Pronouncing Scandinavian names - pet peeve

According to a random internet source , first use of Freya as a name in Sweden 1816, https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Freja, first use in England and Wales 1876, thought to be part of Victorian interest in the Vikings, https://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2013/04/freya.html so not that different and both drawing on Old Norse mythology, and we have longstanding Viking influences in the UK!
if you look in Wikipedia there are famous Freyas from many different countries , so I’m not sure that it is exclusively Scandinavian.

Also, I guess you maybe haven’t had to let go and let live with your home language as much as British English speakers do. I speak a dialect of English with a regional accent it’s not any more correct than any other dialect of English eg Indian English.
So I think we have to accept that names travel and your way to pronounce it, particularly with a long-standing international name like Freya is not ‘the’ right way and people are quite entitled to say that is not the name they’ve called their child and to correct you about how their child’s name is pronounced.

I’m on the fence. I think you should pronounce someone’s name how they want you to but take accents, etc into account.

My friend is an Alicia. She pronounces it A-leece-ee-uh rather than A-Liss-ee-uh or A-leesh-uh. People should try to say it her way when they know.

My DD is a Kara and we say K-ah-rah with a long a sound. My dad’s family are Scottish and say K-a-ra with a short a. It doesn’t bother me because it’s their accent.

Have just asked DH (Swedish) and he can't think of anyone he knows or grew up with that followed that naming convention, and typically surnames are just passed down from Mum or Dad to all DC as they are in the UK.

I believe it's still done in Iceland, at least I know an Icelandic lady in her 30s whose surname is '[her Dad's name]dottir'

You said: However, if you do not speak a Scandinavian language and you decide to name your child a Scandinavian name, or if you have a Scandinavian name please be aware that you are probably mispronouncing the name.

Posters have rightly pointed out that people with the names you listened are not mispronouncing their own name. That's not failing to read the OP, it's right there in your opening post.

In the replies you focus more on people with these names correcting scandi pronunciations, which of course is silly if you mean that you use the name about someone scandi and they correct you by saying "actually you are wrong, the name is said like this and I know because I have that very same name" . However if you are saying their name the scandi way, and they correct you to the English way, then that's totally fine. You literally are mispronouncing their name. If you persist they'd be right to throw "a hissy fit".

I had a friend called Angela (Spanish speaker) who loathed the English pronunciation. Sometimes people would try to fob her off with a cheery "ah well that's how it's said over here!" and I really respected her for sticking to her guns and retorting that since she wasn't in fact from "over here", the person could bother to actually learn her name.

I think you're being a little precious, they are English people in England.

My name can be pronounced many different ways and I definitely have a preferred one, but don't bother correcting anyone.

I don't mind that at all.

Saoirse is seer-sha

Sorcha is surrika (more or less)

I can see that the names might look similar to a non-Irish eye.

Am I right in thinking that your brother would be say, Magnusson, and you would be Magnussdotir?
So brothers and sisters have different surnames?

That's such an ignorant comment and is typical of the English bias on here that does not recognise the separate history of Scotland. Magnus has been used as a boys name in Scotland for over a thousand years (as long as in Scandinavia). How long does a name have to be used before you consider it to be a native name? And since it comes from the latin name of Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus) then should we all still be pronouncing it with a Medieval Latin accent? Or maybe we should accept that the pronounciation of names change over time and one is not more correct than another.

St Magnus Cathedral is 900 years old, do you think Orcadians pronounce its name wrong? Orkney was part of Norway when the cathedral was built and only became part of Scotland in 1468.

Freya is both an old norse name and a relatively modern name, it started becoming popular in both Britain and Scandinavia in the 19th century so neither can claim to have the 'correct' pronounciation.

@MumChp there are sounds a lot of them can't pronounce as well but most British people can.

Only know this due to my own name. 😂

My DD will only have that problem with part of her last name.

Does anyone know how Edith would be pronounced in Icelandic, please.
Amazing information on here!

I always thought it was seer ( to rhyme with deer) sha

Unless you're a classicist. Pompey the Great, and all that.

Exactly, I did try to make that point early on but defensive people have lost the thread a bit!

@Reugny

Yes, we avoided ø-ö/æ-ä/å for that reason. My mum's name is Norwegian and has an ø in it. Would never work in UK.

@stripeyoldcat

My children's British family aren't able to say their names in Scandinavian - they really tried. Hard. We gave up as the children don't mind.

Their Scandinavian relatives are able to say their names in British. Maybe because Scandinavians are taught English from an early age.

I would pronounce those Katlin and Keera

It's all Magnus Magnusson's fault.

RIP, Mastermind king.

@MumChp They have sounds we don't have in English in their languages.

Incidentally 2 of my daughter's names, including her first name, have different roots. So people we've met from different countries since she was a baby pronounce them slightly differently. Tneeds

Substitute irish for Scandinavian and I'm all there with you. It's the spellings that get me more than the pronunciation. Anglicising the spelling of a name from another language in general winds me up.

My challenge to this would be that names are often pronounced quite differently even between the Scandinavian countries.

Classic British names are v popular among my Scandinavian friends kids and I suppose they are all pronounced ‘incorrectly’ by this standard! I don’t see it that was though - more that it’s a local adaptation.

How is Liv pronounced?!

I'm Irish and although I accepted the English/American Caitlin pronunciation long ago, ‘Sorsha’ for Sorcha (and sometimes seemingly interchangeably for Saoirse!) really winds he up.

genuinely curious to know how else Astrid is pronounced?