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 :)

I would say May-uh, but wouldn’t be surprised if it was My-uh.

I think mostly when you meet new people you tell them your name, so they hear it before they see it written down.

It is impossible to say without knowing the name, as others have said.

Maya would be "my-uh"
Taya would be "tay-uh"
Kaya could go either way.

All other consonants I think would be the "ay" sound you want to avoid.

I would pronounce May-ah.

It would be My-ah and Ky-ah, but Tay-ah.

The pronunciation may-ah seems to be creeping in a bit but it's wrong. I think perhaps it's based on a mistaken idea that Maya is an elongation of May, which of course has been very popular for a while.

If it’s something like Laya

You could use ei instead of ay to get the May- a sound.

Wow so many responses!! Thank you :) okay yes it does seem I was correct and opinion is split between both sides so to speak. I had a hunch this might be the case so will get back to drawing board again. Thanks very much all of you :)

I would pronounce it as 'May-ah'

Would you consider the spelling Myah...if you wanted it as 'My-aa'?

Myah would unfortunately absolutely be “wrong” and strange to the other side of the family which we very much frequent and are very close to. In fact the entire lot (myself included) would pronounce MYAH as Me-ah said super fast. Sigh. Ok. Will think of more options. Her older brother already has a name that ticks all the boxes and is super easy to pronounce we just got lucky with him! And in response to PP no we can’t just give her a name from here as that doesn’t sit right with half her heritage and indeed her ethnic identity and her siblings name etc. Will keep looking sure to find something!

well, I know kids with the name Maya who pronounce it in different ways, and I have to find out from them which way is their way

kid 1 - May-ah
kid 2 - My-ah.

Kaya is pretty much universally pronounced to rhyme with sky - ah

Taya, I would say Tay-ah

Any of those above I would pronounce the following

May-a
Tay-a
May-a

My step daughter has a dog at her mums called Mia she calls it mee-a I would have pronounced is My-a had I have seen it written and have a friend who's daughter has this name and she calls her My-a my daughter has a non English name and it is pronounced in an English tongue differently than the German but she has chosen to shorten it from Annaliese (p. Annalisa although nearly always pronounced Annalease or Annalees in English tongue) to Anna.

Yes, back to the drawing board OP - the short answer is that plenty of people would go for the May-ah pronunciation.

I would head over to Baby Names on here - you'd get plenty of ideas there.

The thing is though OP, that if it is a recognisable name, then it will come with a pronunciation.

So I would never say Kaya as Kay-ah. the name is Kyah.

So if, as a pp suggested, the name is Gaia or Gaya, then the pronunciation is G-eye- ah not Gay-ah?

So I do think it makes a difference if the name is known in English!

May-a

I'd say May- a like the month

Thanks all. Then again, loads of people born and named elsewhere then migrate to the UK at all manner of stages from infancy to adulthood so worrying beyond a point won’t be needed perhaps. No name from country of origin will come with a steadfast cent per cent guarantee of how people pronounce it here as people here are barely a homogenous linguistic or cultural grouping! So will have a further think of course but then not over think either :) everyone’s inputs have been super helpful

I'd say May-ah. Sorry OP

Maya I would say as My-yah
Taya would be Tay-ya
Kaya I would say Ky-yah

But that's just me others would say it differently

I don’t see the issue DD has had friends called kian pronounced differently and elena differently. There are loads of names that can be.

She has a Kaya (Ky-a) that is how we say it.

So it seems if I am to find a principle of sorts here that even within this small pool of people - it’s promounced differently. See the number of Kah-Yahs and Kay-ahs. That - coupled with my broader point of loads of cross cultural flows and lots of people migrating into the west with arguably foreign sounding names and getting by somehow - I think I am concluding that I won’t worry beyond a point about this. Such a useful thread :)

@mathanxiety has said exactly what I would have said.

Maya, Kaya and Jaya to me would be pronounced like Gaia...

And then
Taya and Raya would be Tay-ah/Ray-ah

So as others have said, it depends on the name.

If you wanted 'Maya' pronounced like My-ah I'd spell it with an ai like Maia instead.

I wonder if you would feel able to tell us the culture you are wanting a name for your daughter from Op? Perhaps we could think of some alternatives.

Half of my daughters family is from India - Maharashtra and I totally understand your naming dilemma; we went for an easily pronounced and obviously spelled name over here that is traditional (even a bit old fashioned and religious over there).

Thanks so much - but I don’t want to put out identifying culture/country here as I’m trying to not name change as I go along etc - but this has been super useful and I think we will find a way! One of us has, after all, migrated here as a 22 year old with a complex name and made quite a social circle/career so it will be fine with DD to be and her MUCH simpler tiny 4/5 letter name :) thank you all so much!!

My-ah

I actually know someone called Kaya. The mum had to say it’s Kaya...like Kayak with the K