Comments (Pronunciation Only)

This name is pronounced EYE-leesh (IE-leesh, as this site says). Eilis is pronounced EYE-lish (IE-lish).If you pronounce it AY-leesh you are mixing it up with Ailís. If you pronounce it AY-lish you are mixing it up with Ailis.This is an Irish name and in Irish Ei is EYE or EH, not AY.In Scottish Ei can be AY (as in Eilidh).If you wanted the AY sound in Irish you'd have to spell it Ai or Éi (with the fada) so either Ailís or Éilís (for AY-leesh) and Ailis or Éilis (for AY-lish). However Éi doesn't make a proper AY sound in Irish it is more like a long EH (of French é). So it is not exactly the same though it might sound like it to English speakers.
I think that in some parts of Ireland it's pronounced Ay-lish, as it is in the movie Brooklyn, which is based on a book, and the author has said it's pronounced Ay-lish. Saoirse Ronan, the Irish actress who played Eilis (no fada on the I in Brooklyn's version, although it of course shouldn't change the pronunciation of the first syllable) in the film, agrees with this pronunciation. My family is from a village near Cork and around there it's pronounced IE-leesh. This pronunciation does make more sense, as seen in Eileen for example.
Spelt Éilis and pronounced Ay-lish.
Pronunciation: http://forvo.com/search/Eilis/
It's pronounced EH-leesh, not IE-leesh!
A variant is Éilís (AY-leesh). [noted -ed]

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