How to pronounce this name

[seanachie]

Seanachie

I agree wholeheartedly with what you said, and hope that my post did not come off as being anti-ethnic name in any way. The difference is that, as you said, you see it as not a nuisance or offense that there may be issues with others pronunciation of a given unusual name, but rather you see it as a positive thing and an opportunity to share your heritage with others and educate them, something I roundly applaud. I only wished to explain IMHO how a name can potentially cause problems, what those might be, how those may impact you and your child in both short and longterm, as I and others above see them every day. I have no desire to squelch ethnicity and heritage in any form or expression, rather I relish it personally. Why else would a guy who is probably at least 20 generations removed from his last truly scottish ancestor start wearing clan tartan kilts at nearly 50 years of age if there at least was not some pride in his heritage?

As an example of how much I truly enjoy many of the ethnic names I encounter in my patient population, I still vividly remember and regularly recount the very lyrical and beautiful names of a pair of premature twin girls of Nigerian parents (I became very close with the parents )I took care of more than 25 years ago Funmilola and Adideyo-Kalinde with a last name equally lyrical which actually rhymed with Funmilola's name. Beautiful names for beautiful children. My only regret is that I do not remember the meanings of the names that the parents explained to me, which had powerful and wonderful meaning in their native language.

jeff

JEFF:
I always enjoy your posts, and there was no misinterpretation , your insights are always interesting. I had an uncle name Aloysius and I know that name cause him a lot of grief, so I see your point. I also felt bad for a supplier I used to work with who was Vietnamese but had a name pronounced like an English expletive. Unfortunately she was embarassed and adopted an "american" name.

PS my youngest brother is a pediatrician sound like that is the kind of medicine you practice.

[ForresterModern]

JEFF:
I always enjoy your posts, and there was no misinterpretation , your insights are always interesting. I had an uncle name Aloysius and I know that name cause him a lot of grief, so I see your point. I also felt bad for a supplier I used to work with who was Vietnamese but had a name pronounced like an English expletive. Unfortunately she was embarassed and adopted an "american" name.

PS my youngest brother is a pediatrician sound like that is the kind of medicine you practice.

I used to be a pediatrician and now am a pediatric radiologist, but still sometimes see literally hundreds of kids names in a single day, and usually have to try to pronounce them as part of the dictation of report process, and frequently in front of parents during some procedures. An interesting challenge, but one that my romance languages/home room teacher in high school said my language skills were up to.

Speaking of unusual names, my family tells the story of one of my great uncles whose name was Eurastus, and who went by Euras for short. One day while he and his brother were working on the roof he fell off a 10 foot ladder, landing rather hard on the ground. My other great uncle looked over the edge of the roof to check on him and hollered down "ya' hurt, Euras?" to which he replied "No but I skinned my elbow." True story.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming. Sorry for the threadjack.

[LANCER1562]

When I was in the fourth grade I attended a French parochial school in San Francisco. There were four Roberts, two Davids, Three Marys and two Lisas in my class. This was not a major problem in the classroom, as the school policy was that all male students were addressed as Misior(sp?) and last name and all female students were addressed as Madamoiselle(sp?) and last name. On the school yard and in the cafeteria things got interesting though. My last name of Kerr has led to some pronounciation problems over the years, but nothing that couldn't be corrected by simply telling the person the proper way to pronounce it. Years later I dated a Filipino woman with an unusual last name whom I eventually married. It took me the better part of a week to learn how to pronounce her family name correctly. When our daughter was born we named her Elaisaid Marie, unfortunately so many people had problems pronouncing her name or couldn't be bothered with trying to pronounce it that we ultimately changed it to the anglisised Elizabeth. She has her mother's maiden name as one of her two middle names as is the Filipino culture. I hope in time she will change it back to her birth name.

Definitely use the gaelic spelling on the birth certificate but for everything else use an alternate spelling and pronounciation.

[Joshua]

Hating the fact that my name #12 on the list of baby names from the year of my birth, and that it was frequently mistaken for Jason (God only knows why...), the number #2 name on the list for that year, I decided to name my son a simple, Scottish, original yet pronounceable, Biblical name of "Ian" and I've been pretty happy with that... so far I've encountered 1 other "Ian" his age, amongst the seemingly countless Ethans, Aidens, Jaydens, Calebs, etc (the top 4 names for the year of his birth).

Thankfully we didn't have a girl, my wife was dead set on Isabel, which happens to be the #7 name on the list for that year. Of all the people we know who were pregnant at the same time, 4 of the 6 or so we knew had daughters and named all 4 Isabel (or Isabella).

[Tobus]

I had an uncle name Aloysius...

...my family tells the story of one of my great uncles whose name was Eurastus...

Those are the kinds of cool "old" names that you don't see any more. I wish they would see a resurgence in use.

I have ancestors with first and middle names like Weir Aurelius, Amos James, Lewis Felto, and Leweir Lovell. They are very unique and "old timey" to me, and I just think they're cool. I'm guessing that my grandfather, Leweir Lovell, didn't care for his name much, though, because he went by "Pat" (for his last name, Kilpatrick).

It's the same with my grandmother. She has a beautiful name, Ila Virginia, but she goes by "Janie".

[GoodGirlGonePlaid]

Congratulations!!!
I only know one child (a girl, but like you, I think it's more of a boys name) named Decklan <--not spelled in the gaelic.

I always wanted to name my child a really unique name, but all the unique names were taken by the time I bred.

My daughter (4) is Mary. She's the only Mary I know... under 37.

[creagdhubh]

Here are a few full-names in my immediate (Scottish) family that have an 'old-time' feel:

Lewis Harvey Francis Macpherson, Sr. (my grandfather - same name as my father)

Lloyd Cameron George Macpherson (my great-uncle)

Lachlan Andrew Kenzie Macpherson (my great-uncle)

Cheers,

[ForresterModern]

Those are the kinds of cool "old" names that you don't see any more. I wish they would see a resurgence in use.

I have ancestors with first and middle names like Weir Aurelius, Amos James, Lewis Felto, and Leweir Lovell. They are very unique and "old timey" to me, and I just think they're cool. I'm guessing that my grandfather, Leweir Lovell, didn't care for his name much, though, because he went by "Pat" (for his last name, Kilpatrick).

It's the same with my grandmother. She has a beautiful name, Ila Virginia, but she goes by "Janie".

My grandfather was a Cecil, his wife Nina (pronounce Nine'-uh), my father Clinton, my other grandmother Isabelle (100 years before it was popular again), her sister Mabel, my other grandfather Howard with brothers Homer, Haskell and Cleo (among several others), my mother originally Willa Joan but she always went by Joan. We have all manner of interesting names in the relatively recent (last 200 years) geneology---Nimrod, Bedford Addison, Orestus Gilbert, Eurastus, Melvin, Ida Mae. It is only when you get back to around the Revolutionary war that the family names revert to more typical English William, Robert, James, John, George and the more traditional repetitive naming patterns of the day using father's father's name, then mother's father's name, etc...

There is nothing like a unique name to make you memorable and individually recognizable. I unfortunately was named after a semi-famous actor of the day Jeffrey Lynn (except my middle name is spelled with an "i" instead of "y"), which seemed to be fairly popular at the time as I have in my life met at least 20 other Jeffrey Lynn xxxxxx's that are right around my age. Still, not a lot of Jeff's in general despite that.

But hey, the OP was looking for the Gaelic pronunciation of the English Declan, that is spelled (if I get it right) Deaglan'. So do any of our gaelic speakers have an answer for her, or for the name origin and meaning? I am now as interested as Squeaky was when she posted.

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I was named after Chelsea on "Golden Pond." My parents thought they were so original...there were 8 Chelseas (varying spellings) in several of my high school classes and unfortunately 5 of them also shared the same last initial, so I went by my full name my entire high school career.

I don't mind the thread jack....but I would like my question answered.

OurBabyNamer.com says it means "fully good"

[Tobus]

My grandfather was a Cecil, his wife Nina (pronounce Nine'-uh), my father Clinton, my other grandmother Isabelle (100 years before it was popular again), her sister Mabel, my other grandfather Howard with brothers Homer, Haskell and Cleo (among several others), my mother originally Willa Joan but she always went by Joan. We have all manner of interesting names in the relatively recent (last 200 years) geneology---Nimrod, Bedford Addison, Orestus Gilbert, Eurastus, Melvin, Ida Mae. It is only when you get back to around the Revolutionary war that the family names revert to more typical English William, Robert, James, John, George and the more traditional repetitive naming patterns of the day using father's father's name, then mother's father's name, etc...

Exactly the same as my family. Lots of odd names in the 1800s and early 1900s. Some of the women had names like Alva Rilla Fern, Paschal Ann, Wilma, and Nettie Lee. And some more male names like Flood McGrew. But from the late 1700s and earlier, the names were more traditional. Lots of men named James, William, Peter, John, and Alexander. Female names were Sarah, Elizabeth, Judith, Magdalen, and the like.

It's funny to see that trend from traditional to weird and back to traditional happen across the board.

I've actually never met anyone with my first name. My mother gave me an Irish surname as my first name (Tobin). There are lots of guys named Toby or Tobias, but if there are other Tobins out there, they must be just as special as me! Tobus is just a nickname people sometimes call me.

No clue on the Deaglan origin or meaning.