I have an Irish surname.
Very few can read it…there have been some wonderful attempts.
Here is your task - please Anglicise my name.
No cheating by doing internet searches, just use your knowledge of Irish pronunciation.
Also, intermediate and advanced learners, and flame-coloured lupines who write pronunciation guides should give the beginners a chance.
Let’s see if we can do better than the British Empire’s failed census attempts over the years.
I think I can do the second bit, to me it looks like it should be pronounced the same way as a Scottish surname (which is also hard to pronounce unless you know it) with Mc tagged on the front. I think I know the Sei bit as well.
But I’m not learning Irish so I won’t try and submit my suggestions openly. I’ll let everyone else try it then I’ll see if I was right.
One problem with surnames is, often two or more surnames sounded enough alike to English ears that they got themselves Anglicized to the same form, even though they represent entirely different families. We often get people at IGTF who say “I looked up my surname, and some sites spell it this way and some spell it that way…which is correct?” Unfortunately, the only way to know is to do geneological research, because the two surnames come from different parts of the country, and are completely unrelated, other than that someone thought they sounded somewhat alike.
I have to say that I’m confused by the “sei” in front of the surname. Native Irish (i.e., Gaelic) surnames always begin with “mac” or “ó” in the masculine form (“nic” or “ní” in the feminine, “maiden name” form). Gaelicized Norman surnames take the “mac” form if they begin with “Fitz”…otherwise, they usually start with “de” (as in “de Burca” or “de Butleir”).
Forgetting the “sei” for a moment, I’d guess that the name is Anglicized to “MacArthur.”
If it’s any help for the second one, if it’s from Munster (which I’m guessing from the netnick “Cork”), the Irish form would be pronounced “Mock YIL-eh VUR-eh.”
Yeah, that’s as far as I got. UNLESS! “Sei” might be Japanese (pron. “say” in that case, and to my poor experience it would be a somewhat nonstandard surname), and Mukade has enhyphened himself unto his beloved.
Actually, when I originally signed on to C&F I thought it could be appropriate to have a username germane to the topics at hand, and so it then occurred to me that perhaps nobody had chosen to name themselves after a flute’s head joint cork. Yup, that’s the story. However, it never occurred to me that I’d one day begin studying Irish, here.
It’s likely fair to say that only English has been spoken in my father’s family for at least the past hundred years (for instance, were he still alive he’d be 99 this September, born 1910), and so I can’t say that I’ve ever heard the original family name pronounced correctly. Besides, apparently a few generations of his family lived in Belfast, but before that were from the Hebrides, and so the pronunciation of the name is quite displaced, at least to my awareness.
I think Chiff gets a grade A+.
Everyone’s combined answers pretty much got the correct result.
Yes, the trap was the Sei, which Nano correctly guessed is my wife’s Japanese surname.
Sei is an unusual name in Japan. There are only two small clumps of it - one here at the foot of Mt.Fuji and the other in northern Japan. Most Japanese people outside of those areas find it difficult to read. It is written with the character for clean/pure.
As for the Irish part of the name, Chrisoff sent me a PM first saying it was Farquar - correct.
The Scottish version is most commonly Farquar or Farquarson.
The are many different version in both Ireland and Scotland. The closest to the original Irish is said to be McKerracher. Other version include Caraher, Carragher, MacCarehir and many variations of those.
The name is made up from the words Fear ‘man’ and Chara ‘friend.’ Fearchair was a male first name and it is most common in Monaghan and Louth.
