that ae is normally pronounced rightly or wrongly Hm. An initial "ee" sound is the only pronunciation given in the Shorter OED. (The big exceptions are things like "aero", but that's from Greek ?? (or ??), not ??...) venqax on November 16, 2011 3:33 pm @Peter: I can't speak for the UK, but in the US Siobhan is by no means a common name. I'm sure almost anyone confronting it here would say something like See-oh-ban, and what's more, I can say if this were a name that had been in the US for more than a couple generations it would be pronounced Soh-ban or something similar. Just ask any Polish Jankowski or German Weber or Czech Kovac if anyone -- including themselves -- pronounces their names Yankovski or Vayber or Kovach. Now, if they have changed the spelling to Kovach, that's another story. The same solution for poor Siobhan, of course, is to adopt one of the many anglicized spellings of the name: Shivon, Shivaune, Shivaun, Shavon, Shivonne, Shivaughn, Shavaughn, Shavaughne, Shavaughan, Shavaugn, Shavaugne, Shavaun, Shavaune, Sheavaughn, Shevaun, Shevawn, Shavone, Shavonne, Chevonne or Chevon. English-speaking people can barely manage the rules for English orthography. Are you seriously suggesting they should have a grasp on rules as bizarre as Gaelic's? An initial "ee" sound is the only pronunciation given in the Shorter OED. What is it you guys say about the price of tea in China? Merriam-Webster gives: \es-'the-tik, is-, British usually ?s-\. The O-American-ED gives only, "Pronunciation:/es-THetik/" and the