Met an American woman who gave their son an Irish name she couldn’t pronounce

I’m in the US at least 6 weeks a year for work. I met someone recently who told me she has a great affinity for Irish people, and her husband was of Irish heritage. She told me they recently had a baby and they gave him the same name as the great mythological Irish warrior. This was already shocking in itself.

I said: “oh, you named him Fionn?” (As in Fionn Mac Cumhaill) She said: “I don’t know who that is, we named him Choochalin”

I probably should have just said nothing, smiled and nodded. But I didn’t. Who the fuck is Choochalin?

After some back and forth, I discovered she meant Cú Chulainn. This is where I should have smiled and nodded. But I didn’t. Instead, I tried to correct her pronunciation. (Coo Cullen is a simplified way). She argued, asking what did I know – Irish people don’t even speak Irish, it’s not a real language. This really upset me. I told her that I was literally from a Gaeltacht in the west of Ireland, I speak Irish fluently and if she was going to give her American son an Irish name, she might as well say it properly. Cú Chulainn translates to the Hound of Cullen.

She told me that he was Irish American so they had their own way of pronouncing Irish words. All I can say is if dear Choochalin decides to embrace his “Irish heritage” and visit Ireland, he’s going to have a hard time with name like that.