How to pronounce 'Mair'

[MummyMcCabe]

Good morning ladies. Our second girl is due 11th July, we all so super excited! We're looking at names, our 15 month old girl is called Ffion (my husband is Welsh, we live in Wales but don't speak the language or know many people who really do). Now we really like the name Mair for our new baby girl but are struggling with the pronunciation. We think it's pronounced like 'Mya' or is it 'Mya-rrr' with the 'r' really strong??? Help please!!! Thanks x

The Welsh Mairs I know are pronounced 'Mire' (like Mya), but if you are not living in a Welsh speaking area I suspect she'll get a lot of people saying 'Mare'

I have an aunt Mair. I love the name and would have called my next DD Mair, if I had one. We pronounce it Mire.

We live in England.

My daughter's name. She goes to a welsh speaking school. They pronounce it correctly. She is named after her nain.

It's lovely. The rhotic 'r' at the end is really tricky for many English accents however (bitter experience) so you end up with Mire.

I have a dil who is a megan rhymes with pegan
may gan
mair looks to have the potential to be a beautiful name not being familiar with it I too would have it rhyme with fair/hair/mare/mayor

My nan is called Mair, and most people pronounce is 'Mya' but with her Welsh accent the r is much stronger.

Younger family members have used the Mya spelling. I like it.

How can you like it if you don't know how to pronounce it? Anyway I said it 'Mare'

Said the Welsh way it sounds lovely, but I doubt it will be said that way if you're not in Wales.

What about Mai? You still would have to say it's pronounced My not May, but it doesn't have the tricky R sound.

I really like Eleri and Gwynedd too.

"Anyway I said it 'Mare'"

Are you actually proud of mangling someone's name???

I'm not meaning to be rude but how can you like a name when you don't know how to say it? If you as her parents can't say it what hope has anyone else got?
To my English eyes I would have guessed Mare and even with the descriptions above I still can't work out what it should sound like.

Mair is lovely and frankly many English people can't pronounce any Welsh names properly except Megan and Sian (although I once heard someone say See-ann) so they'd be bound to mispronounce any native name you give her.

And since you live in Wales, it doesn't matter anyway.

Nancy, maybe they like the way it looks when written down? I'm a bit perplexed though that the dad doesn't know how to pronounce it when he's Welsh.

my niece is called Megan, which in our accent does kind of rhyme with Pagan as in the first vowel is flat. though the second is -an rather than -un. so Ma-gan. (its really hard to describe that flat welsh vowel sound in writing.
My children have welsh names and an English father, so i do understand it can be difficult to find names that work!
Mari or Mai are good suggestions. Medi is also one we considered.

about 4.30mins in

My (first, changed a few times) Guide leader was Mair. I remember when she introduced herself to a group of us newbies she pronounced it "My-Air". Don't think she was Welsh.

"even with the descriptions above I still can't work out what it should sound like."

I've given you the phonetics plus a link to what sound the phonetic symbols correspond to.

"I'm a bit perplexed though that the dad doesn't know how to pronounce it when he's Welsh."

I think he's not a Welsh speaker Louise.
Unfortunately, many Welsh people don't even know enough about Welsh pronunciation to be able to say the name of the place where they live correctly.

"Mai are good suggestions. Medi is also one we considered."

Mai is May and Medi is September so these only really make sense if the baby is born in those months.

Nah, I'm called January and was born in June. Never been a problem for me...

My sister was Mair on her birth certificate but my mum ended up changing the spelling to Maia because she was fed up of having to explain how to pronounce it.
I'm Megan - definitely Meg-Anne not May-Gan.

I knew a Scots/English girl called Mair who pronounced it Maa-ry, with the aa like a long ah, like grass in RP.

There's a Scottish surname spelled Mair, pronounced to rhyme with "fair" The radio broadcaster Eddie Mair is an example. So anyone familiar with the surname would probably pronounce it that way.

I don't think that's a problem, because people would pick it up as soon as they were told how to say it.

Mai is May and Medi is September so these only really make sense if the baby is born in those months

I know what they mean, but i don't really see why it matters?? Is every June or May in the world born in those months??

To the person upthread who said there were easier Welsh names to pronounce and used Ceri as an example, you'd be surprised! When I lived in then South of England I got Cherry, Serry, Cherie!

That doesn't mean you shouldn't use Welsh names though, just because not everyone knows how to pronounce them. It's actually pretty offensive to suggest that for a name to be 'proper' or 'acceptable' it has to be easily pronounceable to an English person!

Agreed Ceri.