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An Irish woman who has been living in Australia for a year said it is a constant battle to get Australians to pronounce her name correctly.
Cliodhna Hughes has a traditional Irish name, pronounced ‘Klee-uh-na’, which she says leaves Australians perplexed.
She said she encounters bemused looks when she introduces herself and that people in Australia often call her ‘Clio’ by mistake.
“When I say my name is Cliodhna, they really look at me like I have 20 heads,” she said in a video.
“It’s not a hard name to pronounce, but in Australia any Irish name is hard to pronounce, why the fuck can’t anyone understand how to pronounce Irish names?”
Cliodhna Hughes (pictured) has a traditional Irish name, pronounced ‘Klee-uh-na’, which she says leaves Australians perplexed.
Cliodhna said she was “not prepared” for Australians to struggle to say Irish names correctly.
“At home, Cliodhna is not a difficult name to pronounce, it is actually a popular name and no one can pronounce it here,” she said.
“I don’t know what people were thinking when they came up with these names many moons and years ago: how the hell was the rest of the world going to pronounce these names, much less spell things?”
She said she is “bewildered” by the confusion and warned other people with Irish names that the same thing could happen to them if they travel or move to Australia.
“If you come to Australia be prepared, if you have a certain name, probably any Irish name you’ll be called by a nickname because I’ll go by Clio for short,” Cliodhna said.
Australian viewers admitted to being confused by the expats’ names, as well as other Celtic nicknames.
“When I say my name is Cliodhna (Australians), they really look at me like I have 20 heads,” she said.
‘If I were to read it, it would sound like Cleod-hana. The struggle with Irish names and spelling is real,” said one user.
‘I lived in Dublin and the names fooled me. Oisin, Roise, Aine, Cathal,” wrote a second.
‘Because they’re not spelled the way they’re pronounced, how are we supposed to figure that out?! But what a nice name! added a third.
But Cliodhna wasn’t the only one whose name was mispronounced or shortened by Australians.
“I’ve gotten Koda, Chloe and even Clog, it’s an adventure waiting to hear how people will pronounce my name,” someone named Clodagh wrote, Clo-Dah said.
“I heard you, I moved from Scotland and I’m having the same problem,” replied Eilidh, pronounced Ay-lee.
“My name is relatively easy to pronounce for an Irish name and I’m Australian and grew up here with an Irish background, but the hell I went through growing up, the school list was my worst fear at all times,” Maeve said.