How to Pronounce Irish Names 🗣️👂🇮🇪☘️ (and other Irish words): A quick guide

Seán, Niamh, Ciara, Oisín, Cathal... can you say these right? Maybe this video will help!

It can seem daunting to meet someone whose name you've seen written down, but have no idea how its pronounced & this is especially true with Irish people. This is because a lot of our names are based on Irish orthography (spelling & pronunciation rules).

Having a full understanding of this can take some getting used to, so instead of giving a thorough lesson, I decided to simplify things and give the most practical tips that work the majority of the time. I realize that I had to generalize and there are a few exceptions, but what I covered in this video will genuinely help you the vast majority of the time :)

(I also referred to lenition, implying that it only happens with the letter 'h', but this ignores when it happens with a 't' at the start of words. I didn't bring that up in this video because making notes of all the little things like that would have made this much longer and the remaining rules don't apply as much to names)

I hope I show in this video that it's really not that bad - Irish spelling is very consistent actually, especially when compared to English. If you keep the rules of thumb from the video in mind, you should find it much easier, whether you have Irish friends, or are learning the Irish language :)

To prove the point, here is the video I mentioned near the end, where I read a ridiculous poem in English:

And here is a playlist of videos about learning Irish and videos that I've made IN Irish (with subtitles):

I expect nitpicking in the comments because of things that aren't perfect (not possible to be thorough in a short video), but I hope some of you get genuine use out of this!!

[irishpolyglot]

I'm so happy this video is so well received. Thank you everyone!!

For further tips on any Irish pronunciations I couldn't get to in the video, see my comments below on that. If you liked it, please subscribe to my channel for more fun tips on language learning and much more, and feel free share this video with whoever you think would benefit from watching it!

[oof-madone]

People who can't pronounce niamh properly is my biggest pet piamh.

[DrelvanianGuardOffic]

Irish: "Once you learn a letter or letter combination, you can pronounce any new word."
English: "Through tough thorough thought"

[finnicfox]

My irish teacher always said there’s no thugs in irish only hugs.

[PattyBandAidz]

My grandmother, who has been in the US for about 90 years now (she's 98) still pronounce my name as padrig (Patrick) ... more specifically she says, "yer moi padrig"

[MadisonWestfield]

My husband speaks the language and he's from Ireland. I swoon every time he speaks it. It's so pretty.

[soundsleep]

What I find sad, is that most people dont even know that Irish is a language :(

[twistedcoffee]

Love the Irish sounds. It gives me the image of good old times where the globe were more diverse in terms of culture and language. Mystic and enchanting Irish pronunciations.

[noir]

Always admired my Irish friend 'Evan' for spelling her name in 8 letters when 4 would have been enough.

[shemyaza]

"Irish is phonetic"
Me: yay I can learn it easily
*immediately descends into vortex of anti-phoneticness*

[carolj]

This makes reading books set in Ireland, or with Irish characters so much easier to read! Thank you!

[richardoshaughnessy]

I don’t know why I’m watching this I’m already Irish

[billmoran]

I’m an old man, but I still dream of spending quality time in Ireland while I learn the Irish language.

[Rin-thhk]

Shout out to my parents for giving me the easiest Irish name to pronounce

[Terri_MacKay]

As a Canadian with 3 Irish grandparents, I found this incredibly interesting. Not only do I think that the names look beautiful when they're written, but, when they are pronounced properly, they sound beautiful as well.

[hildaelson]

I wish Irish was still the principal language in Ireland, like actually every Irish’s first language.

[RickyMacHatton]

I’m learning Irish, but I won’t lie at a beginners level I find it the hardest I’ve ever attempted. Tá brón orm.
However, I’m determined to master it. The language of my ancestors

[cecizeni]

I'm going to have to look at this video two maybe three times for it to sink in

[shootingthepastuk]

NO-ONE has EVER explained that to me as simply and straightforwardly as you have done. I gave up learning years ago, I might just start again. THANK YOU BENNY!!

[jordanhasch]

As delighted as I am to hear some of this broken down for me, I can't stop looking at the man speaking. He's gorgeous! And his warm voice sounds skin to a warm breeze.