And (I wish) Bingo was my Name-O!

Yes its true.. I sometimes wish Bingo was my name-o! Bingo is a phonetically sounding out, fun to say, easy to pronounce name, Unlike Aisling! Us Irish think "isn’t it just feckin lovely giving our kids good solid Irish names". Aisling means Dream. Awh..That's nice but truth be told, the pronunciation of it is more of a nightmare when abroad.. 
I am sure a lot of my fellow Irish named friends know EXACTLY what I am talking about.. or others have read this article and thought.. "Yup.. my parents clearly don't hate me!" (Aisling is one of the easier ones. My thoughts are with the Sadhbhs’ and Caoimhes and ayoofees of the world). 
I toyed with the idea of changing name while I was in drama school in London after one tutor advised "its just easier for industry professionals.. They don’t have time to learn your name" which I thought firstly that’s a bit rude and disheartening if anything and also just wrong! They have learnt to pronounce Saoirse Ronan, Javier Bardiem, Marion Cottilard.. Zach Galifianakis to name but a few.. 

 While it can be really annoying, its also just so funny how confused some of my American encounters have been to date.. Check it out below. 


FACE PALM ENCOUNTERS

*Brad and Chad may have been made up for comic effect

SPELLING FAIL

  

 I'd love to hear your stories about the pain of an Irish name below! Or should I just change the spelling to "ASHLING". But as the Ting Tings once said.. "Thats not my name, Thats not name!" 
*Starts dancing around the living room!