Eilis

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I love the name Eilis, but it seems to be one of those names that even Irish people pronounce differently from each other! Eg. the character in the film Brooklyn is Ey-lish (first syllable rhymes with hey) but Colm Toibin, who wrote the novel, says he prefers the pronunciation Eye-lish.

I realise there's also an Ailis spelling, but I'm less keen on that (no idea why).

I really like the Ey-lish (hey) pronunciation and the Eilis spelling. Is that a reasonably common pronunciation (whether you are Irish or English)? Is it the sort of thing people will get once they've been told? Does the film help?

(NB I know there's also Eilís/Ailís, but I prefer the short second syllable.)

Oh wait I read it as Ellis, how dou pronounce Eilis?

I know 2 boys and 1 girl with the name Ellis. I like it! Never known anyone here miss spell / pronounce it either (south of England)

Oh wait I also miss read it as Ellis not Elis

Yep, I read it as Ellis too, so you might end up continually correcting people with both spelling and pronunciation.

Do you mean Eididh?

Such a lovely name and was the name of my dad's aunt. We pronounced it Eye-leash.

Intriguing that people read Eilis as Ellis - but easily corrected! :-)

@bertrandrussell - No - do you mean Eilidh? That's a Scottish name, different name all together.

A girl at school (Scotland) was called this. She said it eye-lish

I’m Irish and in my part of the country, it would be pronounced Eye-leash, usually. I’ve heard Ay-lish and Ay-leash as well. But always with a ‘sh’ sound at the end, never an ‘s’. Maybe the book and film has changed things, but it’s quite an old-fashioned name where I’m from. A good ICA name - mostly women in their 60s from the country.

I pronounce it ay-lish. And yes, it's old fashioned. But not in a 'vintage cool' way, in more of a 'let's all say a few decades of the rosary, won't that be lovely?' kind of way. I find it funny when old biddy Irish names are seen through fresh eyes. I've even seen Nuala spoken about in glowing terms too. Lord help us all.

Eilís Dillon is the most famous Eilis I can think of (although with the fada she obviously pronounced it ay-leesh). As well as Eilis from Brooklyn, who thank God, chose Hot Tony over that drip of a good catch in Enniscorthy.

I love the name Eily.
I'm not so keen on Eilís ( I pronounce it eye leesh )

Ellis is a male Scottish name, pronounced E as in egg, lisss

I always thought Ellis was Welsh.

Is everyone speed reading? It’s very clearly Eilis in the title!

I've taught two - both spelled without the h so Eilis and pronounced Aylish. (Plus one Eilidh - Aylee)

In England.

I thought it said Ellis too.... which I prefer

I've only ever seen it with an h at the end (Eilish) and pronounced Eye leash.

Grew up in Munster and had a few girls in school call Eilish in the 80's

bubastes, exactly! I wonder how many baby Nualas were registered last year. None in Ireland, I’d say.

Although, to be fair, the only Eilis I know is the writer Éilís NiDhuibhne who is actually pretty cool. Pronounced Ayleash because of the fadas in her case.

beannaseireann, I like Eily also, now that I say it out loud.

My aunt was Eilis, just pronounced Ay-lish. Surely Ei can't be pronounced Eye? How do we even spell the sound of eye? I know that in the middle of words it's "adh" but it's just occurred to me that I don't know how to spell that sound at the beginning of a word...

Aimsir is pronounced eye-mshur.

Although I've just thought, aghaidh is pronounced eye isn't it? Maybe there could be a 'creative' spelling of aghaidhlis. That wouldn't confuse anyone!

@ILoveMaxiBondi, sadly no, people are just being deliberately ignorant about Irish names, as per usual on mumsnet

OP, I would pronounce it Eye-lish. I think it's nice, definitely not as grannyish as Nuala. The only Eilis I know is a teen!

But it’s anglicised, isn’t it? Not an actual Gaelic name? So without the fada for some people it’s a bit like Eileen?

I read it as Ellis too, and thought I would've loved that name for DS if I'd been more adventurous.

You're probably right, badb. Even Irish people bastardise Irish names.