Welsh speakers advice please

[wineapotamus]

Hi all,
How would you pronounce the name Efa? I'm 3rd generation Welsh and can say things like nos da, mochyn and cariad that my main called me when I was small. My son has a Welsh name that I love and I'd like my little one (due in March) to have a Welsh name too, but I'm getting lots of variation on how this would be pronounced. Like eefah or ever or effer?
Diolch and all that xxx

I've never ever encountered a Mair pronounced "My-ah". It's more "Mire" with a rolling r.

It's still more popular than it used to be.

I haven't looked at the popularity of it before 2014 but I can imagine. It's just odd, I thought we were dooming her to life in a class full of Celyns (popularity was the reason we decided against Seren) but it doesn't seem to have properly caught on yet.

We thought the same about our 2013 Celyn. There have only been between 20 -30 each year.

Ok, thanks for that, my phonetic spelling wasn't quite spot on but hey ho).

Gwynhwyfar

Did you think I didn't know that it was his bardic name?? My great uncle was named after him and it was uncle Wyn not uncle Ellis

"Did you think I didn't know that it was his bardic name?? My great uncle was named after him and it was uncle Wyn not uncle Ellis"

I wasn't sure because you seemed to suggest it was passed on in the family as if it was a real name.

Nope

All the males in my family have the middle name Wyn in his honour, my DD is the first female to have it. People assume we are hyphenated but hyphenation is a bit too pretentious for me.

MUM what nonsense you speak, I have a Cerys....and she has many friends of a similar she called Cerys, Carys, Eirys etc...they are all under 15.

I have a Cadi which is easy for my English family to say and got a lot of compliments in England now that we are in Wales I've met a few more but still not loads.

Sorry to poke my nose in but I've seen a couple of posts about Rhiannon not being pronounced Ree-Annen; how is it most properly pronounced? I'm in the US so properly Welsh pronunciation is thin on the ground.

The Rh is pronounced with ah h-sound before the r. The last syllable has a definite o, not an e (shwer) sound.

Typo - that should have been an h-sound.

The rh sound is pretty difficult if you're not Welsh tbh.
A bit like a rolling r with a bit more force.
Also the o in Rhiannon is pronounced like the o in orange or even just on.

To the person who said names like Carys etc were dated... I'm a Ceri and have friends called Carys, Cerys, Cari and Catrin (confuses our uni lecturers!) so definitely not dated at all!

And whoever asked it Efa was a real Welsh name... it's in the Welsh Bible (Adam and Eve are Adda ac Efa) so yes, definitely a real Welsh name!

It always saddens me on these threads when people suggest you shouldn't use Welsh names in case they want to venture into England. A name doesn't have to be a traditional English, easy pronounceable name in the English language in order to be classed as a proper name! In a world that is getting more and more multicultural, it seems a bit backwards to me to put people off Welsh names because they're not easily pronounceable in English!

Love the name Celyn and only know 1 who is about 13

There is a little Elain in my Swn a Sbri class, and an Elsi... both of which I love.