saoirse

[MissMoodyMoo]

What are peoples thoughts? We are living in central Scotland and our other DD has a Gaelic name also!

Obviously it's quite a common name where we are and there is a few "celebs" with the name

Yay or Nay

This has been asked before not so long ago.

I remember because somebody likened it to Sore Arse.

I like it, I know one who is around 25.
It's pretty

Love it!

I’m Irish and would pronounce it SEER-sha

Yes definitely seer-sha

It would be Saoirse Caroline "Lastname"

saoirse. An Irish name, means freedom.
www.babynamechoice.com/top-baby-names/meaning-freedom,liberty

I love it!

My DD middle name is Saoirse. Half Irish here as well as her father. Assuming you know its meaning is liberty. Such a stunning name.

@PhoneLock it's pronounced Sursha or Seersha depending on regional accent. Nothing like sore arse

Love it - wanted to use the name with DD1, but DH wasn't so keen

I absolutely love it and am considering it for this baby. Go for it - gorgeous! My only concern would be them being able to spell their own name and constantly having to tell folk how to pronounce if not in Scotland/Ireland.

Gorgeous name ! Didn't work with our surname so we couldn't use it

Beautiful name.

As the written word its the most gorgeous name, pronunciation is difficult. I only know it as Sorce cha, as that's how the girl I know pronounces it but also seen an surcha

Not mad on it, but Saoirse Ronan has meant it is familiar outside Ireland.

Is it also the Gaelic word for freedom?

I have a friend sorcha. Is this the same pronunciation? She says it the same as how some of you have typed.

It's a beautiful name but I have always been unsure of the difference between spelling and pronunciation or whether that was regional.

Love the name but having an awkward to spell/pronounce Gaelic name myself I decided against doing that for my own kids as it has been hassly for me. That said my husband also has an awkward name and he prefers being original.

Yay

@icedaisy

I have a friend sorcha. Is this the same pronunciation? She says it the same as how some of you have typed.

It's a beautiful name but I have always been unsure of the difference between spelling and pronunciation or whether that was regional.

It’s not the same as Sorcha, which I would pronounce so-ra-cha, which a guttural ‘ch’ as in loch. Sorcha means light. Saoirse is lovely, though personally I like Sorcha even more.

Thank you @cremuel. That's helpful.

She says it more like surch ha. I have always wondered the difference though.

@Crockodoodle, then your friend is mispronouncing her own name. The vowel cluster aoi is pronounced roughly ‘ee’, as in Aoife (EEfuh), taoiseach, Déardaoin, faoi etc. Never ‘oh’.

I love Sorcha, but I would never use it outside Ireland because it will never be said correctly.

SURR-u-cha (the ch from loch)

Saoirse is SEER-shuh or SARE-shuh (I would say the former).

They aren't similar at all, really, apart from starting with the same letter.

Yay!

I think it is often pronounced differently by Gaelic speakers and non-Gaelic speakers. Gaelic has short vowel sounds that aren’t written, hence the ‘a’ sound in the middle of the name. Non-Gaelic speakers often don’t include these vowels. I know someone who pronounces in more like sor-sha, but I would consider so-ra-cha a more ‘correct’ pronunciation. Either way, it’s definitely not the same name as Saoirse.

Oh, also, to clarify, I’m talking about this from a Scottish Gaelic point of view. The names are often common to both (I would see Sorcha as just as much a Scottish name as an Irish one) but the pronunciations can be different.