Seamus

[Skintightjeans]

I am starting to like Seamus, nn Shay.
We live in England, is It too Irish? Do people generally know how to spell & pronounce it or will I be forever having to correct people?
Surname is Irish and needs to be spelled out too.

It does sound very Irish. Is that what you were looking for? I would be surprised if a non-Irish person used it, unless maybe there were family connections to Ireland.
I wouldn't need to be told how to spell it thanks to Seamus Finnigan in Harry Potter

I love it (but then I'm Irish!)

Also love nn seami (shamey)

I think it's one of those names like Niamh, Siobhan etc that is fairly well known and understood over here.

I would say people who listen to the news and read a bit would recognise Seamus Heaney's name as well as the Seamus character in HP and be able to join the dots to your Seamus.

I thought some minor Royal many years ago named a boy Seamus. Can't remember who. Could have just been one of the Royal hangers on..

You can never fully anticipate all the problems any name will encounter though. My DCs 1 and 2 have names that are spelled phonetically and are fairly common, and you would think easy to pronounce (not Irish names) and yet more people get them wrong than right.

Fwiw, I love the name (I am Irish) and Shay is a nice nn imo.

Seamus is ok

Shay as Nn not so great.

I know several babies and children called Seamus and two boys called Shay. I don't think they have had any problems.

I'm Irish and I really like Seamus.

I hate Shay. It sounds rough.

I may be opening a can of pronounciation worms here, but I would not say the first part of Seamus sounds the same as 'Shay'. Am Scottish; it may be different in Ireland.

One is Sheyhm; one is Shaaay.

Seamus is very nice. Do not wish to offend but I am not at all keen on Shay.
The Irish/Scottish shortening mentioned above (Seami) is much nicer, I think.

Great name. I love Shay as nn, and in Ireland the first syllable is indeed pronounced Shay although, like many Irish names , will have slight regional variations in the pronounciation.

I've never met anyone with this name (am in England) but would think it is pronounced See-muss. So no idea how Shay derives from that. I know an American Shane though.

My Irish OH is Seamus and he hates Shay!

Lived in London for five years. One mate called Seamus, always called See-mus. Another called Cathal, became known as Cat-hall. A friend in London called her son Tadhg. That's pronounced Tiige, like tiger. Thought she was mad, on both pronunciation & spelling front... Was always glad I didn't have an Irish name, myself.

I love it and would definitely use it. I'm English with Irish GPs and live in a pretty Irish Catholic part of the country. People wouldn't have any problems spelling it in my neck of the woods.

Ignorance of the pronunciation is often used as a reason for not using Irish names on here. Not so much when it comes to names from other foreign nationalities ...

Seamus is a well known name I'd have thought even outside Ireland, it's Irish for James so it is fairly common. Even in the US you'd rarely have problems with it.

Also prefer Seami to Shay, which to me sounds dead rough, but that's a generational and geographic thing - the Shays I knew of growing were the shouty drunk men hanging round the pub in the middle of the day... Seami is really cute for a little one though!

Don't worry about the pronunciation side too much of it, I have an unusual and unpronounceable Irish first name myself and live in the UK. People who sneer at it for being difficult have their own problems to worry about so don't pay them any attention. FFS, you can get in spelling trouble with Jane/Jayne, Ann/Anne and Smith/Smyth so it doesn't really make that much of a difference when you're talking on the phone as you usually have to spell out one or more names anyway. Little Seamus, like most people with Irish names who live outside of Ireland, will be better than most at anticipating name difficulties when it comes to it. In my case if I like the person mangling my name I ask them to call me by my first initial, if not then it's Mrs O'Whatsit to you and no I don't want to pursue a PPI claim thank you.

What would put me off Seimi as a nn would be memories of an Irish language school comic character called Seimi Sirriam.

There's a Pink Floyd song called Seamus. It features a howling singing dog .

Am Irish, and like Seamus, but loathe Shay which, like a pp, I associate with middle-aged daytime drunks and the Nighthawks guy who wrote Johnny Logan's 'What's Another Year' (no one outside of Ireland will get this, I realise).

I live in England, and my son has an Irish name (as do I, first name and surname) and it hasn't caused any undue problems. People grasp it once you've said it to them.