Caius?

[SilentMammoth]

Any thoughts?

Gonville and ...

Would you be expecting people to pronounce it 'keys'?

How would you pronounce it?
I thought of the Cambridge college which is pronounced 'keys', but it could be 'ky-us' or 'kay-us' as well.

What badtime said.

massive cross-post!

Yes, as in college.

Awful!

Just why?

Unusual and classic. Prepared to be told to add pretentious to those adjectives.

I know a little Caius, I think it's a lovely and unusual name.

Pretentiousness is beside the point. Most people who hear it won't know how to spell it and most people who read it won't be able to pronounce it. You'd be better off going for Gonville.

I think there was a Caius in the Twilight books , pronounced Ky-us. I bet more people would automatically think of that than would think of a Cambridge college (or is that just me? )

I automatically though of Gonville and Caius as my sister went to that college, but I don't think that that large a proportion of people will have heard of it in that sense. I just read Twilight and Caius was one of the old mafia vampires.

Love it!, prob would be shortened to Cai/ Kai ?

I think it means Rejoyce :-)

It really doesn't mean rejoice. It's an alternative spelling of 'Gaius', which was the most common male first name in Rome (the C/G sound is interchangable in early Latin). The origin isn't clear.

The Cambridge way is a pretty specific pronunciation and certainly wouldn't occur to most people. Caius would correct everyone, of course, but 'Cai-us' is a nicer pronunciation, in my opinion. The college was named after John Caius, who was born John Kays (Caius was the Latinised version). Thus, 'Keys' isn't the proper way to say the name anyway.

Having said all that, I'd love to use Gaius/Caius - it's an awesome name. Just, if you want to call him Keys, call him Keys...

I think most people would find it fairly straightforward to pronounce: Cai-us. Not really difficult or confusing imo. I like it - simple, masculine and not overused. What's not to like?

Other than the fact that your 'straightforward' 'Cai-us' could be either 'ky-us' or 'kay-us', and the fact that the OP wants to pronounce it an entirely different way ('keys'), not a lot.

Awful and pretentious.