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Caitlin / Caitlín ?

33 replies

Maternelle · 02/03/2011 21:30

DH is Irish, we have an Irish surname but live in France so we can't have Niamh, my favourite, because of the spelling. No Rs as the pronunciation are too different with a French accent, so can't have Cara.
How about Caitlin, pronounced Catlin?

OP posts:
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Maternelle · 02/03/2011 21:38

Bump

OP posts:
hatwoman · 02/03/2011 21:40

you might the French pronoucing it Catleeeeeen. but I like that. they run the t and l together rather nicely

Maternelle · 02/03/2011 21:41

I know this is pathetic I have read on some threads that this was a chav name, whatever a chav name is...

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CharlieCoCo · 03/03/2011 00:25

my favourite name is Caitlin (pronounced kate lin) but i use to have a friend who was called cat lin. i know someone who has a baby kaytlin who claims that is the irish spelling but i havent come across that spelling before so could be wrong.

spidookly · 03/03/2011 00:32

Caitlín is pronounced Cotchleen (as you probably know, if you're Irish).

Catlin and Caitlin pronounced Kate-Lynn are not Irish names. Catlin doesn't really sound very nice.

What about Clodagh?

Or Maeve?

Seóna?

spidookly · 03/03/2011 00:36

Oops sorry, you're not the Irish one, it's your DH.

Is Niamh really such a problem. None of the sounds are hard - just tell people how to say it and they'll know.

Although I have heard people say that Niamh is chavvy now (in England I suppose)

Maternelle · 03/03/2011 13:53

Well apparently, it depends which part of Ireland you come from as in places it's pronounced Catlin in other Cotchleen.
DH is from the North and it's Catlin there, or so I understand.
Niamh would be a nightmare here. DD1 is a Maeve, not keen on names ending in A.
The chavvy thing is weird. I can understand it for made-up names or misspelt names, but not for completely normal names.

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cumbria81 · 03/03/2011 14:41

The French will pronounce it Cat-leeeen whatever you do about it

poshe · 03/03/2011 14:51

The French like Marie and Patricia. They're a bit Irishy.
They also seem to use several names we do like: Alice, Alicia, Emma, Sarah, Anna and so on.

Maternelle · 03/03/2011 15:00

Thanks poshe but I want a celtic name.
cumbria I don't think so, and I am French (well Breton, but it's a different topic)and live in France.

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spidookly · 03/03/2011 19:11

Noyale?

I love this name and the saint name story. If you're Breton you could even use the Breton version.

Maternelle · 03/03/2011 21:05

Noyale is a French name from what I can find. I don't really like it sorry. And it would be pronounced very differently by both sides of the family.

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MamaVoo · 03/03/2011 21:14

Orla?
Catriona?
Fiona?

spidookly · 03/03/2011 21:24

Noyale is the French version, Noaluen the Breton. There's a Cornish variant too, as she was from Britain originally.

But if you don't like it, it's irrelevant. Just trying to think of other Celtic names.

Do you like Emer?

A lot of Irish girls' names end in a (or e, but with an a sound in English).

spidookly · 03/03/2011 21:25

Muireann
Doireann

Maternelle · 03/03/2011 21:35

Got it, it's Nolwenn here spidookly, I do like it but we already have 2 in my family.
It's true that most names end in A.
Muireann is lovely. How is it pronounced?

Do no one like Caitlin?

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reelingintheyears · 03/03/2011 23:55

I like Caitlin..

It's DDs name...shes 22 now and there were none about back then so it was pretty unusual.
We say it as Kate lin.

The only one's i'd heard of were Caitlin Thomas (Dylan Thomas' wife) and Caitlin O'Riordan who was in the Pogues.

spidookly · 04/03/2011 07:52

Muireann in the north of Ireland canúint (sort of like a dialect) is Mirrin.

Caitlín in that accent is Catchlin.

A narrow t sound has a tch pronunciation (well in Irish actually it is a beautiful sound not heard in English, but in English it becomes tch).

spidookly · 04/03/2011 08:07

Ah, Nolwenn is lovely :)

Caitlin (pronounced Katelyn) is quite popular in parts of Ireland now, I believe. I guess it just depends how you feel about an English phonetic mispronucuation of an Irish name. Some people don't care. I do, but I'm an Irish speaker so it just seems wrong to me.

I don't much like Katelyn as a name (or Catlin - sounds like cattling) but that's just personal taste.

spidookly · 04/03/2011 08:09

Róisín?

Ulster Irish = Rosh-een (emph 1st syllable - in fact emph 1st syllable in all these names)

spidookly · 04/03/2011 08:20

Sadhbh? [sive]

sorry, no more from me

Maternelle · 04/03/2011 08:44

I actually love Róisín, but the R pronunciation is so different here that she really would have 2 names.
The thing is spidookly that I care a lot about the mispronunciation as I am a Breton speaker and have a very Breton name which is constantly battered by French speakers.
It's just that I have been told that Caitlin can be pronounced Catlin by Irish speakers in some parts of Ireland. I just want to make sure.
If not, I will have to go back to the drawing board.

OP posts:
Maryz · 04/03/2011 09:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Maternelle · 04/03/2011 09:06

Thanks Maryz, this is what I want to hear Smile
French people, by reading her name, will say Kate-Lynn. BUT 95% of people will hear her name before reading it, so I don't think that's a problem.
We called our son Finn, because we thought it would be nice and easy. Massive error, people here call him Feeeene, which is not the same at all. He's only wee and he corrects people himself and so does his 4 y/o sister.

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spidookly · 04/03/2011 10:30

Yes, I kind of got that the pronunciation mattered.

Sorry, I forgot the R. There are two Rs in my name and French people struggle to say it at all, with their beautiful rolled Rs.

Liadan? I struggle with that one because of the broad D. English people won't say it right, but French people might.

"It's just that I have been told that Caitlin can be pronounced Catlin by Irish speakers in some parts of Ireland."

In terms of vowel sounds, yes. But the problem with the pronunciation of the narrow T sound remains in all dialects (unless you are prepared to accept the Irish pronunciation of people who don't speak Irish very well and commonly mispronounce words).

This would be a problem in Ireland nearly as much as in France.

It's just not a sound that exists in English and most Irish people won't say it properly when speaking English, and many of them don't even know how it should be pronounced. The whole beauty of the name comes from the sound of that narrow T IMO.

Personally I would say that if you're not an Irish-speaking family, steer clear, and if you are and it will bother you that the vast majority of people with butcher the name, still steer clear.

Or if you don't care that Catlin is only a vague approximation of an Irish name, then use that.

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