Americanized Anglasized Irish Names

Electric Sheep · 08-01-2014 12:18AM

SarahBM wrote: »

Watching the film Dragon Heart (starring Denis Quaid) years ago I heard what I thought was a beautiful name, pronounced "Eehs-linn".

when the credits came up I wanted to see how it was spelt. Turns out it was just Aisling. LOL Maybe thats just the Welsh/Anglo-Saxon way of saying it. If I did want to name my daughter "Eehs-linn" though, how would you spell it ?!?!? mmm

Oh and I was also given a birthday card once with my name spelt Saura. I nearly had to be carried away!

If you did want to name your daughter "Eehs-linn" I guess you would either have to spell it Aisling, and put up with Irish people telling you that you are pronouncing it wrong, as Irish people do to Americans who pronounce names differently.:rolleyes:

Joe prim · 08-01-2014 12:49AM

Castletownbearehaven O'Shaughnessariey? but Cassie for short?

FatherTed · 08-01-2014 03:50PM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I think it's time for clues.

Surprised no one has gotten this yet. Lots of clues to give out. Here we go:

#1 The pronunciation of the town's name in English has 2 syllables.

Davidius · 08-01-2014 04:07PM

FatherTed wrote: »

Surprised no one has gotten this yet. Lots of clues to give out. Here we go:

#1 The pronunciation of the town's name in English has 2 syllables.

Kinsale.
Town that is not Kinsale.

Those are my guesses.

FatherTed · 08-01-2014 04:20PM

Davidius wrote: »

Kinsale.
Town that is not Kinsale.

Those are my guesses.

You got it. Have a pint on me.

Digital Solitude · 09-01-2014 10:26PM

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I've seen Ciaran spelled as Kieron as well.

I know a fella called Kieran who plans to change it legally to Ciaran, he hates the K spelling

Digital Solitude · 09-01-2014 10:45PM

snubbleste wrote: »

Beibhinn or Gobnait or Diarmuid
How can others pronounce that?

How does anyone pronounce Gobnait? I haven't a clue how to go about it

Fred Swanson · 09-01-2014 10:58PM

This post has been deleted.

clairefontaine · 09-01-2014 11:13PM

I have an Irish last name that is already anglocised and people in the US still can't pronounce it. They look up at me with bewildered eyes, afraid to say anything, until I say it for them and then they smile and laugh and feel relieved they didn't actually have to get their tongues around it.

Usually followed by some questions of if I like to party and if I have 9 brothers and sisters.

Chorcai · 09-01-2014 11:31PM

Monasterboice, American friend Mon-ister-boi-cii (NY/Jersey accent) its gas listening to him

dxhound2005 · 09-01-2014 11:37PM

Chorcai wrote: »

Monasterboice, American friend Mon-ister-boi-cii (NY/Jersey accent) its gas listening to him

Don't tell them about Termonfeckin.

mathepac · 10-01-2014 04:51PM

or Pollamhadra

Irish Guitarist · 10-01-2014 05:55PM

Didn't Morgan Spurlock make a film about this called Anglasize Me?

donegal__road · 10-01-2014 06:03PM

McGrath became McGraw in the USA.. because the census workers at Pier 1 would have heard it pronounced 'McGraw' because of the Ulster accent.

Billy86 · 11-01-2014 01:36PM

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Don't tell them about Termonfeckin.

Or Muff. Or muffdivingclub.ie

Or how you can go from Trim, up through Nobber until enters Meath's Muff. Though you may need to Cross Guns on the way.

RahenyD5 · 11-01-2014 02:43PM

Me mam's name is Roisin. On a work trip to a conference in Manchester few years back, other people she met saw her name badge and called her "Raw-sheen".

That made her blush a bit which to her it sounded a bit "raunchy"!

Real Life · 11-01-2014 03:01PM

Different areas pronounce it differently. same as the name loughman. I've heard people who had the name pronounce it as lukeman and also lockman. depends where you're from really

Herb Powell · 11-01-2014 03:10PM

dxhound2005 wrote: »

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.

Nah, that's bolloccks, people can actually pronounce their own names wrong like. Fair enough if you make up a name for yourself, but if you take an existing one and butcher it "just because", then you're a gom.

FatherTed wrote: »

You got it. Have a pint on me.

Christ that was an awful pour.

spank_inferno · 11-01-2014 03:12PM

Is anglacising an Irish name worse than 'Gaelicing' up an English name?

A lot of 'An Mafia Na Gaeilge" seem fond of doing that... It gives them more gaeilgoir cred.

Reekwind · 11-01-2014 03:21PM

Herb Powell wrote: »

Nah, that's bolloccks, people can actually pronounce their own names wrong like. Fair enough if you make up a name for yourself, but if you take an existing one and butcher it "just because", then you're a gom

Which assumes that there's a single correct way to pronounce every name, any deviation from which is to be labelled incorrect. And that's just silly

MRnotlob606 · 11-01-2014 03:25PM

moran is pronounced moraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

Fr_Dougal · 11-01-2014 03:39PM

Still not as bad as Irish people calling their mams 'mom'. WTF.

MonaPizza · 11-01-2014 03:55PM

endacl wrote: »

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

Common mistake. Interestingly, and off topic, this mistake is a factoid. Another factoid is the common misunderstanding of the term 'factoid'.

I thought Eoin (Eoighean) was Eugene

Frank Lee Midere · 11-01-2014 04:02PM

MonaPizza wrote: »

I thought Eoin (Eoighean) was Eugene

Eoighean is Eugene. Eoin is John. Sean is also John, despite what was said above, it's just an early transliteration of a French( ie Norman) John. (Jean).

Wacker The Attacker · 11-01-2014 04:12PM

Randal P McMurphy

Toto Wolfcastle · 11-01-2014 04:14PM

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Still not as bad as Irish people calling their mams 'mom'. WTF.

I call my mother Mom. It was her decision what we called her from when we started talking and she certainly didn't get it from American TV. It's from the Irish word for mother. I think it's fairly common in Cork and Kerry. I know elderly people who have always used it. My nephew calls my sister Mom and if I have children they will call me Mom. Yeah, some people use it because of influence from America but for a lot of people it's not an Americanism.

dxhound2005 · 11-01-2014 04:21PM

Herb Powell wrote: »

Nah, that's bolloccks, people can actually pronounce their own names wrong like. Fair enough if you make up a name for yourself, but if you take an existing one and butcher it "just because", then you're a gom.

Christ that was an awful pour.

How do you know that the existing one as you call it is not the butchered version and the butchered version as you call it is not the original correct version?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbPJnyubNKk
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=cahill

I still think you and other people who seem to think there is only ever a single "correct" version of a pronunciation should just accept that this is not how it works in the real world. And especially like I said telling other people they don't know how to say their own name correctly is just madness.

Paramite Pie · 11-01-2014 04:46PM

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

I call my mother Mom. It was her decision what we called her from when we started talking and she certainly didn't get it from American TV. It's from the Irish word for mother. I think it's fairly common in Cork and Kerry. I know elderly people who have always used it. My nephew calls my sister Mom and if I have children they will call me Mom. Yeah, some people use it because of influence from America but for a lot of people it's not an Americanism.

Considering the number of Irish who went to America in the old days, maybe we brought the expression 'Mom' to the US?

Here in Galway 'Mum' is more common than Mam in the city/suburbs. When I go to other parts of the country I get slagged for trying to be posh. Some people think their way of doing things is 'it' and accept no variations.

There's nothing more condescending than someone telling you your being 'fake' or trying to sound non-Irish. Oh and in case anyone's wondering, Cork people were using 'like' long before the Americans. No, not 'loike', 'like'.:cool:

Frank Lee Midere · 11-01-2014 04:48PM

dxhound2005 wrote: »

How do you know that the existing one as you call it is not the butchered version and the butchered version as you call it is not the original correct version?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbPJnyubNKk
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=cahill

I still think you and other people who seem to think there is only ever a single "correct" version of a pronunciation should just accept that this is not how it works in the real world. And especially like I said telling other people they don't know how to say their own name correctly is just madness.

What if someone spelt Smith as DogPoo? The name has to be potentially pronounceable as it is written - doran as DoreAn. But you can't go wild.

dxhound2005 · 11-01-2014 05:22PM

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

What if someone spelt Smith as DogPoo? The name has to be potentially pronounceable as it is written - doran as DoreAn. But you can't go wild.

You can't spell Smith as DogPoo. It is spelt Smith.

Americanized Anglasized Irish Names

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