Cian or Cathal?

[FirstofhisName]

Which do you prefer? Think these are our final two choices having considered lots of Irish boys names! Possibly James as a middle name. So either:

Cian James
OR
Cathal James?

Prefer Cathal. I know a lot of little Cians and Cathal is far less popular.

How are you pronouncing cathal? If it's Ca-Hal I prefer it

I’m not sure how to pronounce Cathal, can you do a phonetic spelling?

I don’t think having a name people don’t automatically know how to pronounce is an issue by the way, I just can’t decide fairly at the moment.

cathal. Fab name. I only know one other and it’s not common either.
I have a Roisin but often its pronounced Roysin its Rosheen

Cathal as Cian is very pipular.
I like Cathal. Like Daithi as well.

Cathal, lovely name.

Thanks everyone, looks like Cathal is the favourite so far! Cathal is my preference, OH likes Cian... so hard to decide. Cathal would be the more popular name where I live.

Not sure if I can do justice to a phonetic spelling of Cathal, it's a tricky one. Sound like Coh-hull, the t is silent.

I prefer Cathal, based on how you have explained the pronunciation. Perhaps because it is a newer name to me, in terms of sound.

Cathal

I prefer Cian, as long as it's pronounced with two syllables.

Cathal is nice too, but if you are not living in Ireland the pronunciation will get mangled.

I prefer Cathal, but agree that outside of Ireland it will get mangled

Both are great. I prefer Cathal as Cian is very popular. Ciar?

Are you in Eire or England? I like Cathal, but I have an Irish dh and know how to pronounce certain Irish stuff. Not all by any means, the mh thing confuddles me.
If you're in UK Killian/Cillian is a lovely name and proper pronouncable?

(Off topic) @FastWindow it's Ireland, not Éire. Too tired to go into it. History and politics. But unless you are talking in Irish, it's Ireland.

And op I'd definitely go for Cathal. There are loads of Cianstuff.

please I have a fair grasp of the six counties giveaway. You seem like the type who likes to hijack a baby name thread for semantics. Give over.

I'm in Ireland so pronunciation shouldn't be an issue, although I do worry that Cathal wouldn't travel well.

Can't have Ciar as we have a family member named Ciarán. Cillian is out for the same reason!

I love Cathal but I'm in England and the English mangal it (think 'karl') but definitely use it in Ireland!

I have a very Irish name which doesn't travel well and tend to use a short version of it, but wouldn't put me off using an equally "difficult" name at home

I love Cian, not popular where I am in Scotland either . Im not really sure how Cathal is pronounced even after reading your spelling sorry haha

They are both nice but I have real difficulty pronouncing Cathal. I have a friend who makes it sound almost like “Carl” with a posh English non R.

It's hard to find a way to spell out how the Irish O sounds as opposed to the Home Counties O.

Koh as in coffee as it wold be pronounced in Ireland, hull as in Hull.

The O sound here is represented by the /ɑ/ symbol in phonology. YY to the A sound in Carl, but the H must be sounded. There are two syllables.