I have a question about the name [name_f]Aislin[/name_f].
When I was a teenager, I worked with a young woman named [name_f]Aislynn[/name_f] and she pronounced it AZ-lynn. I thought it was very beautiful and I’ve been wanting to use it in a piece I’m writing. I did some research on the name and it seems like there are several ways to pronounce it, everything from ASH-lin to AEY-lin. Is this a situation where anything goes or would I look like an idiot for using the AZ- lynn pronunciation?
I think it could work. The original irish spelling of the name is [name_f]Aisling[/name_f], pronounced Ash-lin. I think if you use an untraditional spelling, you could use an untraditional pronounciation aswell. Perhaps you could use [name_f]Aislyn[/name_f], even though I’d recommend something along the lines of [name_f]Azlynn[/name_f], Aslyn or Aizlyn to avoid confusion. If the name will only be written down I’d especially suggest a spelling similar to these as they would make the pronounciation more intuitive. So in conclusion I think it could work as long as you use another spelling than the traditional, since that would make it easier to get to the pronounciation you desire.
since I know how to pronounce [name_f]Aislinn[/name_f], I would probably pronounce it that way in my head, whether it was stated to be pronounced that way or not (and even if it was clarified to be a different way)
phonetically, AZ-lynn isn’t the intuitive pronunciation of [name_f]Aislin[/name_f] in [name_f]English[/name_f]. so even if the pronunciation people guess isn’t ash-leen (the [name_u]Irish[/name_u] pn), it’s not going to be what you want
for these reasons, I would recommend a different spelling
since it’s written, i think most people who are unfamilliar with the name wouldn’t even consider using the az-lynn pronunciation, so i think it would be best to just use a different spelling!