What’s your opinion on Yanks who purposely mispronounce Irish names? Does it annoy you or not? Do you think it constitutes cultural misappropriation? Do you have any good examples?

The most famous example I can think of is the pop singer Ciara who somehow thinks her very Irish name sounds like the Spanish word for mountains.

Another crazy example I remember watching on TV involved a woman named Shea, who made a big stink during a CNN Democrat debate about a journalist pronouncing her name ‘Shay’, which she claimed was ‘violence’. According to this Shea, it’s pronounced ‘See-uh’.


17 comments

  1. >What’s your opinion on Yanks who purposely mispronounce Irish names?

    Couldn’t give a fuck.

    Also, it’s likely stupidity, rather than doing it on purpose.

  3. Big, who gives a fuck. Personally I live watching foreigners struggle pronouncing Aoife, Aoibhean, Niamh, etc. If some reads the name in a baby name book and gets it wrong I also don’t give a fuck, I will giggle behind your back. Cultural appropriation, come on lad grow thicker skin.

  4. I think it’s fine when spelt with a ‘K’- so, ‘Key-ar-ah’- that sounds plausibly Spanush to me

    Names migrate, are adapted, recycled, forgotten- I wouldn’t get too upset by it

    The Berber name ‘Patrick’ (or something like it) ended up in Ireland where it was pronounced as Cothraige and over the centuries became Pauric and was Anglicised as Patrick

    The real mystery to me is why Americans intentionally choose Irish surnames as given names, such as Quinn, McAuley, McKenzie etc

  5. Something that numerous African American people have told me on this very subject is that they often have little connection to “traditional names” because they don’t know what their ancestors actual family names etc were and because America is such a melting pot, if they see a name they like, they just go for it. It doesn’t matter what the actual pronunciation is and they often don’t know the origin of the name but if they like it, that’s what their kids name is going to be. Two black dudes I knew had Irish names. They were Sean and Ciaran. Ciarans mother saw it on a poster.

    Is it cultural appropriation? Who cares. It’s a name. Also, cultural appropriation is where you adopt the pieces of a culture to sell something like pink pretending to be black for a while and ditching it when she became a rocker instead. You usually do this while having no reverence for the problems that culture faces. Also see Iggy Azalea.

  6. It’s not cultural appropriation or stupidity, it’s how language works. You see a name, and you pronounce it according to your own dialect or whatever. There aren’t really rules, are there?

    Edit: also on your example clip, it’s clear that their name is “She-a-diamond”, as a whole. Not an affront to Irish people, just a play on the word.

  10. I don’t think the name Shea in this context has anything to do with the Irish name Shea, it’s more just she-a.

  13. It’s not purposely, it’s just ignorance. It’s not worth getting annoyed about when yanks do it. What really annoys me is when Irish people copy Americanisms, e.g. pronouncing Caitlin as “Kate Lynn” when they should know better.

    The most annoying Yank (in this regard) that I came across was a TV news anchor in Phoenix. His name was Sean McLaughlin but he pronounced it “Scene Mc-Laff-lin”. And he kept insisting that “Scene” was the correct pronunciation and everyone who pronounced it “Shaun” was wrong. He was also ignorant about his own state – he was from Iowa and had moved out west but the rest of his family had stayed – he said he was the only one in his family who lived west of the Mississippi. Iowa is west of the Mississippi you dumbass! So, being ignorant of geography he naturally claimed to be a “meteorologist” when he switched from reporting the news to reporting the weather. But that’s par for the course – American TV anchors generally are obscenely overpaid celebrity airheads.

  14. The American singer pronouncing her name in the manner she does used to really grind my gears. Until I was told she was named after a perfume by Revlon.

    Revlon of course just used the word Ciara but pronounced it Sierra. Not the singers fault, not her parents fault.

    But by golly it’s annoying.

    I always ask someone how to pronounce their name in their language.

    But if it’s an Irish name I will correct them. If I had to learn how to pronounce Caoimhín then so will you!

  15. Its obv not on purpose. Im sure many people from everywhere cock up the pronounciations of foreign language names. But americans would def lead the way

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