The woman, who was on a trip to the US when the interaction happened, explained that she got talking to a mum who said that she picked an Irish name because she had “an affinity for Irish people” and her husband was of Irish heritage.

Writing on Reddit, the mum said that she named her little boy after an “Irish warrior” so the poster presumed he was named Fionn, after Fionn Mac Cumhaill. However, she presumed wrong. The mum said: “I don’t know who that is, we named him Choochalin.”

The woman said that she “probably should have just said nothing, smiled and nodded” but was so confused by the name that she couldn’t just let it go.

She went on: “After some back and forth, I discovered she meant Cú Chulainn. This is where I should have smiled and nodded. But I didn’t. Instead, I tried to correct her pronunciation. (Coo Cullen is a simplified way).”

This resulted in a fight, with the mum asking her what did she know!?

“Irish people don’t even speak Irish, it’s not a real language.”

The woman was upset by this, telling the mum that she was “literally from a Gaeltacht in the west of Ireland, I speak Irish fluently and if she was going to give her American son an Irish name, she might as well say it properly. Cú Chulainn translates to the Hound of Cullen.”

The mum replied that her husband was “Irish American so they had their own way of pronouncing Irish words.”

“All I can say is if dear Choochalin decides to embrace his 'Irish heritage' and visit Ireland, he’s going to have a hard time with a name like that,” the original poster finished.

People shared their thoughts and many were cringing while reading the post. “Oh NO” I whispered to myself multiple times while reading this,” one person said.

Another added: “Do they spell it as Choochalin or the correct way? Either way would be a tragedy. My eyebrows are knitting a sweater right now.”

* This article was originally published on Evoke.ie.