Marsaili, testing waters

[wombatsandadoor]

After endeavour having mixed responses, I’m curious about marsaili.

Bearing in mind I’m in Scotland. I went to school with a ciorstaidh, and she coped fine, so Gaelic names do not put me off.

You say it MAR sa lee.

Never heard it before but I like it, a pretty name

I like it, but be prepared for the regional variations to affect how people pronounce it.

Think beyond scotland it’s be pronounced ‘mar say lee’

That’d get annoying.

@Dozer only if they try saying it from seeing it, then they remember. Mine finds it more amusing in a wry way than annoying. She does use Megan at Starbucks though!

I'm in Scotland and haven't heard or seen it before. I would have guessed at Mar-say-lee but also would not have realised it was a Gaelic name.

Most Gaelic speakers would have translated it to Marjorie in a previous generation - certainly this is the case for my cousin who is spoken of as Marsaili in Gaelic but always used Marjorie in English. Marsaili is an older name though, rooted as Marcella as someone said upthread, Marjorie doesn't go back so far. But I think this is why so many Gaelic names haven't been well known outside the Gaeltacht until now.

Same with other names, Ruairidh was Roderick. Ruairidh shouldn't really be pronounced as Roory, more as Roo-aathy. This one winds me up a bit as is my dad's name and again always used the English written but in the family is the Gaelic. So I wouldn't have used it for a boy because going too much again the flow to get it pronounced anywhere close to the Gaelic.

It's a beautiful name. I'd definitely use it if I were you.

@HoldingTheDoor

Lovely and quite well known Scottish name

I'll have to hand in my Scottish passport. I'd never heard the name before until about a year or so ago.

I’m Scottish. Never heard of it until 2 minutes ago. Should I hand in my tartan scarf and surrender my tunnocks teacakes?

I was at university with one and she had no issues with her name AFAIK and nor did anyone else. I really like it and the UK is so multicultural that I'm not sure children are phased by names at all these days.

I think it’s a really nice name. I’d consider using it myself for a dd but it’s too similar to Sally and I have an Aunt Sally (no, not the Worzel Gummidge one.)

Lovely name!

I think it's lovely, and given you are in Scotland, hopefully you won't get too many muppets going on about Masala

I love it, but I'm another Outlander fan.

I like it. I'm Scottish and have heard it before, not just from Peter May and Outlander. Maybe depends what area you are in though. They might have to explain the pronunciation a lot, but that is true of loads of names.

I hadn't heard it before but it's lovely and once you've been told the pronunciation it's not difficult.