- sha. Even when I said yes my dad's side are Irish (not that is blooming matters) they wouldn't have it - the woman even said how are you spelling it so I spelt 'Saoirse' and she said 'when you said her name (Seer-sha) I wouldn't have known her name was Saoirse unless you had spelt it for me because it is pronounced 'Sur-sha'

Am just amazed sometimes people ask her name I say it is 'Seer- sha' and they say 'Ohhh, SUR- sha' with huge emphasis on Sur. When someone tells me their name/ their childs name I make a huge effort to say it how they say it, because, well, that is their name!

I wasn't going to repost but many of you kindly had taken time to write replies before, so felt I should

Yeah er ending is... Distressing

@Justalittlenaughty I've had a lifetime of spelling my name for people and it's a bog standard English name. If hasn't killed me, I barely give it a second thought and just spell it for them. In fact, needing to spell it has increased because I'm boring and my name is my email address so if I don't spell it, god knows who'd get my emails. Still doesn't bother me - takes 10 seconds extra to spell it for people.

And, as a child it helped me to grow up confident talking to adults because I knew I'd have to spell my name

Wrong thread sorry

I’m so confused with what you mean honestly.

phonetic laws of Irish? I would suggest dialect really. Seersha is not the only pronunciation in Ireland and I think you know that. Seersha is absolutely the most popular, and friends I have from Dublin say Seersha, family in Tralee say sairsha though.

also, as I had stated, Scottish/Irish grandparent opts for Sorsha. The other variations have come from people from different parts of England.

I don’t consider it mispronunciation, I think it’s dialect 🤷🏻‍♀️ I am just phonetically spelling out their pronunciation, from different accents both regionally in Ireland and then England/Scotland too

I don’t think it’s so deep.

I think she's referring to your claim that it can be pronounced with a "shar" at the end. There is no Irish dialect I am aware of that pronounces "sé" as "shar".

Too late to edit. There shouldn't be a fada on the e of "sé". It should say "se".

thank you…..

I didn’t think Mumsnet would be so intense, I’ve commented on this thread and the rockstar hiatus one and everyone gets their back up over the slightest thing….

By default if I am talking to someone who is not familiar with Irish names I opt for shar instead of sha. Even when a friend began working with a caoimhe, and wanted to know how to pronounce it. I just stated is as Keever. Turns out she was actually a Queever. I find that if I spell it out as sairsha I often get too much of a harsh English A -sound in response. 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

Maybe the problem is that I’m dyslexic too though…. lol 😆

oh well, I have felt the wrath now!

I've not read a single reply, but my favourite grandparent has this name, 98 and called Soor-Sha. She has lived in Ireland her whole life.

Saoirse is a beautiful name.

I get your point, but I was writing it as I would spell it to a stranger or new colleague. I’ve spent the majority of my life in England, and I have found too many times se as sha gets pronounced weird compared to shar. It is just default.

I just spell it how I want it pronounced to save it being butchered and so far it has worked🤷🏻‍♀️

I am assuming if you have spent most of your life in England that you have an English accent?

What you are actually doing is pronouncing it as an english person would, which is fair enough. It would have been easier if you said that rather than suggesting you were giving the correct pronunciation, which is an Irish one.

No Irish person would pronounce Caoimhe as Qweever or Keever.

Surely you have encountered English people that pronounce their r's? Telling them it's pronounced shar would result in your name being butchered.

I guess I have just become too Anglican 😂

😂

Yes and it’s for those people I’d specify a Sha sound to. Although where I live everyone here has quite a strong regional dialect so I guess I have just moulded it to where I live, and dare I say just allowed myself to accept whatever because people don’t want to pronounce it properly. Maybe that’s the issue 🤷🏻‍♀️

@SershaAdele There's something I'm curious about. You presumably don't pronounce your r's at the end of words if you think sha and shar are pronounced the same (or maybe you throw in an extra r at the end although I think the extra r's are usually thrown in in the middle like drawring for drawing). Can you hear the different sounds in people who pronounce their r's at the end of words?

I'm rubbish at languages so a lot of subtleties in foreign languages pass me by but I'm still interested in accents and so on.

That's rubbish when people don't make the effort.

I have an Irish name. I live in Ireland. Most people with my name use the more anglicised pronunciation but I use the local Gaeltacht pronunciation. I accept the more anglicised pronunciation but what I get annoyed about is people correcting my pronunciation.

@OchonAgusOchonOh I think she means the same way the ladybird heard rhymes idea and ear, or oi frog has sofa and gopher. She's suggesting people add in an r instead of dropping it.

Yes thank you !!! You have put into words what I have struggled to articulate myself. This is such a good example. I probably mucked it all up with sha and shar and sher. I should have thought of this when someone said about Saoirse Ronans “inertia” lol

Ah, ok. Well, neither would happen with an Irish accent. We're well capable of mangling other sounds though.

I've no idea what you mean by the ladybird and the frog though.

My Irish friend and her husband - also Irish, pronounce same as you. They are from Southern Ireland. It’s a beautiful name.

Southern Ireland.

This is considered a bit insulting. There is Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland or just Ireland.

This post prompted me to watch a video of Ronan. She says Sairsha ...

Seer cha is the most common pronunciation. So you are absolutely correct.

I have just got used to it now, I think that’s the problem though. At one point I accepted Sasha😐😢 I get this a lot where I live, but am a bit bolder to suggest Sersha at the very least. Sairsha / Seersha is too hard apparently.

it is totally wrong for people to correct you on your own name! It’s part of you. I don’t understand why people cannot accept what is verbally communicated to them.

I worked with a Tanya in a previous role who liked her name to be pronounced Tarnyer. Whereas the Tanya I now work with, is just as it’s spelt. tan-ya. Lol

is it people with the Anglicised version of your name correcting you? What do they say to correct you? “This is the right way”?! It just seems insulting, but am not surprised!

@OchonAgusOchonOh sorry! They're two kids books where everything rhymes. I'm Irish too and I'm always in a great flow reading them until the ladybird has a great idea and whispers it into each animal..... ear. Which falls so flat unless you've said idear before. I've started to do (terrible) English accents for the Oi Frog book because there's gorillas on pillars and all sorts and it just sounds mad unless you're dropping or adding r's left right and Centre.

We would say it more like Ser-sha. So not quite Sur/Sir-sha nor Seer-sha (because Seer sounds more See-ur in our accent).

It's like "Mary". Some say Mair-ree and some say Meer-ree.

Whatever your daughter goes by, people should respect it.