Pronunciation of Saoirse

[lalaland1985]

Saoirse is my choice of name if I have a girl. I am sure it's pronounced Seer-sha however quite a few family members think it's ser-sha. Who is correct?

Both are acceptable. There are lots of different accents in Irish/Gaelic. Personally, I would say 'Sear-shuh'.

I have a friend called Saoirse and she pronounces it more like "Sor-sha"

It's pronounced Say-sha over here in ROI

seer (like here) shuh

Only one I know is ser-sha

I know this isn't correct but I'd say sorsha

Saoirse Ronan (the actress) says she and her family pronounce it like inertia, but others say it differently.

Just to add to the confusion, in my part of Ireland it's pronounced Sare-sha.

I'd say Sare-sha or Seer-sha are both perfectly acceptable pronunciations.

There are lots of dialects in the Irish language, and pronunciations vary widely depending on region.

In between seer-sha and sare-sha.
Sort of ser-sha (ser as in service)

I know one and say it Ser (as in her) and sha (said in the sound of the phonetic S)

It certainly isn't ever pronounced 'Say-sha.' It has an 'r' for heaven's sake. Or Sor-sha (which is Seoirse, and the Irish form of George). As others have said, Seer-shuh or (less commonly, imo) Sare-shuh are the two regional variants.

Wow that's much more complicated than I thought. I can't even remember how I've been saying work contact's name now. Too many versions in my head.

Patricia, I'm from west Cork.

There's no way that multiple people can think it has a silent R unless it's purely an accent thing - non-rhotic accents would usually not pronounce the R, like most southern English accents, Australian etc. In that case though it's an accent issue rather than a "this is a valid pronunciation" issue - when writing out the pronunciation phonetically it still has an R, there's absolutely no way around the R if following Irish pronunciation rules. Hardshoulder is completely correct

I wouldn't have a clue how to pronounce it

I definitely like the Seer-sha pronunciation best!

Oh God, loved this name but caused so much fuss over pronounciation, whether I could use it as not Irish, the IRA connection and whether it could be anglicised (apparently not, although other Irish names can be) we decided not to use it.

Sare-shah.

Seer-shuh.

Sare-sha or Seer-sha. Seer-sha is the 'pure' pronunciation, I think, but in the part of Ireland my family are from its definitely more Sare-sha.

Are you in Ireland OP? If not you might be setting your DD up for a lifetime of mispronunciation and misspelling.

(I'd have pronounced it saucy. Sorry)

Realistically you would need to transliterate it if you ever wanted anyone to be able to pronounce it - I'm assuming you're not Irish?

Strangely it's ok to transliterate Connor, Orla, Neve, Kevin etc but not Saoirse.

Nobody could pronounce Sinead or Siobhan in the UK 20 years ago.

I wouldn't worry about people not being able to pronounce it on first sight. Its a beautiful name.

Seer-sha

I'm Irish and honestly have never heard any other pronunciation myself