How would you pronounce this name?

[Thoughtlessinengland]

One of us is from a non-Western country and we are going for a name from that country/language as the first name for daughter to be. Some of there guiding factors has been that it has to be short and easily pronounced in English, not involve a lifetime of pronunciation correction for her, be an actual real name in culture in question and not be a funny/offensive word in English! Substantially small pool of choices I must say!

For privacy reasons I won’t gice the name here but basically it would be a word like MAYA or say TAYA or KAYA. Now my question is —as English speakers do we see those words and read them as -

Option 1 -: MAYA is read as MY-AH or MAA YAA (either ok)

Option 2: MAYA is read as MAY-AH (with MAY as in the month of May) - this is NOT ok.

Worrying if people read it as option 2, and in which case whether to spell it as MAAYA - but then again that spelling would look totally weird in culture/country concerned (a former colony so names spelt in both local language and English)

Sorry if this confuses but although it’s not actually MAYA it’s very similar and hope you can help :)

Maya I would pronounce my-ah but i’d Pronounce
Tayah Tay-ah
Kayah Kay-ah

So unfortunately I think it depends on the name

It is really hard to say without knowing the actual name. Most people would pronounce Maya as My-ah, for obvious reasons. Maa- yaa is pretty but as it is not the actual name it doesn’t actually matter. The name you have chosen may have different pronunciations or a really ugly sound. We just can’t tell.

Weirdly, I would pronounce the three examples you have given differently:
Maya = MY-ah
Taya = TAE-ah
Kaya = KY-ah

Gaia would be GY-ah but Jaya would be Jay-ah...

It's hard to tell without seeing the actual name.

My yaa

I'd say may-ah. My-a I'd spell Maia or Mya.

I'd also go with may-ah.

I’d say May ah.

If that matters to you, why don’t you choose another name that works in both languages ?

If your DD is to be raised in the Uk, all she will care about is having a name that’s not weird here IYSWIM. My sister is married to someone from another country and they all lived there. Once they moved to the UK, my niece changed her first name to a more common English version of thr same name.

Personally I think the “ non English “ version of her name is much nicer and not hard to pronounce. But kids just want to fit in. It doesn’t help that her surname is VERY hard for English speakers to say and spell.

I'd definitely say may-ah

I have a student called Maya and it's pronounced My-a.
Have a feeling a lot of people might pronounce it May-a though because they'd see the May bit.
Obviously, this is irrelevant as your name isn't actually Maya.

May-uh
Tay-uh
Kay-uh

Phonetically in English, it would be M-ay-a. The ay usually makes ay sound, like the end of day, May, way etc.

I teach 2 students with this spelling. One is pronounced may-ah, the other myah.

I've heard Maya pronounced both ways - may-a and my-a, taya I would pronounce tay-a and kaya I would pronounce ky-a.

Id say may-uh as well.
My friend has a Miya which they pronounce My-ah

I would say my-ah and ky-ah, but tay-ah.

I do know a Maya pronounced may-ah, everyone was surprised when she was born as none of us had heard that pronunciation before.

Sorry but I would say May-uh, Tay-uh and Kay-uh.

I know a couple of adult Mayas and they both pronounce it My-ah. However I know 2 young Mayas and they're both May-ah like the month. So I suspect there is a generational change on the pronunciation of this one.
Kaya/Kaia - I would say Ky-ah
Taya - Tay-ah
So no consistency as others have said.
I would never imagine them said as the 2nd way in your option 1. I don't think spelling it Maaya would help - I wouldn't know how to pronounce that (just as now I would have to ask Maya which way pronounced) and it doesn't look good.

It totally depends on the name! Really impossible to say otherwise! For example:

‘Kaya’ I would pronounce like Kay-uh
‘Kaia’ I would pronounce like Kie-uh
‘Maya’ I would pronounce either May-uh or Mai-uh - I’ve heard both so would wait to hear how the child was introduced
‘Taya’ I would pronounce like Tay-uh
‘Maaya ’ I would pronounce like Mar-yuh
‘Kaaya’ like Kar-yuh
‘Taaya ’ like tar-yuh

So it’s really not easy to say!

I would say my-ah and ky-ah but taya would be tay-ah

May-ah

To be honest, I’d just go for the normal spelling and just tell people how to say it, as when it comes to names pronunciation differs. It would be silly to spell it in a way which is made up in both places - either way some people will be confused! Just spell it how you like and introduce the child with the pronunciation you like.

Maaya would look weird in English too. I would go for Mya which makes the pronunciation obvious. With Maya you will definitely have a lot of people saying may-a.

Phonetically in English, it would be M-ay-a. The ay usually makes ay sound, like the end of day, May, way etc.

I agree. So May-ah, Tay-ah etc

Is the name actually Gaya (hence the gay-a prn. Not being acceptable?) If so I would spell it Gaia.

After a number of years as a supply teacher, before I take a register I ask students to tell me if I get the name wrong.

I've had students with the name spelled Iona,one pronounced it eye-own-er the other Yonna.