Odhran, Orán or Oran

[ohbaby22]

Can anyone advise on the pronunciations please? Or are they all the same? I would pronounce them all Oar-an but wondered if the fada made a difference. Thanks!!

The two I know pronounce it your way and are the first and last spellings above. I would think the fada would give you Oh-raw-n.

I’ve never seen it with a fada on the a. Orán would be pronounced O-Rawn, which is perilously close to the Irish word for bread (arán).

My personal preference would be Odhran. Oran would be a more anglicised version although strictly speaking I would put a fada on the O to get the Oar-an pronunciation.

Oran will be easier for people to know how to pronounce it.
Odhran is not pronounced as it looks.
Orán would be pronounced as Ohrawn because of the fada.

I agree with all this!

I knew a father and son growing up, both pronounced it Odran (the little one was known as Oddie). They were the only Odhrans I ever met in Ireland in the 1980s. Now there are gazillions, and it always seems to be pronounced "Oran".

If you want to have a 'Oar-awn' pronunciation, I would spell Odhrán. If you want a 'Oar-an', then easiest is the anglicised version 'Oran'.

Thank you everyone! I prefer the spelling Odhran but could be easier spelt Oran for where we live. My other little boy has a four letter name too so would be nice to match. I have never seen it Óran which I do like.

I've seen the name spelt a variety of ways - Odhrán, Órán, Odhran and Oran.

As far as I know, Odhrán is the older spelling and this becomes Órán in modern Irish. The fada on the a gives an aw sound in Munster and Connacht, but not in Ulster Irish (I think) so there's a difference between dialects there. I know an Odhrán from the North of Ireland and he pronounces his name Oar-an.

The other person I know with the name spells it Oran, with the same pronunciation as above. I suppose you could consider the names without the fadas as somewhat anglicised spellings really.