How do you pronounce Xavier?

[BoilYerHeid]

Have just seen this on another thread and as we are really struggling with boys names I'm adding it to our list.

Just wondered how you would pronounce it? I had been trying to steer clear of names with multiple pronunciations... I can think of

Zay-vee-ur (like saviour)

Or

Zah-vee-ay (French sounding)

Does that accord with others' thoughts? I have a Scottish accent btw...

DS has a friend Xavier, its pronounced HA-VEE-AY

Xavier is Javier (Have-ee-air) in Spanish.

I would pronounce it Hav-ee-ay, as donthectwo people I know who are called it. And because that is how you pronounce it.

Zav ee ay

Zayv-yer. I'm American. Many people I know also pronounce it Ex-zayv-yer.

It's perfectly proper in the UK to pronounce it Zay vee uh. Nice name, but people will assume you're Catholic, which may be an issue if you're not.

I heard so one calling her Ex aver, sounded very clunky!!! and the other mums were trying not to catch each other's eye.

Hav-EE--ay.

Zav-ee-ay

As That’s how the only person I know called that pronounces it.

Zay vee ur is how I always hear it pronounced in the UK

Surely this is very simple? The pronunciation varies across Europe. I don’t quite understand the ‘this is how I pronounce it so it’s correct GAVEL’ posts.

In France it’s zav-ee-ay.
In Spain it’s hav-ee-ay, sometimes spelt Javier.
In Anglophone countries it’s zay-vee-er, similar to ‘saviour’.

The correct French pronunciations of Catherine and David are kat-reen and da-veed but you wouldn’t use them in the UK unless you knew that the family were French.

OP, just to echo some pp - it is a pretty explicitly Catholic name. This may or may not be an issue for you.

I have a Spanish Xavier friend who sounds like Tsavi!

Zayv- yet

Or Ix ayv yer

If you were in Spain it could also be cha-vi-er in some regions

Never ex-ay-vee-er unless you would also play an ex-lyophone and consider your mildly racist Uncle Nobby to be an ex-enophobe.

The X-Men movies have a lot to answer for!

X-ay-vi-uh

Like on X men

Zay-vee-er.

Like saviour with a z.

I went to school with one and this is how he pronounced it. It pissed him off when someone would call him "ex-ay-vee-er".

Chav-y-err pronunciation is a bit unfortunate. Might be ok in parts of Spain.

Xsa-vee-er

There is no ay sound in Xav!

Shav-ee-air

Like the third pronunciation on this page: pt.forvo.com/word/xavier/

Which, incidentally, offers a good insight why you should never listen to people when they say "such and such is pronounced in such and such a way in Spanish!!"

Zay-vee-er

Where do people get the ay sound from ?

It starts with Xav and not Xayv or even Xave!

Thanks for all the replies.

The Catholic connection doesn't bother me at all, the multiple pronunciations does as I had ideally wanted to avoid that. DH mentioned X Men last night so some people would maybe think of that.

The surname is a particularly dull and common name so I had wanted something a bit more unusual as a first name.

Back to the drawing board! Thanks everyone.

How about Xerxes as a middle name e.g. John Xerxes Smith.
Xerxes is pronounced Zerk-zees.