I worked with this black girl named Siobhan, pronounced, of course, Shavon. I wonder how many people snickered in ignorance at her name.
And I worked with this Latina girl (iirc she was Dominican but I don’t remember exactly) named Eurydice. She pronounced it Yuri-dice. And I did snicker behind her back, but not too loud because she was hot. I don’t know if anyone else there knew how it was supposed to be pronounced.
But worse than made up names or badly pronounced names is what my ex-sister in law did. She named her daughter Savannah. Which is ok on it’s own. But she made sure she told everyone she got the name from the porn star.
My name is a non-made-up name that makes people assume that I am either black or Muslim. I am neither. Upon meeting me, people grill me at length about my background, intent to discover what they think I am hiding. When the first thing you find out about a person is that they are a racist with poor manners, it sets a negative tone. I have never been called for a job interview unless I was already known to the interviewer. My name has been an unnecessary hurdle and I cringe when I see people set their own children up with names that seem downright malicious. A friend of a friend named her daughter a word that means “weak and cowardly.” She probably still doesn’t know that it’s a word, and the child is six! Another friend thought he’d be clever and use a word in another language for his son’s name… Too bad he didn’t realize it’s already a name - a girls’ name!
Google the names you consider, please!
I’m friends with an Irish girl called Siobhán whose mother is Malaysian. She lives in England where the name is reasonably popular but said that occasionally people meet her and see her name written down and assume it is pronounced “Syo ban”.
Obscure Irish Gaelic names are also very popular in Ireland nowadays which is a slightly more understandable trend than the Canadian one. 
How long ago was this, and did your ex-sister-in-law realize that Savannah the porn star committed suicide?
I went to college with a white girl named Siobhan. And we delighted in snikering in ignorance at her name. “See-obe-han, what a dumb name.”
Yeah, I went to high school with a black girl named Siobhan. She was sure to point out the origin if someone was ever appeared confused by it, though, which I’m sure cut down on the snickering. My cousin has a name which is entirely unheard of in the States, but is commonplace in Costa Rica, where she was born, and in a lot of others countries. I’m sure a lot of people have muttered to themselves inwardly, “Another black girl with a weird name.”
My cashier at Walmart this morning was a Hispanic girl named Mari-Juana. I didn’t ask how she pronounced it.
Wouldn’t it be “Maria-Juana” ordinarily?
Yep. The kid is about 16 now so the porn star was dead for just a couple years.
Was her name Sheriff Big-Titties Nice-Ass The Third? Because that would be totally unheard of in the US.
I’m going with Kwame.
Meanwhile, you can click here for Marijuana Pepsi.
I worked with a Siobhan/Shevon (white) too, and had heard her name spoken aloud many times before I’d ever heard it spelled. I assumed she was kidding.
I good mother-fracking one.
Supposing that a made-up name follows similar phonoligical rules than others in the same community is a much greater possibility for the origin of the name than a nothern city, with a similar pronunciation, with no evidence a not even a case of the name bein used in its original spelling.
I see.
“Sean”?
Hell, that’s too common to count.
I mean stuff like “Aoibhean,” “Saorise,” “Aednat,” “Aine,” or “Niamh.” On Saturday my daughter’s invited to a play date with “Aoife.”
Looks someone spilled the Scrabble set.
^
Better than calling your daughter Le-a 