To think that children's names should be spelt roughly how they sound

[cleggy36]

There's a boy in my Cub pack who has a name which sounds like a very common boy's name but which has what I assume is a traditional Gaelic spelling. As a result it is more than twice as long as the more common spelling and has only the first letter in common. There is no possible way that anyone not familiar with the name could get even close to pronouncing it correctly. And it's not one I've ever come across before, such as Niamh, which is also tricksy, but slightly better known.

I just think that as a child life has enough challenges without being lumbered with a name which almost everybody is going to pronounce or spell completely incorrectly just to satisfy the parents cultural identity.

I come at this from both sides.

I've got a gaelic name and it's either spelled correctly (if someone sees it written down) or pronounced correctly (if someone hears it) - but never both. I'm a bit about that and, as a very small number of people in even Scotland speak gaelic, I'll correct them and get on with my life. I love my name and I think it's a much prettier spelling than the English version.

Having said that, when ds was born we chose the anglicised spelling of his Irish/Scottish name - partly based on my childhood experiences of mangled attempts at my name, partly because of a difference in pronunciation between the Irish and Scottish gaelic versions, I liked the Irish pronunciation and in Scotland the default would be the Scottish one (still with me? ). Anyhoo, everyone always asks how his name is spelled because there's a greater awareness of gaelic/it's a popular name in Scotland at the moment. [can't win]

OP, look upon it as a chance to educate yourself in the way another language works. Diversity's a good thing, yes?

And as an aside, re the phonetic pronunciation of Siân, just goes to show that English has its issues too:

Domesticsluttery is of course right that "ar" indicated a long a sound in many English speaking regions, but SaorAlba's right too: In Scotland we pronounce our "r"s so Sharn isn't the phonetic spelling of Siân.

I don't know, it is probably annoying to keep having your name spelt wrong, but you cling to it more I think. Now if I give my surname I automatically say 'with a double ...' and I don't think it's that odd! And it is phonetically English too.

er...
how are you getting my cute little accent on there?

yabu with the "satisfying the parents cultural identity" thing but over all i see your reasoning. I am a person with a gaelic name that no one ever knows how to spell/pronounce. When i was a child i hated it, for stupid reasons and as an adult i find it funny sometimes seeing peoples faces as they try not to offend me. I hate having to spell it but i hate even more when people spell it/pronounce it the Anglicised version esp if i have already told them how to say it

muminthemiddle, I was in Germany for work last week and met a Wolfgang with a surname beginning with W. He introduced himself using the English pronunciation of W. Was slightly taken aback as I would have assumed it was a V sound. Maybe he was trying to be kind to his non-German audience?

skeleton - did you ever meet his parents? Do they appear to be intellectually challenged? Maybe they had seen the name written down but didn't actually know any Irish people and had never heard it pronounced?

EvilTwins I have a similar problem - my married surname is very common, and is the same surname as a famous football manager (called Alex) and a famous Sarah who married into the royal family.

You would be amazed at the number of people who are unable to spell it!

My maiden surname though, was very unusual (only about 100 or so in existence, and they are all related to me, I know this after researching family tree) and was the sort of name that could have had many different pronunciations!

I have a very common first name, which has an alternate spelling which changes the pronunciation. So I spend lots of time correcting people who have only seen it written down.

Amusingly enough my idiot brother still doesn't know how to spell it...

My mum taught a Siân, pronounced Cy-ann.

The little girl's mother was very annoyed by my mum's ridiculous pronunciation of her daughter's name. And yes, they'd only ever seen it written down - just thought it looked nice.

(Shirley - am copying and pasting from Word [perfectionist])

suzi my DDs nursery teacher asked (when we went in for an open day) is her (DDs) name prononced CY-ANN or SANE? i sort of 'ed and said neither, its SIAN (as in SHAHHN)! she looked genuinely confused and admited she had NEVER even seen the name written down or taught a child/met a person with the name

seems odd to me that people would get it wrong but there again i do have irish relatives with genuine (sound- and spell-ing) irish names my mum is siobhan and i have an uncle dairmuid...you get the picture

one name i have always been unable to work out though is Caoimhe...how is it pronounced?? anyone?? i LOVE Aoife too and would like to use itif we have another DC but DH isnt quite so keen

It's at times like this that you have to just rely on the consistency and continuity of English spelling and pronunciation.

Shirly - woman after my own heart. There is a child at school - every week when I help out with the lunches - his name is spelt SEAN. I pronounced it shawn checking I had the right lunch bag. He said no that is not mine. My name is see-an!!! What do you say?!?

As I had only every known SEAN to be pronounced Shawn.

YABU. Do you also go on holiday and speak English VERY SLOWLY AND LOUDLY to all those funny foreigners because of course the whole world should speak English?

panda Caoimhe is Kee-va.
But varies slightly depending on where in Ireland you are from. So that's the Armagh version.
A+O+I = E if that helps
M+H = V

so much tobats , my surname while easy to pronnce is pretty rare to and seems everyone one i found were related to

YADNBU I have changed the spellings of my dc's names to make it easier for them when at school so now they are spelt exactly how they are said

So basically you are saying that names should be spelt wrong......

panda my DDs have a cousin in Ireland called Caoimhe and it's pronounced Kwee-va (so slightly different from KenDodd's suggestion). The parents are fluent Irish speakers from Dublin.

SaorAlba - it begins with a K :)

my theory in life is anything to make life easier and if changing a spelling will enable my dc's at school and thru life then why not. I don't think there is a book of names and the only way they should be spelt