[name_m]Hi[/name_m] there I am Irish and am married to an American guy. We live in the US. I am desperate to give out baby girl a little bit of my heritage and really want to give her an Irish name. I had my heart set on Raonaid but my husband thinks the name would be butchered! My second choice is Saorlaith. Possibly with the spelling of Saorla to make it easier for non Irish speakers to pronounce. The middle name will be [name_f]May[/name_f] after my grandmother. So the full name would be Saorla [name_f]May[/name_f] [name_m]Moore[/name_m]. I would love to hear your thoughts on this combo and specifically if you think this name would pose a lot of difficulty for the child! Thanks so much!!
I think you would get most people pronouncing it “Sor-la”.
However, I have a neice named [name_f]Siobhan[/name_f] and, though people tend to have no idea how to pronounce the written name or spell the name they hear…she seems to be just fine with it.
I think it’s a beautiful name - both how it sounds and how it looks. I say, if you love it, go for it.
To be honest I have no idea how to pronounce Saorla. I would guess Sah-or-lah. I am from [name_f]England[/name_f] but I can imagine Americans would also be unsure.
If you can deal with it then go for it as it looks very pretty written down. But be prepared for some wrong guesses. I’m sorry.
If you are looking to solve the pronounciation issue, [name_f]Siobhan[/name_f], Sinéad, and [name_f]Saoirse[/name_f] are all somewhat familiar to American eyes and ears, and may be less likely to be butchered as they are more common names in the US. Alternatively, you could try to name her phonetically with Serlah, which I think is still pretty. That being said, when it comes to heritage I say do what you feel like is going to have the most significance to you and your child. I think Soarla is lovely.
I really like it! I think Saorla [name_f]May[/name_f] is beautiful 
I did have to google the pronunciation (I would have guessed Sor-lah otherwise), but the correct pronunciation is lovely.
I have no idea how to pronounce Raonaid (Rah -o -need / Re -nai-d). I think Saorla [name_f]May[/name_f] sounds pretty. Again there will be people like me who are used to saying every letter as is, Sah-or-la. I’d probably spell it Serla if you wish to avoid this. It’s still pretty that way as well.
[name_m]How[/name_m] I would think it’s pronounced is “say-ol-la” but I’m terrible at pronouncing names
I love Saorla! So pretty name. If is pronounced Serla, it has pretty sound.
I’m Canadian and my guess (based on [name_f]Saoirse[/name_f] [name_m]Ronan[/name_m] explaining that her name is pronounced “SER-sha, rhymes with ‘inertia’”) is that Saorla is pronounced SER-la. If so, I do think it’s a nice name, and Saorla [name_f]May[/name_f] works well. I think the Saorla spelling is probably the best middle ground between Saorlaith and Serla. It may be too optimistic of me, but since in my experience [name_u]North[/name_u] Americans have figured out how to pronounce [name_f]Siobhan[/name_f] and [name_f]Sinead[/name_f] and [name_f]Saoirse[/name_f], people will initially mispronounce Saorla but will get it right eventually with correction.
I think you and you daughter will always have the “how-do-you-spell-that?/how-do-I-say-this?” problem when meeting new people. However, it’s not a difficult name to say, and the spelling is really not too complicated, so if you can deal with that, you should totally go for Saorla [name_f]May[/name_f]. Otherwise, I’d go for a more phonetic spelling.