To ask how you would pronounce this name?

[Notss]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is the wrong place:

My little sister is expecting her first child and if it is a girl wants to call her “Sian”.

She sent it to me in a text and I replied “What - like See-Ann?” And she told me I was being daft.

So how would you pronounce such a name?

It's a Welsh name. Sharn

I had the same trouble many years ago as a young teacher when taking a new class register and facing my 1st encounter with the name "Siobhan". After creating much hilarity with my 1st attempt - "See-ub-ann" - the pupils eventually put me right but I still don't see how anyone could get "Shiv-orn" from this spelling though :)

Sharn

Can’t believe there’s a thread about my name lol!
It’s welsh for Jane and pronounced Sharn
It’s actually spelt with a ^ over the a
I get called all sorts, Sharon, sigh-ann, sean....
I always say my mum said no one can pronounce that or spell it, that will do

Paws17. There isn’t a v in the Irish language. BH is pronounced as v.

paws17

It's a matter of alphabet values. Most of the major European languages use a variant of the Latin alphabet for the written form of their language, but the sounds assigned to each letter or letter combination (I can never remember the technical name for this, sorry) vary across the borders.

So, for example in German au is a sort of crisp ow sound, sort of like cow, not an or sound as in English faun. V= English f, and W=English V.

In Irish, bh=English V. That's just the way it is.

Disclaimer: I am writing this in a hurry, and I don't pretend these are exact descriptions.

Sharn

Just read some of the other comments which made me laugh! Sharn is just the easiest way of explaining it to someone who has never heard the name before. You’re really getting into specifics with the hard, soft or no R sound at all. Europeans have great fun with it lol!!

*In Irish, bh=English V. That's just the way it is.^

...and to make it more complicated, the 'h' was only added when typewriters came along, because there wasn't a symbol for the dot that goes over a b to change it from 'b' sound to 'v' sound. Sometimes it's even 'bhf' just to make it more complicated, which makes a sort of a 'vw' sound.

Juells, that is fascinating. It reminds me of another spelling change in another language (but I can't quite remember what) that was the result of adaptation to English typewriters (or possibly the printing press).

I think it's always been pronounced like 'Sharn' but the 'sia' is slighly softer than a 'shar', maybe a bit softer like the tia in tertiary.

Sharn is just the easiest way of explaining it to someone who has never heard the name before

But only if they have the same accent as you. It doesn't make sense as a description for me because it turns it into a totally different sound.

I understand that now because I've read threads on mumsnet explaining it. But until a poster actually explained about the silent R (years ago now) it just left me totally confused.

I went to school with a Sian, pronounced the way the OP thought her sister would pronounce it.
It was very weird to me when I came across the Welsh weather reporter Sian Lloyd

🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Siân never Sharn!

Worked with a girl years ago whose name was spelt Sian but her parents pronounced it Si an!!

For those people saying they would pronounce Sian as 'see-ann' or 'sigh-ann', do you also pronounce Sean as 'seen'? And is Sean Bean 'seen been'?

I would think anyone not knowing that Sian is pronounced as 'sh-ah-n' or 'sharn' (which are pronounced identical to me) must either be extremely young, not from the Uk, or just crawled out from under a rock somewhere.

Do you also pronounce Niamh as 'nigh-am' or something?

From my welsh heratiage I would say maddness it is Sharn but we had SA neighbours and their daughter "Sian" they pronounced "Shee-ann". Have a work colleague Eliza pronounced "Elisha", I think their is a richness to language and names and you shouldn't feel too bad

BTW, Sian Lloyd pronounces her name Sharn, with the R sound, not Shan

Sian Phillips, gorgeous Welsh actress ,put a circumflex over the a.

In my accent I would pronounce Sian to rhyme with “gone”, or really the same way as I pronounce Shaun and Shawn. DH despairs at me but I honestly don’t hear the difference when he tries to educate me. People who say “sharn”: is it rhyming with yarn? I find this all strangely interesting.

I would think anyone not knowing that Sian is pronounced as 'sh-ah-n' or 'sharn' (which are pronounced identical to me) must either be extremely young, not from the Uk, or just crawled out from under a rock somewhere.

Or never seen The One Show....

I think the Si-Ann pronunciation is just people making a phonetic assumption because no one has told them how to pronounce it and they’ve never heard it used out loud. It’s always been ‘Sharn’ as far as I know. I wouldn’t want to be saddled with a name I’m always going to have to explain and say patiently ‘I know it’s Sharn, but my DM just plucked the pronunciation out of her head without checking...’. Mind you most Sians I know have to spell it for everyone anyway.

I team it as Si-an also

spiderlight we took my son Dylan to Laugharne to see Dylan Thomas' boat house (but it was early evening and it was shut, so we peaked in his writing shed). Very pretty views

I have a friend with this name and with this spelling and it was always pronounced “Sharn”.