Pronouncing Scandinavian names - pet peeve

My name is Norwegian but my parents changed the 'e' to an 'a' so it's pronounced the Norwegian way by English people (and an 'e' at the end of a name sounds like an 'a') Great foresight..
The Scandinavian way of pronouncing Scandinavian names is often prettier. Eg Liv is pronounced Leeve and Astrid is pronounced Ustri. Bit softer.

If we’re in England, Australia or another English speaking country we would pronounce them in English. To make it easier for people to understand. If I were in another Scandinavian country and the name was pronounced just slightly different, I’d pronounce it like the way I’d do in my own country. I don’t know anyone here who would not do this naturally, just like you say.

I agree that I think names are generally pronounced the "common" way for the country if that's the owner's nationality and where they live. If you named your baby Genevieve in England you might have never even heard it pronounced the French way so that would sound wrong to you

@stripeyoldcat

It's seems easier for Scandinavians to pronounce their names in British than for the Britishs to pronounce in Scandinavian language.

It's standard for them to introduce themselves by the 'right' language depending on location. They don't even think twice.

Same here. We don’t mind.

But it’s the same with Scandi people using English names. A friend named her daughter Miley. But they and everyone else call her Maj-li.

In Scottish accent or in Scandi kanguage

This. So annoying with the G which is silent. 😅

Kerstin is absolutely not Kishten in Swedish. It varies where in Sweden you come from, but Shestiin or Sherstiin.

My pet peeve is Magnus. It’s not supposed to be pronounced Mag-nuss with a hard G, it’s Mang-nuss.

But you are mistaken to correct an English speaker. It's their name, in their language. That's like an Italian speaker insisting on correcting a "Bruno", "Marco" or "Angela" to an Italian pronunciation. The scandi version might be how you originally pronounce the name in the original language but it's not how you pronounce their name.

Freya is a standard Scottish name, anyway.

My children have dual citizenship British/Scandinavian country.
Their names are pronounced different in Scandinavian than UK. To be honest? No one minds.

Well it depends doesn't it @HowWasTheEnd?

Obviously if it's a difficult name to pronounce, or there are different variants in different places, that's one thing - at least initially.

But if someone constantly can't be bothered saying your name as you wish it to be said, that's something else. I used to work with an Annemarie (not really, but something similar). A colleague insisted on calling her Anna Maria all the time. Not sure why. It did bug her.
The colleague was corrected. She was of the opinion it didn't matter.

Some people don't mind different variants of their name being used but some do. It's obviously different if you're just meeting someone for the first time. You'd use the pronunciation you're most familiar with then. But I'd consider it impolite to continue to do so unless the owner of the name was fine with that.

I don't get why so many people get so upset about names being said incorrectly. Unless people are trying to be deliberately unkind why does it matter is a name isnt said properly.

I have a foreign name that doesn't have a common English pronunciation so I get called all sorts of variants.

Freya is on our list for a girl and my Swedish Husband pronounces it the same way as I do - although he can pronounce it the Swedish way, he doesn't as we don't live there.

Same way that he and everyone else pronounces his Niece's very traditionally Swedish name with a W sound rather than the V sound it has in Sweden, because she was born and raised in the UK.

@honeylulu Oscar means something like 'deer friend' in Irish.
His granny was enchanted into the form of a deer.
His dad's name (Oisín) means little deer.

@Sue152 Saoirse is said more like Seer-sheh, or sometimes Sayr-sheh, than Sur-shuh.

Very early 80s in Stockholm I couldn't work out who someone meant when she was referring to the Wimbledon champion Bee-yorn Bee-yoori.

I admit I was also lulled into my presumptions as I knew that Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish writer, was named after his godfather King Oskar I of Sweden.

@honeylulu Napolean contributed to the naming of him (the baby who later became king of Sweden) or so the story goes. Napolean waa fan of the Irish Ossian tales which were popular at the time. Oscar was Ossian's (Oisín's) son.

But the name has meaning in both Scandinavian and Irish and as pp said there was a large amount of cross-over. It's hard to be sure of the origin of really old names.

Didn't Scandinavians invade and live in England for centuries? There must be plenty of Scandinavian origin names that are passed down and are just English names now, like Kirsten etc.

It is an Irish name but it's often pronounced in Irish as though the first letter was u. Like Oisín is Ush-een.
It can vary a bit depending on where you are in the country though. Definitely a u sound in Munster, probably Connacht.
Also, most Irish people don't say the name in Irish, so it's Oscar then.

Thanks both! I don't know how I got that so wrong.

The baby names book I had said it was "Old Norse" which I assumed to be Scandinavian whereas I now understand thanks to Google that many originally names were assimilated into Irish Gaelic when the Vikings settled. So "Aisgaar" became "Oscur".

I admit I was also lulled into my presumptions as I knew that Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish writer, was named after his godfather King Oskar I of Sweden.

Sorry everyone, I feel as thick as pigshit now 😂 Never too late to educate myself further!

ah yeah the ch is there for sure but I write it as a k as I don't know what a ch sound is called and people might think ch as in changes.

I make a phlegmy back of the throat sound instead of a clean K sound. It’s hard to explain!

I agree, however if I say my name with the correct pronunciation English people will ask again... and again... and again.

Until I pronounce my name the English way. It's soo frustrating!!
But I also know that the 2nd syllable of my name doesn't exist in the English language. So I gess English people just can't make sense of it.