Comments for CAILIN:

My name is Cailin. It is actually not a name, but a word. It is the word "girl" in Gaelic and is pronounced "Colleen". For example "cailin rua" is the "red-haired girl" and "cailin dubh" is the "dark-haired girl". There is actually an accent over the second 'i' (called a "fada" in Irish.) [noted -ed]

-- cailin  10/4/2005

This can also mean 'country girl'.

-- wiswina  12/20/2005

Um, it does NOT mean "country girl." That is inaccurate.

-- Anonymous User  1/5/2006

The word for "boy" is "buachaill" (pronounced "BOO-a-khuly" (the "ly" being the sound used in "million" by those who do not pronounce it "mill-yun")). For some reason, I've never heard of any men with this name.

-- Kosta  6/13/2006

I know it sounds weird but I've never seen Colleen spelt like this and pronounced that way. I only know one little girl and she pronounces it CAL-yeen (I don't like that). I think Colleen sounds much better.

-- Gianna  6/21/2006

I know of one girl with this name and she pronounces it Kay-lyn.

-- Anonymous User  7/6/2006

I love this name! I noticed on the ratings thing that 22% of people thought this should be a boy's name. Why would you give a boy a name that means 'girl'?

-- xKatiex  10/13/2006

The name is pronounced like Colleen. It's my Mum's name and she hates it when Americans pronounce it Cay-lin.

-- Anonymous User  1/2/2007

I know Gaelic and it's easy for me to say that this is not a name. Ironically, "cailín" is actually masculine (despite its meaning) because of the "-ín" suffix. Why this is, I don't know.

I despise all the mangling of this pretty name into "Kaylyn", "Caelin", and the like (there's more lovely names that are befouled with these dreadful spellings and ghastly pronunciations in pitiful efforts to be "unique", but that's another story); there really should be some Respect For Language/Names courses for these people.

-- gaelruadh19  1/27/2007

Really, the *correct* pronunciation is "caw-leen". I've never heard anyone with this name. It's just a word to me. It would be weird for me to meet someone with the name Cailin or Buachaill as they are words to me.

-- Anonymous User  2/2/2007

"Caw-leen" is not the correct pronunciation. It is the long a (á) that is pronounced "aw." Cailín has the short a (pronounced "ah.") The word may be accented on either the first or the second syllable depending on dialect. (Either "KAH-leen or "kah-LEEN.")

-- Kosta  6/26/2008

A very beatiful name! It shouldn't be a variant of Kaylyn though. I also love the pronunciation KAH-leen better than KAY-lin.

-- caity-bear915  10/11/2008

This is my name and I think that it is a very pretty name. I like it pronounced cay-lin. The only thing I don't like is all the mispronunciations like "caitlyn, colin, or caylee." I actually had someone argue with me about the pronunciation of my name. I said "my name is Cailin" and they said "hi Caitlyn" and I said "no it's Cailin" and they contradicted me and said "no it's Caitlyn!" Can you believe some people?

-- lillyanna  7/2/2009

This name is just weird. Aren't you basically naming your child "girl" in Irish? Plus it's also a dumb spelling of the monstrosity Kaylyn. Colleen sounds better, but I don't like that name either!

-- bananarama  9/26/2009

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