Saoirse for a baby girl in USA

[CleverCoralMoose]

I’m Irish and my husband is Irish-American, and we both love the name Saoirse.

We live in the US and have had a few “W is that name?” reactions, which has made me second guess it a little.

I have an Irish name myself that gets butchered all the time, so I know what that’s like.

Would you use Saoirse in the US? Is the pronunciation/spelling issue enough to put you off?

I really want an Irish name so that they know their heritage especially as I grew up in Ireland, but I don’t want them to constantly have their name butchered

As an irish person with an irish name living outside of Ireland i wouldn’t and haven’t done it… sorry

there are other ways to link her to YOUR culture

I love Saoirse but I always get the spelling wrong and despite living in Scotland it's mangled verbally on a regular basis. Could you go for something simpler for non Celts like Fionnula (Nula) or Caitlin?

On the other hand, go for it. The name will stand out in crowd.

No. I'm in Aus and have no clue how to pronounce that, I imagine US would be the same.

Something like Cara, Tara or Erin would probably make for an easier life.

You’ve literally already asked this and got lots of replies, why are you asking again?

So should everyone from a different culture that lives in Britain/US/Aus call their children English names? Or is it just Irish names that are unpronounceable 🙄 seriously call your children English Saoirse, it’s a gorgeous name and people will get used to it. The ones that done, don’t matter

Saoirse Ronan has brought wider awareness of the name but for some reason she rhymes her name with inertia but to me the word Saoirse does not rhyme with inertia. It sounds like seer-sha. She'll have daily 'how do you say that?' 'how do you spell that?' 'wow I've never heard of that before' type experiences. People will say that you only need to tell people once but I say a) they're overestimating people's intelligence b) you meet lots of people just once.

Having said all that, if it's the name you love you should go for it. There are worse things than being asked about your name on a regular basis (I have an Irish name and I live in the UK so am well used to it) but also some people might find it an arse ache.

Give her an 'easy' middle name so she can switch to that when she's in a teenage 'you ruined my life with this name' type fury.

I have an unusual Irish name and an Irish-language surname and survived 20 years in the UK. I say go for it. My only concern with Saoirse would be irritation that the world’s most famous Saoirse mispronounces her own name.

X-posted. You’re right. Obviously there are pronunciation differences in the ‘aoi’ vowel cluster across dialects of Irish, but in none of them does Saoirse rhyme with ‘inertia’.

Yeah I thought I’d read this before.

How do you pronounce it? I would have no idea and I imagine I’m not the only one so might be a pain having to constantly explain…

Why the duplicated thread but with different user names?
Page 2 | Saoirse for a baby girl in USA | Mumsnet

Even Irish people can’t pronounce it. The only famous Saoirse pronounces it Sir-sha. As does one of my Irish friends with a child of the same name.
Another northern Irish friend pronounces it Sor-sha. Which other Irish people also say is incorrect.
Other Irish pals say it’s Seer-sha. Who knows how you’re meant to say it. In the US no one will have a clue so she’ll end up spelling her name forever which could get annoying

@Helpwithdivorce
I think you're mixing up the names Sorcha and Saoirse. Sorcha is the name that gets mangled into Sorsha. Sirsha is just an accent difference between north and south.

I'm in the US with an Irish name that follows the rules of the Irish language when it comes to spelling and pronunciation.

I've found that Americans are very accepting of Irish names and happy to learn to spell and pronounce them correctly. They tend not to have a negative opinion of all things Irish or the knee-jerk reaction you find in Britain, where it's apparently acceptable to make remarks about how 'unusual' or 'unpronounceable' or in general, 'different' a name is, with this sort of response especially true when it comes to Irish names.

No. Not mixing it up. My northern Irish friend calls the child sorsha. She’s perfectly aware her name is Saoirse. That’s how she says it. We know a few Saoirses and she calls them all Sorsha.

Saoirse Ronan mispronounces her own name. Sor-sha is also incorrect. It’s not that complicated, though. It’s not even a name that’s pronounced particularly differently in the different dialects, but for future reference:

https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/Saoirse

But why? ‘Aoi isn’t pronounced ‘oh’.

It's the name you both love. The people who matter will get it eventually

Thing is, this site is uk based so unless posters live in the us or have done we can’t tell you how it will be received there.

i haven’t met a name people can’t learn to pronounce, or at least make a reasonable attempt to do so.

Americans might be different though. I have met a few and have been corrected on pronunciation of my own name a few times- They couldn’t even get their heads around something as simple as “John”. Oh you mean jaahn….

What about Caoilfhionn?

Gorgeous name. Go for it.

If you love it, go for it. But do not get offended when people do not know how it is pronounced. Also, unless you live where it is commonplace, you are giving your child a life long burden of having to explain. I personally would not do that. at least a middle name to give them options would be kind. xx

Saoirse is my favourite name yes I would 100% have it. It doesn’t matter where you are living celebrate your heritage and have the name you love.

One person getting it completely wrong doesn't mean everyone else will.

99% of Irish people can pronounce it correctly.