What's with the name?

Carlyn is my name and PR is my game. More on the public relations later; today is all about the name. I often find myself in the position where I'm having to pronounce it, spell it, dissect its origins... etc.

First thing first, it is pronounced "car-lin", like the late George Carlin pronounced his last name. My parents testify that they did not name me after him. I have yet to see it in writing.

It is NOT Carolyn. There is no "O". Seems silly that I would have to point that out, but you would be surprised how often the mistake is made!

If you didn't already, now you know how to pronounce my name. Do you now get how amazingly clever the title of this blog is? I can't take all of the credit. The copywriter at my company and author of one of the blogs that I follow, CopyKatz, spent/wasted probably an entire hour of his life helping me come up with that. I think he wants his hour back.

Just for fun, let's talk about the origin of my name. I'm not being full of myself here, but people do ask me, A LOT, where it comes from. It isn't very main stream. From what I have gathered, my name is Gaelic. Gaelic is a "dead" Irish language, although some people (including my grandpa!) still speak it as though it is very much alive. So, the jury is still out on the death of Gaelic. I've never really known what it is Gaelic for, but some sources say it means "Descendant of Cearbhallán". I've also heard it means "little champion" and "witch" !

Are any of these correct? If so, do I fit the meaning of my name? Does anyone care? Do YOU know the answer or have an interesting name/name origin yourself?