Why is “Lean” pronounced the way it’s spelled, but “Sean” is pronounced “Shawn”?

Question

I’m over here calling people “Seen” and they’re like nah fam it’s “Shawn” and I’m like well then spell it that way bro, lol.

In: Culture

Answer 1

From what I recall, Sean is a traditional Irish name (like, proper Irish, not English with an accent but a totally different language) and so the letters are pronounced differently from standard English. Likewise, I once had a teacher whose first name was Siobhan and you pronounce it something like “Sha-von”. I think that one’s Irish too.