Charis - just too many pronunciation issues??

[Honeybee79]

DH and I have finally agreed on a name we love. However, how much of an issue do you think mispronunciation is going to be with Charis? The h is silent as in "chorus", or "charisma", but I can see this is likely to be an issue.

We wouldn't want to use Carys instead because we're not Welsh and it's a different name with a different meaning, though perfectly nice, just not for us. DH is a classicist and we both love the meaning and sound of Charis, not Carys.

Thoughts please? We love it but don't want to burden her unnecessarily!

Sadik, ah yes it features in Frederica, right?! My mum's a fan of Heyer and I read them when a teenager!

It'll be fine OP, very nice, I like the spelling.

I know a Charis, he's Greek and its pronounced Haris.

I would think Charis meaning grace and wouldn't pronounce the 'h' sound.

Frederica indeed. It's a lovely name, I'd go for it :)

Sadik that's where I knew it from too. The character is extremely beautiful OP if a little bird-witted

I'm a bit thick at name pronunciation but got it right straight away.

It's really lovely, please use it!

I like it too, and wouldn't have a problem with pronunciation. TBH there are so many names which could potentially be said in different ways, that if you ruled them all out there would be far fewer names to choose from

Looks like Chassis written down

There was a girl at my school called Charis and she pronounced her name Sha-reece.

I know a Carys who isn't Welsh and nobody bats an eye about it, my DS has a Scandinavian name and he's Scottish!

Saying that Charis is fine, I think she will spend most of her life correcting people on the spelling but pronunciation is easy once you have heard how to say it.

Lovely name and everyone who is not a dick will happily pronounce it the correct way once they know it. i.e. kariss.

Prefer Carys.
Charis to me looks like the ch should be pronounced like the ch in
Charity
Chastity
Champion
All of which start with the same three letters as charis.

There's a character called Charis in Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride too, I think. I like it.

I think it's fab! I don't think she'll have any problems with it**

No, no, no. DS went to school with a Charis. Once I realised it was pronounced Karris I said it correctly. Was a total non-issue.

There are loads of words ever Ch is pronounced Ca. Charisma, chimera etc. Usually Greek in origin. Like Charis

No, no, no was to Frazzled with her ridiculous assertion that because some Ch words are pronounced that way they all are.

Cousin-in-law is a "Charis". I think it's a lovely name. No problems with pronunciation ("Karis".)

If you people can pronounce words like 'character', surely they can get their head around Charis?
I'm biased, as I do know a lovely Charis, she doesn't have any problems. Her parents liked that it meant 'grace'.

I have to say I fail to understand why some people fail to "get" the pronunciation of this name once they know how it's pronounced. Just because some words beginning with "ch" are pronounced as such (ie church etc), that's not the rule for all. The English language doesn't work like that!

Moving.
I never said such thing. Was merely pointing out that cha is often pronounced cha not ka and to me charis looks like charis not karis.
Am a linguistics graduate and well aware of the many pronunciation variables in english

Because they are dicks Honeybee79. Just dicks.

So, getting a pronunciation wrong makes you a dick but being obnoxiously rude is somehow ok?

Surely Frazzled just said how she'd pronounce it, and why, not that everyone must follow her lead?

I don't know any, and like it, but would probably have rather uncertainly pronounced it Ch-aris, mainly because my instant reaction would have been that if it were pronounced with a hard ch it'd be spelt Carys. FWIW, I have a son with a Welsh name that's unusual outside Wales (we're not Welsh either!) and everyone asks whether we're Welsh! We're used to it now 😉