[name_m]Hi[/name_m] Everyone,
I love the name Qilin (pronounced like [name_u]Keelin[/name_u]) for our new baby boy. What are your thoughts on the name, the spelling, and if it conflicts with a last name that ends with an “n”?
Thanks!
I like it. I admittedly had to google it because it was not showing up here on nameberry, but it came up as a chinese mythical creature which is kinda of cool. Only thing is people may not know how to pronounce it when reading it out loud, so your son may find that to get maybe a tad annoying. I think the N ending on both first and last names is fine. My last name ends in “er” so im avoiding boy names that end in “er” just because i think that it sounds more matchy matchy than “n” endings.
It looks like it should be pronounced “killin” which isn’t great, [name_f]IMO[/name_f]. I prefer the spelling Keelan, it looks cleaner and people will have no trouble pronouncing it.
Thank you for your thoughts. I came across the work while looking at a book of mythical beasts and it jumped out to me immediately, along with the characteristics of the beast.
For me it’s confusing how to pronounce it. My first thought was “kilin”, but if you told me that it’s taken from Chinese mythology, I’d assume that the correct pronunciation is the Chinese one, in which a “q” is pronounced more like “ch” (check the pronunciation of 麒麟 [qílín] if you haven’t already). Nevertheless, it looks really nice on paper.
My honest opinion… YIKES 
because I agree with pp’s that my first thought for pronunciation is “killin” as in killing, and regardless this is a name that will need constant spelling and pronunciation correction. But it sounds like your son will have a cool explanation to share with anyone who asks.
Where do you live? I guessed Kilin as well.
For the US it seems like a very tough import.
It is obviously Chinese to me. I would choose another spelling for the [name_u]Keelin[/name_u] pronunciation.
I do not speak any Chinese languages and know very little about them, but even I know that q is not pronounced as in Iraq. It seems very off to me to take a word from another culture and use it as a name whilst pronouncing it incorrectly. I just don’t think that’s cool at all.
I think the spelling and pronunciation are going to be a problem. I also looked at your explanation of what it means and thought q is like ch in Chinese, making it chee-lin?
[name_f]Susan[/name_f]
There’s also the whole cultural appropriation aspect if you aren’t Chinese. Using a different spelling would be better, I think.