Ossian = 'oshan'? Scottish Gaelic context:)

[Sœtr]

Hi! I'm looking to match pronounciation with spelling... My mission is to have a slightly unusual name - ideally reviving an old celtic/scottish/gaelic name - but still be easy for people to say and fit in a local accent (coz our accent can fairly trash the loveliest of names 😆)

I recently came across the name Ossian through researching irish/celtic folklore for a project and wondered can it be pronounced 'Oshan'??

I'm in the Hebrides where a nickname 'Oshan' has strong associations with a local character (who I think is no longer) but I like the sound of it. It fits with our accent nicely. It was a nickname afterall which means it's definitely easy to say - the reason for a lot of nicknames!

Annoyingly, so far, my husband is against it for the association with said character:(

I've found a couple of interesting threads on the names Osian/Ossian/Oisin.
So far I've learned that the Welsh spelling Osian is 'Oshan' and although I think it's lovely, I gather it's popular there so I would be a little worried they'd get fed up being asked if they are Welsh throughout their life! (Hebrideans do occasionally get asked if they are Welsh or Irish- but hey we when the seas were highways I guess we were much more closely linked;)

I also learned that in Irish I think mostly spelled Oisin and pronounced 'O-sheen' which is lovely but doesn't fit our accent.

It's the spelling/pronunciation of Ossian I'm confused about, can it be 'Oshan'? (We say O as Aw) Or is it mostly OSS-Ian? (As in 'moss') and is Ossian more Scottish?? More research needed!

Any thoughts welcome! I probably won't get my way but this might help me strengthen my case. Thanks :) x

Just to say I think it's a beautiful name.

Foil Arms and Hog 😆

@JamSandle thank you!:)

In Gaelic Ossian is actually spelt Oisean, and yes, is pronounced oshan (roughly).

In Irish it's Oisín and is pronounced UH-sheen (the stress is on the first syllable)

The welsh Osian is OSH-ann. The -an is like in Dan, not Ian

I have an Oisín. It's pronounced Ush-een. We are in ireland so no problem with pronunciation here. Naturally I love this name!

@Rosafiona aha! Thanks so much that's really helpful- it's really not used here, its all Murdo/Donalds/Iain/Angus etc
Now there's some different modern names but not always easy for folk to say here😆

@KirstenBlest thanks yes that was my understanding, so lovely! And there are just so many lovely Welsh names I come across:)

It's a nice name but it's been very popular in the last few decades. Once you have a few in the family it becomes unusable.

I like it a lot. But i'd be worried that in the wider world they'd forever get people pronouncing it Oss-Ian like hessian or hearing it and misspelling it Ocean.

But it is lovely. I'm from the borders and if we'd had even slightly more reason to go for a Scottish name I'd have loved Ruaridh - such a great name even though English people can't spell or pronounce it.

@BlueberryBuffin @Jadetreesbringluck thank you:) lovely name, everything sounds so good in Irish - we were there last year and loved it - almost moved there!😆

@KirstenBlest yes indeed - in the past here they've resused names so much they rely soley on nicknames 😆
The Welsh spelling definitely looks a lot like how a Gaelic speaker might say oshan - so that might just be the way forward! :)

Snap, that was my first thought too! In my mind, Oisin will forever be linked to a middle-aged man in a school uniform rolling his eyes when his mammy says something embarrassing.

@WinterFoxes yep I think that's exactly my worry.
I was thinking the Welsh version Osian tbh looks pretty similar to Gaelc and might be more easy to interpret for a Gaelic (damn autocorrect trying to type Garlic!) or English person to pronounce correctly.
So I think I'll not discount it :)
Thank you!

@BlueKaftan @ItsOnlyWordsInnit
Have absolutely no idea what that meant 😆

@Sœtr , if you are in the Hebrides, use the Ossian spelling. I don't think using the Welsh name will help,

@KirstenBlest ok, perhaps I'll stick to my guns then, thanks:)

@WinterFoxes , isn't it Ruairidh?

I LOVE it!

My cousin called her baby boy Ossian (Osh-Ann). They call him Oshy as a nn. She is Scottish:Finnish hybrid and her DH is Chinese. They live in the US. The name seems to work for all and no one has issues with pronunciation.

@SallyWD Thank you! I will tell DH that Mumsnet likes it and he should not disagree with the powerful word of mumset😅

@ApolloandDaphne aha!! Perfect!! Thanks so much for replying 🙌 I will add it to my argument;)

It's one of my favourite names but I know it by the Irish pronunciation - I actually had no idea there were alternative ways to say it? I'm not Irish btw and live in England but have never come across an Oisín/Ossian/Oisin pronounced a different way and would automatically pronounce it the Irish way so that may be something to consider if you want it pronounced differently?

@Whichwhatnow , Oisín, Ossian and Osian aren't different spellings of a name, they are different versions of a name.
A bit like Seamus, Hamish and Iago (are the Gaeilge, Gaelic and Welsh forms of James), or Eoin, Iain and Iwan (John).