To tell my friend she is pronouncing her (future) DD's name wrong?

[ThatIsJustNotCricket]

More of a what would you do but friend is due next month and she has the name picked out.

It's a nice name but here's the thing, it's not a common name and the way she is pronouncing it is wrong.

Would you tell her?

Actually, the cruellest words is "maths"

I genuinely can't say it It comes out like "mafff-ssss".

I always heard Tara in True Blood as Tah-ra too.

This is actually the THIRD Dana thread I have read in recent weeks .

For what it's worth, though, I am most familiar with Dana as an American name - for boys and girls - and pronounced 'Dayna'

I think its rather nice.

My cousin has a lisp too, and is very fond of saying words like mathematics because she enjoys people's reactions!

The American pronunciation may be heavily influenced by the artist Charles Dana (day-na) Gibson as Gibson girls were a style icon a century ago.

Gibson Girl

Dana is still used enough for males in the US that if I see it in correspondence, I google to find out if I am dealing with a man or woman.

It's a surname too, which may be where it came from originally as we Americans do like to turn surnames into first names.

I have a friend who pronounces it Dayna

In Northern Ireland they pronounce maths as mazz.

I've heard both "Dahna" and "Danna" (short A) used by English and Irish people, and Dayna used by Americans, but until reading this thread I thought that version was only for boys.

I have a non-rhotic accent and totally understand that writing the pronunciation as "Darna" meant the poster thought it should have a long A, not an actual R sound, but experience has taught me that it's better to transcribe that long vowel as "ah" when there are Americans around. otherwise there will always be an argument about the R.

Pedant here. People don't pronounce things wrong. They pronounce things wrongly. Please use adverbs.

Not just Americans. There are rhotic accents all over Britain and Ireland.

The Irish singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest was called Dana and it was pronounced Darna - with the 'r' not being enunciated.

I'd say Dahna like the Irish singer.

I met a Reiss (pronounced Rhys). I expected it to be pronounced Rice in a vaguely Germanic way (was there a shop called Reiss many years ago?)

The Irish singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest was called Dana and it was pronounced Darna - with the 'r' not being enunciated.

So not pronounced Darna at all then?

Steff 13- I say it exactly the same as you:)

Only ever heard it pn Day-na

I've never heard "Dah-na" I've always heard "Day-na" :)

at squoosh. Maybe MN needs its own phonetic conventions to smooth out the great rhotic/non-rhotic divide.

And how did it come out, littlelights?!

I disagree. I just listened to several snippets. It's a subtle distinction but it's there. And shading toward Terra would be a more Northern pronunciation. I'm Southern and from Georgia. Watch Gone With the Wind. "Yankees, Yankees in Tara?" smile That's how we pronounce it,

Throughout this clip Lafayette and Sookie refer to Tara as Terra.

I had never heard Dana pronounced Dahrna until MN. It's always been Day-na to me (X-Files :P) so the idea of pronouncing it Dahrna would be "wrong" to me!

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago with a person calling their child Dana (dayna) and talking about people telling her it's a hideous name.... so wonder if that's your friend! In fact, it was that thread that showed me "Dahrna" existed as an option to pronounce it!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2198666-To-think-its-rude-to-comment-on-someones-choice-of-name-like-this

Tadhg, think thigh but ending with a hard g.

There's no R in Dana so couldn't possible be pronounced by anyone as darna!
There's only 4 letters there Da - Na.

Thing is, some cultures seem to adopt names from another linguistic family, but apply their own phonetics.

Take Caitlín. This is Irish. Gaelic family. It is not and never was pronounced Kate Lynn. Katchleen is nearest sound using english (the Ka like car without finishing r). It is already anglicized as Kathleen. Over english speaking world as a spelling for Kate Lynn now.

sykadelic I've always pronounced it as day-na too and it wasn't until I started reading MN that I was made aware of the other ways to pronounce it. I would never think to pronounce it dar-na until coming on here.

I think it's a beautiful name when it's pronounced day-na, not keen on the other pronunciations but they're okay too. If I ever have a DD that's going to be on my shortlist for sure.

Maybe the OP of that other thread is the OP of this theads friend. OP, you haven't been telling your friend how horrible her name choices are, have you?