Oisín - am I overthinking it?

[Meeko505]

We are due a boy later this year. We live in England, I'm 100% English, my partner is Irish (+ all family are Irish and live in Ireland) but he has an English accent because he grew up here. We do plan to take the baby to Ireland to visit GPs at least once or twice a year.

We like the Irish name Oisín (Ush-een) quite a lot, but I have some concerns that I'd like to check with others:

1. Is it wanky to use a very Irish name like this if only one parent is Irish etc.?
2. I have two older children with a different dad. However, they aren't very close to their Dad and feel more attached to my Irish partner. If we have one or two kids with Irish names, does it create a feeling of two 'separate' sets of kids/could it make my older kids feel less a part of his family as they get older? (Am I just being really paranoid here?)
3. If we go with an Irish name for this baby, I feel quite strongly that a future baby should follow suit. I'm not sure why, tbh. I suppose it might feel like one kid has a more concrete tie to their Irish heritage while the other doesn't?
4. Maybe most obviously, is this name going to be OK in England? Spelling + pronounciation-wise?

The other name I really like is Wilfred, which doesn't have any of these issues but my partner seems to really prefer Oisín.

I think there are so many different names around now that kids will be used to differences. Oisín is a lovely name and you should feel fine using a name that is half of the child's heritage. Everyone has to learn to spell their own name to start with and its only 5 letters.

It's fine @Meeko505 .
Read the replies on this and other Oisin (, Ossian and Osian) threads and you'll find that the names will be unfamiliar to some, but if you love the name use it.

Wilfred is OK too.

FGS it's really not hard to pronounce that name. Unless you're a moron!

Go for it OP. It's gorgeous!

Then they can learn!

🤣

Lots of Ro-Sheens here 🤣

I'm sorry, but I don't agree about the pronunciation.

It's pronounced Ush-een where I am too, more like Osh-een up north as others have said.

You're right that the first i in Oisín is there for a reason, but it's not there to be pronounced. This is also the case for Róisín.

The first i in Oisín helps show how the following consonant, s, should be pronounced.

There's an í after the s and the 'caol le caol, leathan le leathan' rule means that the vowel type on borh sides of a consonant need to match (usually).

E or i next to a consonant indicates a slender pronunciation in Irish; a, o or u means broad.
If they don't match a person wouldn't know whether to pronounce the s in Oisín as a broad s or a slender one and these sound very different in Irish.

A slender s (indicated by an i or e on either side of the s) gives more of an sh sound. So you get Ush-een and Ro-sheen. It's also why Seán and Siobhán are pronounced with Sh sounds. The first s in the name Saoirse is broad, the second slender and you can hear the difference in how they sound, Seer-sheh.

That's why the i is there. It doesn't need to be pronounced as a letter itself.
This is one of the reasons Irish spelling appears complicated to those who don't speak the language. Not all the vowels are meant to be pronounced.

Ah that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining.
My vocabulary is ok and I have an interest in Irish but I struggled in school and I could never get my head around the grammar etc.

I've one of the most difficult Irish bands to pronounce. I've lived in England, Wales and USA and then back to NI. Never had a problem with anybody being able to say my name. They have had difficulty saying it when they see it but once told there's never been an issue.

Names not bands 🤦‍♀️

No bother at all. Irish isn't taught very well unfortunately, at least not in the English-medium schools, so most of us find it challenging I think.

Thanks everyone - you've made me feel better if we decide to go for it! I think it's up there.

I'm Irish and my daughter has a very Irish name despite my husband not being Irish and we don't live in Ireland. Didn't cross my mind not to. Similarly French friends' kids have French names with only one parent being French etc. don't overthink it!

Ois is definitely not 'Aw'

I think it's lovely OP and surely people can just learn, as we do with names for all sorts of origin? There are easier boys' names like Conor, Cillian, Cormac but really Oisín is pretty mainstream! Congratulations and best of luck.

One of my favourite names. I'm half Irish and my sister had a baby with a fully Irish man, this was one of their name options. Oisín is pretty easy!

It's Ush-een except in the north where it's Osh-een.. Never heard Aw-sheen in my life!

I think the Aw-Sheen people are taking the piss

Definitely Oisin. Irish person here.

Ugh, I quoted whole post...so annoying

@Meeko505 seriously just use the name. I have a name that I have to spell and tell people how to pronounce, really no hardship. You always get people posting saying they’ll always have to spell their name, I often answer on the phone I am “timegoesby t.i.m.e.g.o.e.s.b.y” by habit and it’s really a complete non issue.

I agree. My name couldn't be simpler but people still get it wrong.

@JaneJeffer osheen and awsheen sound exactly the same in a NI accent - does that help?

Nope

I think it’s fine if only one parent is Irish and don’t overthink it re ‘sets’ of kids. And yes, they will spend a lot of time spelling it out and telling people how to pronounce it. But we have quite a few Irish names in our school that I had no idea how to pronounce when first reading them but we all got there eventually. That said, I don’t think it’s a particular nice name, sorry.

Im in London and know two babies called this but they seem to be said ocean - I think as long as you are ok with some people getting it wrong now and then it’s nice

@harrietm87 yep both sound exactly the same in my accent.