I didn't think this name would be so unpopular

[spookybitches]

So all throughout my pregnancy, my husband and I kept our baby name choices to ourselves. My baby is now 2 months old, and nearly everyone we have met or spoken to, have mispronounced it. Granted, we haven't seen many people over the last few weeks, so now I'm starting to wonder if it's just my family or if it's really so unheard of?
My baby boy is called Cillian (DH Irish). My whole family pronounce it silly-an even when I've corrected them numerous times.
Can I ask if you would know how to pronounce Cillian? I'm worried I've set him up for a lifetime correcting people.

I'm not really sure what I'm apparently sitting on the fence about.
Is it about @Vgtasd being an extremely boring troll who isn't even fun to argue with? The anti-craic if you will?

I don't think I'm actually on the fence about that at all...

I don't think Vgtasd is from Ireland - since she thinks Cillian is pronounced Kill-EE-An

I have a Sadhbh, much to my NI Protestant family’s horror. The difference between them and OP’s family is that mine didn’t say anything and strove to make sure they could pronounce and spell it properly because they didn’t want to be culturally insensitive to DH. He’s from Dublin (Ballymun as well, Pangur!), and they didn’t want to offend.

Also, if Irish people can learn how to pronounce the name St. John and Worcester Etc properly, then English people can manage Niamh, Cillian etc without the “bUt It’S nOt phonETic” claims.

If @Vgtasd was really Irish she would join in and help us make up more silly fake Irish names like Conchubhair and Caolfhionn and laugh at British people when they think they are real.
😂

The general rule in English is when a single c comes directly before the letters e, i or y we use the /s/ sound.

In other cases we use a /k/ sound.

So the natural inclination to pronounce it Cillian if you've never heard it before is understandable. But like others have pointed out, lots of names are not immediately clear on how to pronounce, and people just tell you and then you know. Not a big issue.

Repeatedly pronouncing it wrong after being corrected is a dick move. Maybe if you just firmly correct them every.single.time. they might stop?

My son is now 5 and none of my husbands family can say his name correctly, but the effort they put in is reflected on their general attitude. My family is closer and no one has a problem saying his name although effort was put in to get it right. One issue is that there are a number of ways to say it (depending on where you are from), so no one is technically incorrect but they use a different pronunciation.

I couldn't get it right for the first 3weeks of his life!

Some teachers struggle, most put in the effort to get it right. All of his friends get it right.

He doesn't mind if people get it wrong. I think he thinks the people that can get it right are in a secret society of his nearest and dearest. I don't think he's too far wrong.

If you like the name, keep it. My son has a variety of easier options (shortenings or using middle name etc) but is more bothered by people using those than saying his actual name incorrectly.

@Pangur2 Ballymun,its a small world.Im from Cabra.

Mrstwiddle Tue 21-Apr-20 22:55:26

Another one thinking silly an. I actually prefer that to the hard k, although neither is great, also think it’s a name that may not work as well in England as it does Ireland.

That's a pity, and actually quite parochial.

The name works well in Germany especially (as well as everywhere else) because the original St Cillian was known as the Apostle of Franconia (the northern part of modern Bavaria) in the 7th century. The cathedral of Wurzburg is dedicated to Kilian (German spelling), and his statue stands in the city.

Dublin's German International School is St Kilian's Deutsche Schule.

I do know that the Celtic languages have two groups, one which pronounces C soft as in a Scottish football team, and the other hard as in the more usual way of pronouncing Celtic.

@MollyButton - there is no soft C in any of the Celtic languages of the British Isles. All are hard Cs.

Celtic the football team and the Boston Celtics (basketball) are anomalies. The word Celtic is pronounced with a hard C, and so is the word Celt.

*British Isles = Ireland and Great Britain. Yes, I realise this term is controversial.

My little boys middle name is Cillian too. I would worry about ppl mispronouncing it. They are not ignorant swine.

It's Kill-ee-en

Pay no heed to Vgtasd, I recognise her from previous threads. Serial name changer with very fixed, and strange, ideas of what it is to be Irish. No one actually Irish has every been wealthy, for example, and you don't want her opinions on Irish people north of the border.

At least, I hope there's only one - the thought of more than one person thinking like that!

@rayoflightboy I am in Finglas

We have got a Cillian in the uk too, he gets lots of compliments about his name. He occasionally gets silly-an but he just corrects them and that’s the end of it. There has only been one person who has consistently pronounced it wrong and she is not very nice and generally a rude person so it’s more about her than the name. We don’t see her often thankfully.

Must admit my first reading of it was Sillian, but if friends or relatives called their child this and told me how it was pronounced I'm pretty sure I'd manage to remember.

Would you shorten it, and if so what would you shorten it too?

Absolute fine name . Met quite a few in teaching and now there's Killian Murphy to help too.
Pronounced Kill-ee-an

OP are you me?? I have a 2 month old called Cillian, live in the UK and DH is Irish.
I must admit I have had doubts since he was born due to all the Silly-uns and was really upset about it for a while thinking we had made a mistake, but I have really started to love his name now.

One correction and people get it right and I really do think it's a great name with tons of history and suits a man, a child and a teenager. It also works well in other parts of Europe (there are Killians, Kylians and Kilians across France, Germany and Spain for example). If the spelling causes embarrassment for him in future we can just spell it Killian but I think it's a name that will get more popular over here and people will get used to the spelling.

I couldn't imagine my little Cillian being anything else now my family have also grown to love it and he gets called Cilly, and Cilly bean a lot too which is cute.

It's probably because they first saw the name written down. I know it as Cillian with a hard k sound, but Irish names can be unfamiliar to the English, especially the spellings! I have a friend Tadgh and always had to say his name phonetically in my head when I write it. Congratulations on your baby!

waves to all the northsiders

@MindyStClaire well spotted! I've seen those posts before as well but I didn't cop on to the name change.

I can also not pronounce the name Dewi much to the horror of my DH family as one of the nephew's has this name they are all Welsh

Pay no heed to Vgtasd, I recognise her from previous threads. Serial name changer with very fixed, and strange, ideas of what it is to be Irish. No one actually Irish has every been wealthy, for example, and you don't want her opinions on Irish people north of the border.

I remember now, too.

Yes, there's no name parochialism like Little Englander name parochialism. It must be linked to the attitude that learning another language is terrifically difficult and a bit much to ask, really.

Though I find it strange that so many people on here claim not to know how to pronounce it when Cillian Murphy's name regularly comes up on threads about sex symbols. Surely you're not all calling him 'Silly-Ann Murphy'?

I know it is pronounced Killian.

But after all the posters saying they would pronounce it Sillian.

I actually read Cillian as Sillian in the last post. Haha. So basically we can be told to pronounce something anyway and it will sink in

I feel you OP. My DD2'S name is Róisín and we live in the UK. I figured people would struggle with it initially, but even after being told how it's pronounced multiple times, all we get is "Ruh-SHEEN". There seems to be some sort of mental block on the 'row' sound for some reason.

For what it's worth, Cillian is a lovely name and I really don't think it's all that hard to pronounce for English people once they've been told it's a hard C.

They will soon get used to it