Toe-may-toe Toe-mah-toe

It's been rather interesting explaining Kiran's name to people. Quite often they hear Karen, or they think of Kirin (the beer), or the Kieran (the Irish boy's name). We're quite happy with the name. But we did have a bit of a disconcerting week in her first month.

I found the name Kiran on one of the baby names websites. I had entered the word "light" in the search box to see what would come up. The pronunciation at Baby Names World indicated KEE-ran, with an emphasis on the first syllable. We really liked it. We also thought it was a small tip of the hat to Ireland in honor of Ian's parents who both hold Irish passports (but are now US citizens).

We polled our blog audience way back in June to see what folks thought and got some.....interesting responses. Many liked the series of names that started with Kira***, so that confirmed its presence on the top 5 list. Then to double-check pronunciation I asked a colleague of Indian ancestry if she was familiar with the name and how she would pronounce it. She said that she had heard the name before, and that it was a good name, and that it didn't really matter how the name was pronounced. That pretty much settled it, except for some last minute doubts on the day she was born.

About three weeks after Kiran was born I took her to an event. A friend who had seen her birth announcement came up to meet her and then asked me how we were pronouncing her name. I said KEE-ran. She nodded and said "Oh, okay, because the one woman I know named Kiran pronounces it kee-RAHN (with the emphasis on the second syllable)." I looked over to see my colleague of Indian ancestry, who was within earshot. She must have seen the big question mark on my face because she looked at me apologetically and said, "Yeah, it's actually supposed to be pronounced kee-RAHN." "Oh," I uttered. I went home and rather despondently told Ian that we were pronouncing our daughter's name wrong. He looked a bit disappointed for a moment, then said "Well that actor from Beverly Hills 90210 pronounced his name EYE-en instaed of EE-en, like the rest of us. Some say toe-may-toe, some say toe-mah-toe." That made me feel a bit better, but I still didn't want to be the ignoramus parent who couldn't pronounce my kid's names correctly. But then I decided, heck with it, toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe, I'm going to pronounce it the way I want to. So for about a week, when people asked me about the baby's name, I would rattle off, "It's a Hindi/Sanskrit name that means 'ray of light'. It's officially kee-RAHN, but we call her KEE-ran." People seemed content with that, although it was a mouthful to explain every time.

Well a few weeks later I ran into a group of international students from India. They were asking me about the baby and about her name. It dawned on me that they could probably tell me if I was on track or ignorant, so I told them that we had chosen a Hindi/Sanskrit name that was spelled K-i-r-a-n. "Oh!" they exclaimed in unison, "KEE-ran!! It means 'ray of light'!" I was so happy to know they knew the name and that they pronounced it the way we had chosen to pronounce it. To triple-check, I told them that I had been told that it should be pronounced kee-RAHN. "Oh, no!" they declared, "only Americans pronounce it that way. In India we pronounce it the way you do." Yipee! Not the ignorant parent after all.

So now I confidently call my daughter KEE-ran. Now we just have to deal with helping people learn how to spell it.

Clarice