Seánna? - correct spelling

[suzettenoisette]

This is just for a middle name, the second middle name to be exact. We want to honor a Seán. I do like Seán and I do like shaw-na, the way it sounds. I do, however, dislike the way Shauna and Shawna look.

I don't mind Seána, but I think it would get see-ann-a, but as a middle name it won't matter much. I do like Seánna a lot.

Now my questions is, would this be spelt Seánna or Seanna correctly? I know that Seán is the Irish spelling, but does the fada stay, when it is feminised?

Does Seánna work? First name is still not decided on, but we like Samantha, Sabrina, Poppy, Holly, Selena and Haley.

Names evolve in a different way to how languages evolve.

i once knew a Shaunagh which i thought was a bit odd as the ending looks Irish whereas the first part looks anglicised.

'Agh' at the end of a name is an anglicised spelling too.

Ah ok, so Clodagh is anglicised? I cant immediately think of any English names than end in AGH

Yes, apparently the girls' name originated when the 5th Marquess of Waterford named his daughter after a river that ran through his estate. The river's name is An Chlóideach in Irish.

I know 2 Seanna's (no fada) and they both pronounce it Shauna. I also know a Seauna which she also pronounces Shauna. I don't know if they follow the 'rules' but they definitely use the Shauna pronunciation. I am in N. Ireland.

Seána

Keep it simple

It was often used for a sort of faux Celtic feel, like Rosanagh or Oonagh

Pretty sure the -agh came from a time when many people added a soft guttural sound to the end of words. That Hiberno-English accent that pronounced the h in wh.
Had a funny conversation with some teenagers who all had names like Caitlin, Clodagh, Baileigh. They thought Irish was English with an Irish accent, and that their names were spelt “the Irish way”.

Pretty sure the -agh came from a time when many people added a soft guttural sound to the end of words.

Well yes, but they weren't randomly adding a gutteral sound. Agh is usually an anglicisation of ach/each in words. You see it in a lot of names, especially placenames. The ch sound in Irish is not found in English so spellings and pronunciations were approximated.

Adding ach/each to a word in Irish can make it an adjective. So for example, an draighean (sounds like dryn) is the blackthorn bush but add an 'ach' and it means blackthorny (draigheanach)... and so was often used to describe places. Anglicised it became Drinagh, Dreenagh etc.
'Achadh' translates as field and 'each' as horse so these words were often in placenames and again they were often anglicised 'agha' or 'agh'. Áth (a ford) sometimes got turned into 'agh' too.

Examples of names (as well as Clodagh) include Bronagh from Brónach. It means sorrowful from the root brón, sorrow. Some other examples have fallen out of use now. Agh is so common in anglicised Irish names/placenames that it's sometimes since been added to names ending in the letter 'a' to give them an Irish flavour as pp have described. This can happen even if the names are Irish already, eg Orlagh instead of Órla or Órlaith.

Yes, but Brónach is a strange name to give a baby. Bronnadh or Broinneach (Gift, or “bosom child”) are much nicer meanings.

There is a Saint Brónach I think, maybe that's why it was used.

Love love love Seána!!! (I'm an Irish teacher and was considering using this name and this spelling for our girl). I'm not a fan of it with the 2 N's, don't know why!

I'm not a fan of the Shawna spelling! Don't mind Shauna or Shaunagh!

Defo not Shona as to me that's an entirely different pronounciation!