Dairine name pronunciation

[Rad]

I don't know if this issue was properly resolved, but I just read that her name is pronounced: "Dáirine (f) DAW rin yeh"
(courtesy of www.namenerds.com)

[Wilf]

I always imagined it is "Dare-rine". However, when I read it, I tedn to *blip* right over it.

[musical_babe_1o1]

I always assumed that her namewas just dare-rine also, I read fast so I don't spend much time dwelling on names.

[Rad]

I had always pronounced it Dare-een, myself. I'll probably continue to pronounce it that way for convenience.

[nitafan211]

I just pronounce it Dairine. I dunno, I just have to wait until I meet DD and ask. I hope I will meet her someday.......

[Evangelion999]

I always assumed it was Dai-rine...two syallables...there is no accent on the a by the way, whoever posted first.

[Rad]

I know, I just copied it from the namenerds site. And if your pronounce it Dai-rine, then how come Nita calls her Dari or Dair sometimes?

[PK]

DD has said (and this has been pointed out multiple times; it's in one of the logs that is actually transcribed and posted) that it's pronounced Dare-een. (Nicknames, of course, are not actually required to make sense. )

[AlidaART]

Then, that would be Irish...? Hum. I've always wondered why Nita was named Juanita (sounding very Hispanic) and Dairine-- well, yeah, Dairine, which sounds Celtic or something. I always pronounced it Day-reen. I guess I was close...

[Evangelion999]

Well only one of the parent's is hispanic I always assumed (the mother, I'm thinking) so it makes since only one kid is named hispanicly (I know one of my parents chose my name and the other chose my brothers).

[PK]

Nita's father (Harry Edward Callahan, I believe) is the Irish connection, I believe, or at any rate the aunt who lives there is his sister. I can't remember if the family came from there or not. Her mother, Betty (do we have a middle or maiden name?), gave Dairine her red-hair-gray-eyes looks... but I don't know whose idea the names were, or what the grandparents were like, etc. (Except... Harry's grandmother was a wizard, maybe? Bother, must reread.)

It's always possible they just liked the names, too. My name is technically Greek in origin, I think, but if we have any family there we've lost track.

[Diane Duane]

Originally posted by AlidaART:
Then, that would be Irish...? ...

It is. A little detail here:

http://www.ancuairt.org/tumulus/dairine.htm

The name in the Gaeilge form normally takes either one or two fadas (that's the Irish version of the acute accent), so that you get it as both "Dáirine" and "Dáiríne". The number of fadas is going to change the pronunciation, so that in Gaeilge you hear it either as (sort of) "DAW-reh'neh" or "DAW-ree'neh". (What happens when the fadas go away entirely, which also happens, I have no idea.)

However, as often happens, the name changed pronunciation when it got to the US and got fastened onto Nita's sister. Around the Callahan residence, the pronunciation is dare-REEN.

Hum. I've always wondered why Nita was named Juanita (sounding very Hispanic) and Dairine -- well, yeah, Dairine, which sounds Celtic or something. I always pronounced it Day-reen. I guess I was close...

Close enough for jazz. Over here, the name appears both as "Dairine" and in a slightly different form as "Darina": as in the TV chef Darina Allen, daughter of the famous Myrtle Allen, who founded the Ballymaloe cooking school.

[AlidaART]

Thanks DD. Names are so interesting-- etymology, I think (the study of names, that is). Also funny to find out how it's changed over the years (ehm. Gwenivere/Gwynhwyfar).

I suppose you're all right, and Nita's parents just did like the name Juanita. But it really makes me think of Nita and Kit as two Hispanic teenagers; both dark New Yorkers.

Then again, my name is...Hungarian, I think. And we're talking about Alida-the-Italian-girl, here (I guess that could carry over to Italy, but it probably would have been more appropriate had I been named Rosalina, or something...)

[semiramis]

*raises hand* Chinese, with a short version of a Hebrew name (my common--which is to say, American--name, that is, which was chosen for its closeness to my original--Chinese--name). And my webhandle is Babylonian-bastardized-thru-greek XD

(actually, most asisn people's english names are really bizzarely common, hence, lots of bobs and amys and marys and davids and michaels--especially michaels [there are so many in my area that there're even two Michael Changs XD]--and occasionaly a hosana or a vivane or somesuch... but the first sort make it really hard to find a safe generic name to use in jokes if you know a lot of asians >.< )

[AlidaART]

Hm. Yes, there was a Chris Chang in one of my chamber music groups recently. Oddly enough, however, a guy I know who is half-Caucasian half-Japanese has a Japanese name: Keita. Then again, there was also a Michael Hu at the camp I just went to, whose sister was named Ophelia...

...then again (again) I personally find Asian names beautiful. So why name someone Bob who could have been a Takuji? Or some such. Wanna shed some light on that, Semi-chan?

(Let me know if I'm getting offesive or something. I do that sometimes unconciously...)