Seana/Shawna/Shauna

[lawrencecostin]

Thoughts on this name?
Was rather surprised to discover Seana (Dear Sky News: it's "shawn-uh" not "see-anna") only came into use in the last century. You'd think people would've needed a female form of Sean much earlier.

I like the sound of the name but I don't like how the shauna/shawna spelling looks. I once knew a little girl called seana and people couldn't get their heads around it being Shauna rather than see-Anna. What about Shona? Similar sound, don't know if it's derived from Sean or a completely different origin.

They are ok, don't love them.

If I was looking for a female form of Sean, I would use Siobhán, Sinéad, Síne or one of the other older feminine forms.

Shauna

I also prefer Shona.

Shauna

I'm Irish, only ever know Shaunas. I know one Séana, a guy, pronounced Shay-na because the fada is on the e not the a. Shawna just looks like a phonetic abomination of Shauna.

I know a Seána. Always thought it was a pretty name. I'm not mad about Shauna and Shawna is dire. Reminds me of those people on here who think Irish names are impossible and they should all be bastardised into more British looking spellings.

Don't like it. Feels very much in the vein of dad wanting to name the first born after himself at any cost.

Definitely Shauna!

Shauna is a lovely name and only ever seen it spelt this way.

Also like
Sienna
Serena
Shona

I know a Seona (pronounced Shona)

Shauna or Shona are both fine.

Seana will never be pronounced properly & Shawna makes me cringe.

As a pp has said, the usual feminine forms of Sean are Sinead & Siobhan (can't do fadas on phone) but while they are lovely names they sound very dated now.

It’s very late 80/early 90s, but not in a good way. Like she’s emptied a whole tin of hairspray into her fringe.

I would go for Shona.

“Don't like it. Feels very much in the vein of dad wanting to name the first born after himself at any cost.“

Yup!

It’s also a bit dated- I’m in Ireland and I don’t know any under 35.

Sinéad and Siobhán are not the feminine versions of Sean. Anymore than Jane & Jennifer are feminine versions of John.

The only thing they have in common is they are Irish names starting with s

There was a Shauna at the toddler group I used to go to.
She had a twin brother- Shaun.
Guess the parents weren’t really worried about the matchy twin name thing.
They had exactly the same hair too (the twins, not the parents)

The Sky News presenter mispronning Seana as "See-Anna" while the person she was talking to pronned it correctly as "Shawn-Uh"... I'd have complained to them but i didn't want to look like an ELITIST ;)

Whittling- I’m pretty sure Jane is a feminine version of John.
OP- I think Shauna.

Shauna
Seana will always get mispronounced & Shawna is clunky

Shauna is not a favorite name, not even close, though I like Sean. Sean is the Irish version of John. I guess the names Sinead, Siobhan, and Sioned are the female equivalents to Sean. I've got some Irish heritage but am not Irish, so just presuming based on word origins.

As PP said, Whittling:

Jane is a female version of John. Irish version is Síne. Diminutive is Janet (in Irish, Sinéad).

Joan/Joanne/Joanna is a different female version of John, via French, with various spellings. Irish = Siobhán.

Behindthename.com is a good reliable source for all of these.

I’ve known a Shauni and a Shani in Scotland. And lots of Shonas.

AtticaRose, Thanks for the tip. 🙏💕 Studying the etymology of names is only somewhat different than studying linguistics, really. I appreciate the support! 👍 I was a mediocre Linguistics student. Shani is a much nicer name than Shauna.

Atticarose, being Irish and growing up speaking Irish is a better source.