More hip-hop Gaelic names

Our thousands of readers will doubtless recall a post from last summer where we discussed the unusual usages that emerge when Irish-sounding monikers are adopted by contemporary pop culture. So in our MTV watching of the last few weeks, we have noted the emergence (to us) of hip-hop star Ciara and her hit "One, two step" which has the seal of approval of a featuring Missy Elliott.

Our assumption, being Irish, was that her name was pronounced Kira but recently silent blogging partner R Morgenstern suspected otherwise and indeed careful listening to the song reveals that it's pronounced See-Ara. Interestingly, a quick surf through girl's name websites shows agreement that while the name should be pronounced with the hard 'C,' its actual Celtic meaning derives from 'dark' or 'black,' indicating an obvious route to being selected as an African-American name.

We can't explain the change in pronunciation, though. So whereas some Irish popstar names with odd pronunciations helped popularise the Irish version (e.g. Sinead), there could be a reverse effect in this case. P O'Neill's niece may not be pleased.