Let’s admit it, chums, being green comes with its challenges. Particularly if your moniker happens to be Aoife, Saoirse, Siobhán, Niamh, or Meadhbh. And we’d rather not talk about Caoilfhionn. It particularly raises eyebrows amongst the neighbours, and we certainly don’t want to stir that pot now, do we?
With good old Mr Starmer at the helm of Downing St. (Kier? Unusual you say? Shush now. It is of Irish origin, root meaning ‘dusky’ or ‘dark-haired’. Essentially a condensed version of Kieran).
A recent research in the United Kingdom showed that the locals struggle most with pronouncing select Irish names, alongside Kyiv (the capital of Ukraine). The name ‘Aoife’ was deemed the most challenging of all.
I happen to be an uncle to an ‘Aoife’, and none of us in the clan have trouble enunciating her name, except in instances of (infrequent) impropriety on her part when she may get addressed by other, less flattering names by family members. These substitute names – not fit for family newsprint – pose no challenges pronunciation-wise.
Back on the other side of the pond, it was found that over a single year, our neighbours made 111,000 standalone Google searches solely to find out how ‘Aoife’ is pronounced. They found out it’s supposed to be pronounced just like ‘ee-fa’. Couldn’t be easier!
Falling just behind in the list of troublesome Irish girl’s names for the Brits is Saoirse. They’re under the false impression that it’s pronounced ‘sur-sha’, which is a wide of the mark. We both know it’s correctly pronounced ‘seer-sha’. Similarly, ‘Niamh’ is ‘neeve’ and ‘Maedhbh’ is ‘maeve’. Two more of my darling nieces there, whose exemplary behaviour means they stay on everyone’s right side – always.
Siobhán is pronounced as “shev-awn”, Caoimhe as “quee-va” and Caoilfhionn as “keel-in”. It’s simple really. Áine is read as “awe-nja”, Roisín as “roo-sheen”, Úna as “oon-ah”, Orfhlaith as “oor-lah”, Dearbhla as “derv-la”, Sadhbh as “sigh-ve”, Sineád as “shin-aid”, Blathnaid as “blaa-nid”, Gráinne as “gr-awe-nyah”, and Maireád is read as “mar-aid”. What’s the confusion? Is it just an American thing?
Moving on to a pair of tricky male names, Neil and Niall create a fair bit of a muddle for me. Neil is pronounced as “kneel” whereas Niall is pronounced as “nile”, quite like the river. Nonetheless, my primary issue is determining whether the individual I’m speaking with is a Neil or a Niall.
Another instance is Kyiv, pronounced as “keev”.
Lastly, Caoilfhionn, in Irish caol translates to ‘slender’ and fionn to ‘fair.’