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Americanized Anglasized Irish Names

Skerries

The Irish surname has gone through a good few changes down the centuries with the British changing our Irish names to something that they could pronounce but then when we emigrated to America during the famine it changed again in pronunciation if not in spelling.

So we have names like Moran being pronounced more-an or Doherty being pronounced Dokerty or Gallagher as Gallager

but I am still confused as to one name, the name Shaughnessy!
what is the socially acceptable current Irish way to pronounce it, is it shawnessy or shocknessy?

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Annasopra

seamus wrote: »

I do! I used to work with a girl with that surname. But, eh, she was American. Actually she was Irish as bedamned, but her accent let her down. "Shocknessy" was the pronunciation.

But Shocknessy is how it's pronounced in Ireland!
Well I know a Jimmy O'Shaughnessy and his nickname is "shock"

Davidius

Freddie Dodge wrote: »

Sinead sorta = Janet as far as I knew. That translating of names from one language to another is all bull anyway....... whats the irish for Miroslav ?

Muirióslabh of course.

Meauldsegosha

Freddie Dodge wrote: »

That translating of names from one language to another is all bull anyway

Yeah I agree. But back in the 1970's you didn't argue with nuns and they called everyone by their "Irish" name.

SpaceTime

Freddie Dodge wrote: »

Sinead sorta = Janet as far as I knew. That translating of names from one language to another is all bull anyway....... whats the irish for Miroslav ?

If you were coming into Ellis Island... probably Bob.

Semele

I got talking to an American man a few years ago who was doing the whole Irish roots bit. As proof of his ancestry (not that I was denying it btw) he told me he'd named his daughter 'a traditional Irish name'. Her name turned out to be Erin Colleen, potentially the most American sounding name I've ever heard!

MFdaveIreland

antodeco wrote: »

Ironically, I dont know a single irish person named Shaughnessy

Andrew o shaughnesy limerick hurler if I'm not mistaken

El Siglo

I can understand why Americans would mistake the names, that's fair enough considering they haven't been brought up with those kinds of names and given that nearly everything is phonetic over there anyway. However, whenever my English, Welsh and some 'Northern Irish' colleagues mispronounce or have little regard to Irish names, that's pretty bad.

Vojera

dirkmeister wrote: »

Technically they have the same name.

I knew a brother and sister called Felix and Felicia, respectively. Now that's just lazy. The weird thing was that no one else thought it was strange.

When visiting friends in Boston I met a couple who had just had a baby. The mother was a proper Southie and the dad was from Kerry, and they'd called their son 'Seamus', which I thought was nice until I saw the big lettering of S-H-A-Y-M-U-S across the nursery wall. For some reason it really bothered me.

Rhys Essien

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Would you like to explain to the tatooed one with a penchant for celebrating jailbirds when he scores that he does not know how to say his own name correctly.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-524734/Fury-Everton-footballer-Tim-Cahills-pitch-gesture-solidarity-thug-brother-left-man-blinded.html

I find it amazing that some people think they know how to pronounce someone's name better than the actual owner of the name. Just accept that there are thousands of words with more than one pronunciation, including some first names and some family names.

Both these players are of Irish extraction and Cahill in Ireland is not K-hill.Its just laziness on both these players part that they do not correct their surname being said.

Another one I have heard was the British media refer to actor Cillian Murphy and soccer player Cillian Sheridan as Silly-an.:D

seamus

endacl wrote: »

No they don't. There's no English version of Seán. John is Eoin.

Strictly speaking, a name is a name, if it's spelled differently, it's a different name. John/Eoin might share the same root like John and Juan, but they're still different names.

Translating someone's name into a different language is not only completely incorrect, it's actually incredibly rude unless they do it themselves. You call someone by their given name, not by anything else unless they tell you to. I think that's pretty much a globally constant social rule.

It's this curious thing us Irish do. Probably comes from the attempted forced Gaelicisation of children in primary.

P. Breathnach

seamus wrote: »

Strictly speaking, a name is a name, if it's spelled differently, it's a different name. John/Eoin might share the same root like John and Juan, but they're still different names.

Translating someone's name into a different language is not only completely incorrect, it's actually incredibly rude unless they do it themselves. You call someone by their given name, not by anything else unless they tell you to. I think that's pretty much a globally constant social rule.

It's this curious thing us Irish do. Probably comes from the attempted forced Gaelicisation of children in primary.

I broadly agree, but would point out that the origin of the habit goes back a bit earlier, to the anglicisation imposed in schools in the 19th century. I know that some of my ancestors went to school as monoglot Gaelic speakers, and were educated solely through English.

Myles na gCopaleen sent the tradition up in An Béal Bocht, where all the boys in the school were given the name "Jams O'Donnell".

FatherTed

My daughter's friend is named after a town in Cork. Really she is.
3 claps for whoever can guess her name.

cameramonkey

FatherTed wrote: »

My daughter's friend is named after a town in Cork. Really she is.
3 claps for whoever can guess her name.

Gougane Barra?

endacl

FatherTed wrote: »

My daughter's friend is named after a town in Cork. Really she is.
3 claps for whoever can guess her name.

Surely not Halfway?!?

My name is URL

FatherTed wrote: »

My daughter's friend is named after a town in Cork. Really she is.
3 claps for whoever can guess her name.

Dripsey?

Eeden

FatherTed wrote: »

My daughter's friend is named after a town in Cork. Really she is.
3 claps for whoever can guess her name.

Ah, poor old New Two Pot House....

Aineoil

Bandon?

fussyonion

FatherTed wrote: »

My daughter's friend is named after a town in Cork. Really she is.
3 claps for whoever can guess her name.

Road-out-of-this-place-straight-to-Dublin?

fussyonion

Sha'Von (Siobhan)-saw that on Judge Judy
Eefah was another I saw on an American show.
My favourite has to be Grainne but it was spelt Grawnyah. :rolleyes:

SarahBM

FatherTed wrote: »

My daughter's friend is named after a town in Cork. Really she is.
3 claps for whoever can guess her name.

Glanmire

kylith

endacl wrote: »

Don't get me started on folks naming girls Naoise....

Does my head in, that.

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I've seen Ciaran spelled as Kieron as well.

I know a Kieran who gets called Ciarán when he's in Dublin.

An Coilean

sligoface wrote: »

For example, Niamh, lovely name, but what other word in English has an m and h at the end like that, and how would anyone guess that combo makes a 'v' sound if they were not raised in Ireland?

They look wierd acording to the phonetics of English (or ''typical'' phonetics as you call it) because the names are not using the phonetics of English. Given that the names are Irish, they are unsurprisingly using Irish phonetics. Would you compare the letter/sound relationships of a name like Abdullah to 'other English words'?

mathepac

Meauldsegosha wrote: »

... When my cousin, Maurice, moved to America years ago they would spell his name Morris.

I met his younger brother in England; he was called Morris Minor. What them Anglo-Saxon divils do with great French names is a travesty Joe, a pure travesty.

mathepac

SarahBM wrote: »

Glanmire

Castletownbere? Adrilgole? Bantry (BAN-try)? Ballydehob?

snubbleste

Beibhinn or Gobnait or Diarmuid
How can others pronounce that?

SarahBM

snubbleste wrote: »

Beibhinn or Gobnait or Diarmuid
How can others pronounce that?

Or Phelgm

WilyCoyote

Skerries wrote: »

The Irish surname has gone through a good few changes down the centuries with the British changing our Irish names to something that they could pronounce but then when we emigrated to America during the famine it changed again in pronunciation if not in spelling.

So we have names like Moran being pronounced more-an or Doherty being pronounced Dokerty or Gallagher as Gallager

but I am still confused as to one name, the name Shaughnessy!
what is the socially acceptable current Irish way to pronounce it, is it shawnessy or shocknessy?

In Kerry it is pronounced Shock'Nassi ......... out here Shawn'Assi

WilyCoyote

FatherTed wrote: »

My daughter's friend is named after a town in Cork. Really she is.
3 claps for whoever can guess her name.

Butt. Short for Buttevant

Billy86

I once spoke to a guy from rural New South Wales with the name Murphy O. McBrennan (the O being for Oisin he pronounced it as if it were O'McBrennan). No word of a lie either... nice fella but it was just a sales phonecall so I never quite got to ask him if it was his given name or if he had it legally changed himself.

silvervixen84

Mallow?