Guy

[Afropop]

Said the french way (like gee)

Basically if you saw it with a french surname would you be more inclinded to say it the french way and/or would you be more open to someone saying 'no actually it is french - gee' ?

Guy is pronounced 'guy' as far as I know. Why makes things difficult?

If you live in an English speaking country, Guy will be pronounced Guy, not Ghee.

I'd pronounce it Guy even with a French surname until I was corrected

I think almost everybody in Britain would pronounce it like Mr Fawkes tbh. It's also a name I have a deep (and mostly irrational) disliking of, pronounced either way.

With a French surname I would always see it as 'ghee' (with the hard g). If I saw the name by itself I would assume the English pronunciation - if in the UK, obviously. If it was an ambiguous surname, eg Guy Martin, I would pronounce it according to the context.

The French connection would probably not occur to most people in the UK.

I'd say Guy. I wouldn't have known the French pronounciation was "gee" before reading this thread.

1. I would pronounce it Guy unless corrected, as I think most people would (in England, different if you're in France obv)

1. It's a horrible name either way

1. I think ghee is slang for arse in some parts of Ireland and I also know someone who uses ghee as slang for fanjo (though that may be unique to her...)

I'd pronounce it Guy. I didn't even know there was a French way of pronouncing it until this thread.

Afropop I beg you with tears in my eyes to use the English prn exclusively. Unless you are rearing the child in France or a francophone country. I speak from the experience of a friend.

He has actually had people laugh in his face when he's introduced himself. truly awful. and he thinks his parents are twats for their choice, fwiw.

Don't get why anyone would laugh. Do people laugh at names like Lee or Dee? don't think so. It doesn't sound any odder than those, and lots of people have nns such as Fee, Bee, Vee etc.

I do agree that it makes sense to pronounce it in the customary way for the country in which you are, though. With a name like Guy it's a bit like having two names for the price of one :)

I love the name!
In my view, in the UK people would universally pronounce it 'Guy'. In France it would be pronounced Gee.
There's no reason for anyone in the UK to spontaneously use the French pronounciation - even if you do have a French surname. I think people would pronounce it any way you asked them but might have to be pushed to remember it and think it a bit odd (which wouldn't put me off in and of itself) but do remember than your son will spend most of his life explaining his name.

Percy people are ruder about it than even i could imagine, and i can be quite a cah at the best of times. Once when he called an employment agency the woman said to him "why on earth would your parents name you THAT?" and then snorted with laughter.

most English-speaking people don't realise it's a name when they just hear it verbally. they think he's named after clarified butter a la Indian food or something. Or that he's just making it up.

He also regularly received invitations/texts/ whatever with spellings like "Gie", "Gee", "Ghee", "Ghie", etc.

I think it's a lovely name, I love French names myself, but he's always hated it. take that for what it's worth, maybe others will have a different experience.

Thing is, if it was my name I would use the prn appropriate to the place I was in. I mean, your friend, his name is Guy, right? What's stopping him introducing himself as Guy (English prn)? So what if his parents call him something else, it's not really any different from, say, my cousin who is Jamie to family but Jim to his friends.

I wouldn't be inclined to spontaneously use french pronunciation and I don't think the surname matters if you are going to correct people. Its not like anyone would say "no, your name is not pronounced gee, its guy, you have an english surname". If someone corrects you on their name you just believe them.

I think its bad in both languages. Stuck between clarified butter and slang for a young man.

Right well thanks.
Guess that is people here in uk saying it guy and DHs family and people over there saying ghee.
Well that seems to be a positive no. Thank you

Yes that seems a great solution. But then he has a bizarre situation where everyone he knows from his hometown calls him Ghee (ie the name his parents introduced him as/insisted he used as a child), and everyone else calls him Guy, and French friends call him Ghee, and everyone gets confused about who they are referring to, and he has to explain it in the pub whenever circles of friends cross paths.

And then there's the issue of employment references. Or receptionists taking messages for him at work. People sometimes have no idea who is being referred to when they've got used to one prn.

It's not really like something like, say, Alexander/re. Which is sort of similar in different prns. Guy and Ghee are actually really different from one another, and generally most English people don't even know the Ghee prn exists, so when they hear it they don't even almost think it's the same name.

Sorry to get to passionate about this, lol. my friend just really hates his name and the prn issues, that's all. I used to love the name actually, before I met him and heard how much it annoyed him.