I’m on the phone all day at work. My name ceased being MercyStreet, oh, around kindergarten. At least a dozen times a day it is, “Hi, this is MercyStreet, spelled M-e-r-c-y-S-t-r-e-e-t.”
Same thing with my deskmate. His name is even more unusual, and it’s quite nice. But his routine is, “Hi, this is OddlyNamedMan, spelled O-d-d-l-y…”
It’s a sad situation. See what happens when parents Go Kreative? Their kids turn into lifelong crankypants, sighing into the phone all day. (And don’t ask me for a cite on that one. Harumph.)
Well my cousin Ewan isn’t American… he’s Australian Maybe you are right and it means John… I knew it mean one or the other because my Grandfather’s name was Hugh John, I just couldn’t remember which. Oh and he was born this past November. I have another cousin born this past October as well (Kenzie’s brother) but I can’t remember his name.
I’m glad you realize that. Us Claire’s get enough people calling us Claire-bear (well only the people who we let… like guys we think are cute ) without that being almost their exact name!
One of my roommates tells me that an acquaintance at a convention was named “Sterling Price Adams Darling Jr”- and every bit as stuffy as the name sounds. Gack.
A girl who used to sing with me was named “Herrick”. That’s a new one. She went by a nickname.
There are about 7 million Sarahs, Sarras, Saras, etc. at this school. I’m thoroghly sick of the name and vow never to name my child Sarah.
My own name is Maryna Elizabeth after my mom and grandmother, who are Marinas. I don’t understand why a “y” is so confusing- I’ve been called everything from Maryanna to Marion to Marna. I feel sorry for people with more interesting names, because mine isn’t really out in left field and people still have problems saying it.
I inadvertently named my son after the creators of South Park. Yep, both of 'em. This is what I get for allowing my mother to choose a middle name. How trendy is that going to be?
Myself, I’m named after a former U.S. President’s daughter. My dad chose it. Almost everyone I know has a grandma or great-aunt with my name. Very old-fashioned, and quite the old-lady name.
Can’t get more Gaelic than Fionnghuala (now commonly spelled Fionnuala), one of the children of Lir in Irish legend.
And in addition to the previously-mentioned Caitríona, there’s also Clíodhna, Ciara, Neasa and Sorcha … all of which appear well before the 20th century.
My fiance and I have picked out names. In the case of a boy, it will be Riley David. Her bio-dads family name is Riley, and we want to honor him. David is my father.
A daughter will be Brenna Joy. Brenna because it’s pretty, and Joy is her sister.
My name, Raymond, I have only seen on 2 other white people, a guy I met at Faire and my grandfather.
A unique name a friend of mine has is “Shin.” I think it’s kinda cool, and it suits his personality well. Much better than Bradley, but if he wasn’t Korean it might not be as good.
My best friend’s name is Sorcha. What’s the Gaelic pronunciation for it? Usually she just pronounces is “Sor-shuh,” like the witch’s daughter in the movie Willow, but our old diction teacher pronounced it “Sooer-hah” with the kind of gutteral hacking-up-spit h sound.
I don’t know about some of these names. On one hand, we’re all pretty much saying that the flaky spelling, and or pronunciation is terrible, but then we have Caitlin, and Marlene which people are saying that they’re being pronounced wrong. The way I see it is that if you’re speaking English, then don’t get all huffy if someone doesn’t pronounce a name the way it should be said in Gaelic for god’s sake. I tend to pronounce words the way they’re spelled, and the way they look. So Caitlin is KATE -lin and Marlene to me would be MAR - Lean, that’s just the way the word would be said in normal English. If your parents decided that it should be pronounced a different way than it’s spelled, well sucks to be you. Really. I can understand if the name is just strange, people not being able to get it right, but both of those are straightforward. I suppose if you live in Ireland, getting upset about a native that mis-pronounces the name might get you upset, but not here in the US.
FTR, our children’s names will be either: Auriana Hadara girl, and Kristopher (or Christopher) Hagan boy. I’ve always liked the name Auriana, ever since I first saw it. I see no need to change what I like, just because other people might like the same thing. Although that spelling never came up in the ssa search, and Arianna only came up once in the past 3 years, and that was at number 87.
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By that logic, then, we should be calling Sean “Seen.”
The thing about English is that there is no “one way” to pronounce things. To me, Marlene could be either “Mar-lean” or “Mar-lane-a.” They both seem equally right to me, possibly because I’ve usually heard Marlene Dietrich’s name pronounced the latter way.
At this point Caitlin, pronounced Kate-lyn, is such a common American name that it seems silly to complain that it’s mispronounced. It’s worked its way into our vernacular. I’m well aware of the proper pronunciation, but I suppose I would find it pretty tiresome if someone insisted on having her daugher Caitlin called “Kathleen.”
And since I’ve never in my life heard it pronounced that way, that’s probably the reason that an alternate way of saying it would never occure to me. Same with Caitlin. I had no idea that the correct way to prounounce it would be “Kathleen”, although I’d have to wonder why someone wouldn’t have just spelled it that way to begin with.
Well, if you wanted a really Gaelic pronunciation for it, I suppose it would be “Sura-huh” with that gutteral sound. However, I don’t actually know any Sorchas who pronounce it that way - one says “Sura-kuh” and the others say “Surkuh”. (None of them are native Irish speakers, I suppose that might make a difference.)
In response to somebody else, I have never heard of an Irish name “Rein”, and that spelling would not give the pronunciation “Re-Ann”.
Maybe you are right and it means John… I knew it mean one or the other because my Grandfather’s name was Hugh John, I just couldn’t remember which. Oh and he was born this past November. I have another cousin born this past October as well (Kenzie’s brother) but I can’t remember his name.