Irish name pronounciation: Aodhán

Enkidu

syklops wrote: »

I dont mean to sound flippant, but lets see how good it looks on paper twenty years from now when he is backpacking through asia and he is stuck at some small airport because they cant get their head around the spelling of his name.

Oh come on! You think if the kid is stuck in some airport in China or Loas that they'll suddenly be confused by an Irish name? Every Western name looks confusing to them, just like I have no idea how exactly to pronounce Kuang Xiaoping. An Irish name is no different to them than a French name. It would be like our airport officials being okay with Han names and flummoxed by Manchu names.

shinikins

Cat82 wrote: »

The OP mentions the name Áedán. How is this pronounced? I've never come across that spelling of the name before. Aiden is such a lovely strong name.

Its pronounced in exactly the same way as Aidan, Aodhan, Aden, Ayden, Aedyn, Aydyn, the list goes on.

At then end of the day, if the OP likes the spelling they should use that. People are going to misinterpret names at will, i've once been called Chantelle. How they got that from Sinead i don't know, and the amount of people who choose to call me Siobhan is unreal-and thats other Irish people! There are tons of different spellings for different irish names, but they all end up sounding the same when spoken.

Oh, and i'm extremely well travelled and never once have i had a problem with my name being written in the Irish form!

Toyota_Avensis

Hi OP. I'm delighted to hear you're considering naming your son after an Irish name. I wished more of us done so, instead of all the English influence of names. Aodhán is a lovely way to spell it, and as you said, looks great on paper. Did you consider going the whole hog, and using the Irish version of your surname also?! For example; Aodhán Mac Suibhne looks and sounds much better than Aodhán Sweeney. From experience, I reckon this is worth considering because if people understand he has an Irish second name, they will have a far greater understanding and more at ease with the idea of having an Irish first name spelling. Worth considering IMO.. More of us should be doing it I reckon.

An gal gréine

In Donegal the "h" is pronounced in Aodhán to give the sound of IAN.
Aodán is for for Aidan/Aiden.
Hope this does'nt confuse matters further!