Kids with stupid names...

[john2443]

lucido grigio said:

DickyC said:

This isn't a new thing. A little lad who came in to buy sweets in the garage I was working in 1970 was called Laurie Hardy. He wasn't the full shilling. Whether it was as a result of his name we never established.

Middle name And ?

Ant(ony)

[mybrainhurts]

CanAm said:

I've had a bash at a few European languages but Gaelic looks a bit tricky to me.

Once met someone who claimed to have learnt Gaelic from Julian Clary.

At least, that's what I think he said.

[drainbrain]

Hackney said:

Frank7 said:

lucido grigio said:

Bawz said:

lucido grigio said:

There was a woman on 15 to 1 yesterday named Mairhead ,pronounced Mirade.

Didn't catch an accent but possibly Irish descent ?

Mairead is a traditional Irish name. Just like Ciomhe, Aiofe, Eaimearr, Grainne...

Thought so but it was definitely spelt with a H ,it was on her name badge.

I caught a couple of seconds of that while channel surfing, can't remember if her name had an H or not, but I won't argue.
Can't see anything wrong in her name, just a nice Irish one, pronounced Mirade as has been said.
Other nice Irish girls names are, Aoife, EEfa, Saoirse, SEERsha, Sorca, SORca, Niamh, NEEuhve, and Róisín, ROEsheen.
Just my opinion of course.

...and Sadhbh, my daughter's name.

Don't agree with the pronunciation of Mairead. I went out with one 45 years ago. Everyone including her mother called her 'My-rid'.

https://forvo.com/word/gd/mairead/

(eta: just discovered it's because this is the Scottish pronunciation which is different, so 'muh-rade' is good to go too).

Edited by drainbrain on Saturday 1st July 19:15

[minimalist]

My wife tells the following story. I'm not sure if it's exactly true but she doesn't tend to make things up.

Years ago, a friend of hers was running for local election and she agreed to help with canvassing. They were in a fairly rough estate talking to a woman at her front door when she decided to call her daughter in for dinner at the top of her voice.

Poka! Poka! POKA-fkIN-HONTAS, YOUR DINNER IS READY.

[Vaud]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Friends have just named their son Thor. Mind you, the father is Norwegian.

Interestingly, Norway also operates an "approved names" list.

[Flying Fish]

At the beach today. Loud American dad type shouting at his kids. Beck and Brook. So far so normal for the yanks. Only later when he got so wound up he started using their full names did I realise they were abbreviations for Beckham (boy) and Brooklyn (girl)
I didn't know what to say so I just tutted and rolled my eyes. Thankfully there were some other Brits there who did the same, so I felt better.

[minimalist]

Flying Fish said:

At the beach today. Loud American dad type shouting at his kids......

....... I just tutted and rolled my eyes. Thankfully there were some other Brits there who did the same, so I felt better.

Glad you had your countrymen nearby to share with.

[SilverSixer]

lucido grigio said:

Hackney said:

...and Sadhbh, my daughter's name.

How is that pronounced ?

OK. I can't believe I'm doing this. But enough is enough.

I am a linguist. I have a degree in Russian, I speak French, German and Serbo-Croat pretty much fluently. I am an enthusiast when it comes to languages. I tried to learn Arabic once, but struggled and it's mostly gone now. I mastered reading and writing the script, which wasn't as hard as it looked to start with, but I can't remember it now sadly, it was over 20 years ago. I understand some Welsh, my Mum lives there (but isn't Welsh and speaks none), and I understand how to read and pronounce Welsh. I am half Scottish by parentage, and I dearly love the idea of the Gaelic languages, both the Scottish and Irish versions and I'd like to think I'll have the time and opportunity to learn them some day. I love linguistics, philology and etymology.

But. The spelling of those Gaelic languages is, frankly, lunacy. How the hell it's necessary to use 4, yes, 4 consonants - dhbh - to represent a "V" sound is total batst craziness. I just don't get it and I think I would struggle enormously to get my head around it. And why you'd want to lumber a child growing up in England with such an impossible name to spell and pronounce is beyond my understanding. I admire the desire to use traditional Celtic names, sure, but blimey. I don't think your daughter is going to thank you for that one.

[minimalist]

SilverSixer said:

But. The spelling of those Gaelic languages is, frankly, lunacy. How the hell it's necessary to use 4, yes, 4 consonants - dhbh - to represent a "V" sound is total batst craziness. I just don't get it and I think I would struggle enormously to get my head around it. And why you'd want to lumber a child growing up in England with such an impossible name to spell and pronounce is beyond my understanding. I admire the desire to use traditional Celtic names, sure, but blimey. I don't think your daughter is going to thank you for that one.

We clearly have a good sense of humour
In my Dublin office, we have quite a few colleagues from the UK. Listening to them pronounce the Gaelic names incorrectly is good fun. We make up some names as well just to wind them up.

Aoife - Pronounced E-Fah
Sinead - Pronounced Shin-Aid
Dearbhail - Pronounced Dervil
Grainne - Pronounced Graw-nyeh
Aine - Pronounced Aw-Nyeh
Caoilfhionn - Pronounced Keelin

[AstonZagato]

minimalist said:

SilverSixer said:

But. The spelling of those Gaelic languages is, frankly, lunacy. How the hell it's necessary to use 4, yes, 4 consonants - dhbh - to represent a "V" sound is total batst craziness. I just don't get it and I think I would struggle enormously to get my head around it. And why you'd want to lumber a child growing up in England with such an impossible name to spell and pronounce is beyond my understanding. I admire the desire to use traditional Celtic names, sure, but blimey. I don't think your daughter is going to thank you for that one.

We clearly have a good sense of humour
In my Dublin office, we have quite a few colleagues from the UK. Listening to them pronounce the Gaelic names incorrectly is good fun. We make up some names as well just to wind them up.

Aoife - Pronounced E-Fah
Sinead - Pronounced Shin-Aid
Dearbhail - Pronounced Dervil
Grainne - Pronounced Graw-nyeh
Aine - Pronounced Aw-Nyeh
Caoilfhionn - Pronounced Keelin

I have to deal with Dublin a lot.

I have to google names to see how to pronounce them and if they are male or female.

[Pothole]

Ran across a Kye earlier. Bicycle thief apparently, and not in a world cinema kind of way.

[lucido grigio]

minimalist said:

Grainne - Pronounced Graw-nyeh

Don't know if the spelling is the same but the female contestant on The Apprentice year or so back was pronounced

Gron yer.

[austinsmirk]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/3924573/young-mum-...

mum Aimee

child Nova

dad Jayk

FFS.

There is literally no hope in the world anymore.

I think the chances of Nova being a star one day, are somewhat slim. Possibly fading away.

[iphonedyou]

minimalist said:

We clearly have a good sense of humour
In my Dublin office, we have quite a few colleagues from the UK. Listening to them pronounce the Gaelic names incorrectly is good fun. We make up some names as well just to wind them up.

Aoife - Pronounced E-Fah
Sinead - Pronounced Shin-Aid
Dearbhail - Pronounced Dervil
Grainne - Pronounced Graw-nyeh
Aine - Pronounced Aw-Nyeh
Caoilfhionn - Pronounced Keelin

I was one of two or three Northern Irish in the (central London) office I used to work at. The queries on pronunciation invariably fell to us - usually by way of an e-mail from a Dearbhail or similar, forwarded and headed 'I'm about to ring this person - how do I pronounce their name - DURB-HALE?'

Bless.

[Einion Yrth]

SilverSixer said:

How the hell it's necessary to use 4, yes, 4 consonants - dhbh - to represent a "V" sound

It isn't, the "dh" is silent. and "bh" to be "v" is no worse that "th" as in this or that.

[Ascayman]

austinsmirk said:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/3924573/young-mum-...

mum Aimee

child Nova

dad Jayk

FFS.

There is literally no hope in the world anymore.

I think the chances of Nova being a star one day, are somewhat slim. Possibly fading away.

that belongs on the council thread!

[schmunk]

lucido grigio said:

minimalist said:

Grainne - Pronounced Graw-nyeh

Don't know if the spelling is the same but the female contestant on The Apprentice year or so back was pronounced

Gron yer.

Yes, that's the same.

[Hackney]

SilverSixer said:

lucido grigio said:

Hackney said:

...and Sadhbh, my daughter's name.

How is that pronounced ?

OK. I can't believe I'm doing this. But enough is enough.

I am a linguist. I have a degree in Russian, I speak French, German and Serbo-Croat pretty much fluently. I am an enthusiast when it comes to languages. I tried to learn Arabic once, but struggled and it's mostly gone now. I mastered reading and writing the script, which wasn't as hard as it looked to start with, but I can't remember it now sadly, it was over 20 years ago. I understand some Welsh, my Mum lives there (but isn't Welsh and speaks none), and I understand how to read and pronounce Welsh. I am half Scottish by parentage, and I dearly love the idea of the Gaelic languages, both the Scottish and Irish versions and I'd like to think I'll have the time and opportunity to learn them some day. I love linguistics, philology and etymology.

But. The spelling of those Gaelic languages is, frankly, lunacy. How the hell it's necessary to use 4, yes, 4 consonants - dhbh - to represent a "V" sound is total batst craziness. I just don't get it and I think I would struggle enormously to get my head around it. And why you'd want to lumber a child growing up in England with such an impossible name to spell and pronounce is beyond my understanding. I admire the desire to use traditional Celtic names, sure, but blimey. I don't think your daughter is going to thank you for that one.

From the language that uses: Edinburgh, Leicester, thorough, trough, etc, etc, etc.
I get what you mean, but the four consonants don't all make the "v" sound, that's just the "bh". I'm not Irish expert but the letters all do tend to describe a sound, so,

S - fairly simple
a - an "ah" sound
dh - in the middle of a word, makes a "y" sound
bh - "v"

So, S-ah-y-v. Much like the English word five, where the "e" at the end changes the "i" sound from FIV to more of an "iy" sound.

My son's name is equally complicated, yet simple.

Ruairí - the "ua" sound in the middle is pronounced like the English "truant"
The accent on the last i, is a foda, or "long" which does exactly what it says on the tin, changing i as in pick, to something more similar to the double E in knee

So, R-ua-ree (the anglicised version is obviously Rory - which many people do end up saying.)

It's amazing how difficult people find words that they become blinkered to though. We've said our daughters name is "like five with an S" yet many people even then struggle.

Have we inflicted names on our children? Well, at least they have heritage and meaning behind them. And, they have "normal" middle names so if they decide to go by those names then that's fine.

FWIW Sadhbh means sweet and lovely (lady), while Ruairí means red king

[DRFC1879]

As I mentioned further up, I have a lot of Irish colleagues. One of them is called Diarmuid which is usually pronounced "Dermot" by my English colleagues but more like "Dear-med" by the Irish. I try to get somewhere close to the Irish pronunciation in my Yorkshire accent without sounding like I'm taking the piss.

[Lucas CAV]

Hackney said:

SilverSixer said:

lucido grigio said:

Hackney said:

...and Sadhbh, my daughter's name.

How is that pronounced ?

OK. I can't believe I'm doing this. But enough is enough.

I am a linguist. I have a degree in Russian, I speak French, German and Serbo-Croat pretty much fluently. I am an enthusiast when it comes to languages. I tried to learn Arabic once, but struggled and it's mostly gone now. I mastered reading and writing the script, which wasn't as hard as it looked to start with, but I can't remember it now sadly, it was over 20 years ago. I understand some Welsh, my Mum lives there (but isn't Welsh and speaks none), and I understand how to read and pronounce Welsh. I am half Scottish by parentage, and I dearly love the idea of the Gaelic languages, both the Scottish and Irish versions and I'd like to think I'll have the time and opportunity to learn them some day. I love linguistics, philology and etymology.

But. The spelling of those Gaelic languages is, frankly, lunacy. How the hell it's necessary to use 4, yes, 4 consonants - dhbh - to represent a "V" sound is total batst craziness. I just don't get it and I think I would struggle enormously to get my head around it. And why you'd want to lumber a child growing up in England with such an impossible name to spell and pronounce is beyond my understanding. I admire the desire to use traditional Celtic names, sure, but blimey. I don't think your daughter is going to thank you for that one.

From the language that uses: Edinburgh, Leicester, thorough, trough, etc, etc, etc.
I get what you mean, but the four consonants don't all make the "v" sound, that's just the "bh". I'm not Irish expert but the letters all do tend to describe a sound, so,

S - fairly simple
a - an "ah" sound
dh - in the middle of a word, makes a "y" sound
bh - "v"

So, S-ah-y-v. Much like the English word five, where the "e" at the end changes the "i" sound from FIV to more of an "iy" sound.

My son's name is equally complicated, yet simple.

Ruairí - the "ua" sound in the middle is pronounced like the English "truant"
The accent on the last i, is a foda, or "long" which does exactly what it says on the tin, changing i as in pick, to something more similar to the double E in knee

So, R-ua-ree (the anglicised version is obviously Rory - which many people do end up saying.)

It's amazing how difficult people find words that they become blinkered to though. We've said our daughters name is "like five with an S" yet many people even then struggle.

Have we inflicted names on our children? Well, at least they have heritage and meaning behind them. And, they have "normal" middle names so if they decide to go by those names then that's fine.

FWIW Sadhbh means sweet and lovely (lady), while Ruairí means red king

All well and good (and I like the names tbh) but they will spend lots of time spelling them over the phone to people etc etc
Massive pain in the arse (used to go out with a Niamh)