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Have you ever come across a name and wondered how to pronounce it? Like how is Aoife pronounced? You’re not alone!
Sometimes a name can leave us confounded – you try to sound it out phonetically, but you’re not confident that it sounds right and you really don’t want to cause offence! There are a lot of names that people sometimes struggle with, particularly Irish names due to the Gaelic language derivations, so we’ve researched which names our community sometimes struggle to pronounce to help you out. Do note that some parents may choose their own pronunciation, so we’re just highlighting the traditional pronunciations!
There are probably many more that we could add, so do let us know in the comments.
Saoirse
No, this isn’t pronounced ‘Sayo-ir-see’. It is pronounced as ‘Ser-sha’, and is a beautiful Irish girl name.
Bodhi
Sometimes mispronounced as ‘Bod-hi’, this baby name should be pronounced as ‘Bo-dee’.
Anais
This lovely French name is sometimes mispronounced, but should be pronounced as ‘Ann-ay-ees’.
Oisín
Sometimes mispronounced as ‘Ocean’ or ‘Oi-Sin’, this Irish boys name is pronounced ‘Oh-Shane’.
Caoimhe
This one in particular often gets a lot of mispronunciation! This Irish name is pronounced as ‘Kee-Va’.
Aoife
Another very pretty name from the Irish language! This is pronounced as eefa.
Niamh
We’ve spotted that people have mistaken this Irish name as being pronounced as ‘Nee-am’, it is actually pronounced as ‘Nee-v’.
Siobhan
Nope, this isn’t pronounced as ‘See-Oh-Ban’, but it is pronounced as ‘Shiv-Awn’. This is a more well known name though so it’s not mispronounced as often as some of our name choices.
Tadgh
The ‘gh’ suffix can leave people unsure with this name, but we can confirm that it is pronounced as ‘Tige’ – like a tiger, without the ‘r’.
Eoghan
This name is pronounced as ‘Owen’. It is quite literally the Irish version of the name Owen, so that is no surprise.
Xander
Does the ‘X’ leave you unsure how to pronounce this name? Some people get confused and pronounce it as ‘Ex-Ander’, but it should be pronounced as ‘Zander’.
Lachlan
Lachlan is pronounced as ‘Lock-Lin’, rather than ‘La-ch-lan’.
Isla
Think of the world ‘island’ – Isla is pronounced similarly to the first syllable of island, rather than ‘Iz-la’. Think ‘Eye-La’!
Xavier
Like with Xander (mentioned above), this name isn’t pronounced as ‘Ex-Avier’. It is pronounced ‘Zavier’.
Clodagh
Not pronounced ‘Clo-dag’, but more like ‘Clo-Dah’, this pretty Irish name is named after the River Clodagh!
Maeve
The correct pronunciation for Maeve is 'may-v' - we adore this beautiful Irish name.
Lysette
Pronounced ‘Liz-ette’ but sometimes our submitter is called ‘Lie-sette’.
Eilidh
A gorgeous Scottish name that is often mispronounced, this is pronounced as ‘Ay-ley’!
Ailbe
Another name with Gaelic roots, this name is pronounced ‘Al-bee’.
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