How would you pronounce Pearl?

[Horispondle]

I like the name Pearl but I'm worried how people would pronounce it in different accents? I would say it 'Purl' but I think my DH's side of the family would say it 'Peh-ril'. How would you say it?

I wouldn't choose a French name as my accent wouldn't do it justice. Not racist or xenophobic.

Potato potato?

I'm from Essex. My maiden name starts with H. Emma wouldn't work. As numerous people to me. But that surely encompasses various extra connotations? Unsavoury ones?

Maybe just me. As you were then.

Told not to

Yup, Scottish hear - it's virtually impossible to say it any other way than Peh ril :(

Also get the Carl/Carol thing.

I wanted to call my son Cairn (that's what we kept on sticking the pin in when we were finding a name by sticking pins in the map :o )but it kept on coming out as Kay rin which sounded like a girls name.

here, not hear!!

Rhotic R here (Irish) and I would say Purrl. Not Per-il.

Peril would sound different from Pearl in a lot of Scottish accents.

Another rhotic here (American South). I say something halfway between purl and pur-rul.

Not in this particular instance, no Minnie. If the name sounds like "Peril" in said different accent then that's not particularly nice! I'm sure the Op has no problem with the Scottish accent in general, just with this particular name.

soontobe - if you'd brought him to Australia, it would have doubtless been pronounced "Cann"! (Cairns is often pronounced as Canns here)

Pahrl. Lovely name!

Thanks thumbwitch, whilst we have no plans to come to Australia, we went for something else, same letters except one missing and in a different order :o

Thinking about it, our elder son has the same 4 letters with with one added and in another order.......think we had a lack of imagination or a love of 4 letters of the alphabet.

pehril here - also Scottish.
My DH is Craig and when we lived in Australia, people had real trouble pronouncing his name!

In some parts of Scotland, cairn (the memorial monument/little heap of stones) is pronounced 'carrh-n'.

Sorry - posted too soon. Maybe that's where the Australian pronouncation came from. Many Scots emigrated to Australia in 19th century.

Nah, it's cos the Aussie pronunciation of most things is designed to keep minimal mouth opening, to keep out the flies. DH told me, and he's Aussie, so he must be right.

weebarra how did they pronounce it?? Because I'm Australian and have several friends/relatives called Craig, who are also Australian... No one ever struggles to pronounce it. Unless it's something other than kray-g...?

In America Craig is Creg, always think it sounds odd.

My eldest is Craig and non scots often think it is Greg - Gregor being the other option we had.

HaHa, Thumbwitch Very good! It's the beginning of the dreaded midge season here in Scotland. They also fly into mouths, eyes, everywhere....

Ah, Creg. That explains it , it's always Krayg in Australia...

DD has Pearl as one of her names. I have never heard anyone pronounce it as anything other than "purl". We are dahn sarf, though, so that may be to do with it. It's a lovely name IMVHO

DD1 had a Craig in her class but owing to the American 'Cregg' pronunciation I thought he was Greg until he was about 12. It would have been Crayg if he had been in Ireland.