Name for a snow baby

Nanook, even.

Nanouk!

Alaska is pretty cool...... haha excuse the pun

Flakey well maybe not haha, but personally I don't think it matters what the weather was like when the child was born

Eirlys is beautiful

3littlebadgers Kardelen is lovely.

gwen

I take your point in the phonetics and i agree, but not everyone can read the phonetic alphabet so its difficult.
I also accept the Hei/Hai v hey/hay thing where we may be talking at cross purposes. however, what mike is telling me i'm 'pronouncing incorrectly' is the ei in eifion/eiry. which there ARE variations of. neither of which are wrong. there is no, 'standard' in welsh as such as the north/south language varies so greatly in lots of ways.

re: Seren. The people I know from the mid/north areas tend to pronounce the first vowel as an open eh (like in emma) where as we southerners are more likely to say an elongated closed back vowel in a way that is impossible to type unless we use phonetics!

mike's insistence that 'welsh speakers' wouldn't use certain names for instance is just homogenising us, many welsh speakers have different opinions. it may not be meant to be so bullish, but it certainly comes across that way. I'm absolutely not 'mangling' anything.

I know someone who pronounces Pencoed Pen-Co-Ed. She was born and bred there. Makes me wince!

My dc have a 'foreign' surname . It is not pronounced the same way here are it is by native speakers because we do not use those sounds . I don't see that as being ignorant or stupid.

"If I hear someone say Betsy Coe Ed I don’t give a shit. I don’t find it disrespectful, I just think they’re ignorant and stupid. "

Thinking people are ignorant and stupid isn't really not giving a shit.

There's a difference between someone who's a casual visitor doing that and someone who's living there.

You of all people.... as in being Welsh. Like I stated afterwards.
Every Welsh speaker who lives in Wales has heard a place name being pronounced wrong. You learn to let it go and not get worked up about it.

If I hear someone say Betsy Coe Ed I don’t give a shit. I don’t find it disrespectful, I just think they’re ignorant and stupid. Same if I hear someone call their child a Welsh name but pronounce it wrong.

"They’re just ignorant and stupid. Same if they name their dc something they can’t pronounce."

So you agree it's ignorant and stupid then. Quite strong words for something you think is fine.

And what does 'you of all people' mean?

No it’s not gwen.... you of all people, being Welsh should have grown a thicker skin over this.

The amount of times I hear English tourists pronouncing place names wrong! It’s not disrespectful, or rude.

They’re just ignorant and stupid. Same if they name their dc something they can’t pronounce.

I just can’t get worked up about it.

Eira or Eirlys

"so what if you say ayra instead of eyra?"

If you take a name from another language and don't bother to pronounce it properly, it's rude and disrespectful, particularly if we're talking about languages with a colonial relationship.

Thanks Gwenhwyfar. I am with you on Dylan. I know dozens of them. All of them say it as Dull-an not Dill-un.

I also know a Ceinwen who says it as Cane-wun. It seems weird as it's such an old fashioned name but quite nice but it's horrible the way she says it. It makes me think yeah, he killed his brother.

Apologies if you think that I'm talking to you like an idiot. I do get wound up by mangled names. Rhian pronounced Ree-Anne is quite popular now and it makes me cringe. Rhian said properly is such a nice name (but like Dylan is an over 50 yr old's name).

I meant, so what if you say ayra instead of eyra?

But why?!!... Why does anyone care whether someone is pronouncing their own child’s (or their own) name wrong?
Fair enough if they’re pronouncing your name your child’s name wrong.

And I understand that people do study and are interested in names and history origin etc....

But who cares about how some individual actually pronounces their own name with slight differences?

"No one really does give a shit how anyone pronounces their own name, regardless of where it came from originally."

I think they do, you know.
They may be interested in names/history/heritage/religion or names in general, just like you are if you've got the time to come on to this thread.

No one really does give a shit how anyone pronounces their own name, regardless of where it came from originally.
And if they do then they don’t have much to worry about in their lives.

"but no one gives a shit."

What do you mean by no one, just English people?

The English mash up French names too but no one gives a shit.

Leave Eira alone. Pronounced correctly it is a lovely name. The Ei bit is very difficult to get right. It doesn't sound like Ava and Ada. The Ayra pronunciation is a bit yukky to a fluent Welsh speaker.
There are Welsh names that are popular on here that Welsh speakers would not use because they are very dated or because they are naff. The names make it plain that thre parents don't speak Welsh.
And there are always people on here who know loads of people with a name and they all seem to pronounce it in some strange way.
Call the baby Emma or something.

I called my ds Tom and my health visitor called him Tomos when she came to see him. I corrected her that it was Tom and she said that he’ll most likely be called Tomos by teachers when he’s older

Eirawen (At-Ra-Wen) female
Eirwen (Air-Wen) male*

Disagree with your phonetics there.

no Eirwen is a girl's name.

*wen = female
wyn = male

They both mean 'white'.

And how is Eirawen pronounced 'Atrawen'..? confused*

Obviously it’s a typo and I meant Ay not At.

My Nain was called Eirawen and that’s how we pronounced it.... She and my mum’s family including my mum were/are Welsh speaking. I’m Wenglish speaking!

My good friend’s fil, who is a Welsh farmer and Welsh speaking along with his whole family is called Eirwyn and the above again is how we pronounce it.

Sorry, but I meant wyn for Male, not wen

" that Hay and Hey don't sound the same in my accent. because they do. "

It was because of Hay and Hey that I said this discussion makes no sense without using phonetics. If you're reading them as the words Hey like Americans say hello and Hay like grass then they're pronounced the same for everyone in Wales. I presume Mike meant phonetically in Welsh hei or hai, which are pronounced differently in standard Welsh.

"it is ALSO true that the way Seren is pronounced in the north is different to how it is pronounced in the south"

In what way? The first 'e' might be elongated in parts of the south, but that's a general southern accent. I'm not aware of different pronunciations for Seren.

"I also don't especially like being spoken to like an idiot. Mike is not as far as I know The Boss Of Welsh on mumsnet."

I think Mike is generally trying to explain to the average Mumsnetter who is not a Welsh speaker and does a good job at that.