<p>In England, I had an acquaintance named Sion. Quite a few people mispronounced the name as “Shawn.” She usually asked people (English people!) how they pronounced b-a-r-n, and then told them that Sion should be pronounced analogously. Then she asked a friend of mine, who had a very strong Kansas accent. When the friend said “barrrrn,” Sion said, “You may call me Shawn.”</p>
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<p>What makes a name easy? My names are basically phonetic but people frequently look at them and simply can’t figure out how to pronounce it, even though they’re pronounced as they’re written. </p>
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<p>I’m still not getting how this is pronounced actually. Just seeing it without any explaination I would have pronounced it like the car, Scion.</p>
<p>Also, while my parents think they made up my sister’s name, it’s apparently some ancient Norse name. </p>
<p>Sion would be pronounced something like Shaaahhn, as opposed to Shawn. To rhyme with barn, obviously! 
(Apologies to linguists who know how it should really be written. I’m a “barrrrn” type myself, so I am sure my suggestion is a bit off.)</p>
<p>Nicknames can save the day; e.g., Mo, Nika, Niki, Nicki, Nicky, Ka, Roni, Ronni, or Ronnie. Some of these are perfectly fine.</p>
<p>My dad has a quite unusual name, and often went by his initials. </p>
<p>I STILL do not understand how to pronounce the name. </p>
<p>Shaaaahn and Shawn sound the same…?</p>
<p>Think about a cute puppy or kitten: Awwww. That’s Shawn.
Think about a refreshing drink, or dip in the ocean: Aaaaah. That’s Sion.
Of course, I remain a “barrrrn” person, so maybe someone who truly knows will weigh in. I have heard that people lose the ability to differentiate sounds that do not exist in their dialect/language.</p>
<p>And that’s the problem, N. Online I see (hear) sy-on, like the car, see-on (Hebrew, peak of potence,) and Sh-oh-n, presumably with some Welsh accent.</p>
<p>Barn and barrrn are the same to me. You mean, Shon? </p>
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<p>I’m guessing it’s more like what you would think of Sahn instead. But it doesn’t rhyme with barn at all so I don’t know.</p>
<p>It rhymes with barn if you are British.</p>
<p>Maybe you don’t have the “w” sound in “Shawn” that people in the middle of the country probably would have, Niquii77.</p>
<p>Well, I just realized what the first problem was: there are different British accents! ;)</p>
<p>Yes, I heard the same as well, lookingforward. Accents are hard to communicate when you can’t hear them. Lol </p>
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It’s not that I’ve lost the ability to differentiate between sounds…but rather I did not know the accompanying accents when you said “Shawn” and “Shaahn”. It would’ve been a lot easier with context. </p>
<p>Like “oil” and “erhl.” </p>
<p>I’m still confused about whether there’s an R sound in Sion. </p>
<p>I have never heard barn pronounced without an R sound unless you are parodying a Boston accent! </p>
<p>I didn’t mean the sound differentiation thing as a comment about your remark, Niquii77–just as a general observation that I have heard from linguists. For example, I have a lot of difficulty with the proper pronunciation of Bh at the beginning of Indian names. Friends who grew up in Germany have trouble with th in “the.”</p>
<p>The British differentiate Sean from Sion. We would pronounce Sean as Shawn around here. (As to how the British would pronounce Sean, I surrender!) Locally, we would not have heard of Sion unless we’d been out of the country.</p>
<p>Hmmm, lookingforward–on a third-grade standardized achievement test that had a spelling component (long age), I offered the spelling of “oil” for “oral.” I thought the principal was just mispronouncing “oil”!</p>
<p>No R. A typical British accent drops a most R’s that do not begin the word. Barn is England is pronounced bahhn, basically.</p>
<p>. . . and please don’t get me started on Seamus Heaney!</p>
<p>To clarify, I have the impression that in at least some parts of Britain, “barn” is pronounced closer to the “bahn” in Autobahn. In my region, there is no difference between barrrrrn and barn. I just added the extra r’s to emphasize that the r sound is quite clear in our pronunciation.</p>
<p>I’m having enough trouble with Ian, Ian, and Iain: ee-an and eye-an and whatever.<br>
I happen to like the name Mary. Although that, too, gets abused. To MIL it was marry. (And her friend, Maaah-ree.) Then there’s Sair-ah, Saa-ruh (as in aak!) and, yep, Seer-ah. </p>
<p>Btw, just when you think Bostonians have gotten past their R issues (including the mysterious Florider, you start to hear them everywhere.</p>