Names you aren't sure how to pronounce

[whatausername]

Since we're all inside for the foreseeable future...

What are some names you're not quite sure how to pronounce? We'll see if we can help each other. But do take answers with a pinch of salt given the wide variety of accents we all have!

For me: Hebe (hee-bee?) and João leave me feeling uncertain.

Help me with Eithne?
In my head it's Eth-Nee but that's probably wrong!

@missmouse101, I don't think that there are any welsh names ending in an -un sound. There isn't a letter combination for it on an unstressed syllable.

I was told that Eithne was Enya

@Heygirlheyboy @fourpeasinapod it’s an accent thing, not a pronunciation thing, if that makes sense.

Yes it does, you're right.

Eithne is Eth-na.

I knew a Yoachim pronounced Yo-a-him (with a heavy h), different spelling but nothing like Wakeem

Eithne and Aithne are pronounced Ethna, but I have known two who go by Ethnee (Scotland.) Enya is an abbreviation. Lovely name!

Eithne can be pronounced as Eth-neh or as Enya. I think that the Enya version is the older pronunciation but I'm open to correction. The singer's name is actually Eithne, pronounced Enya afaik, and she's a native speaker from Donegal. I guess using the Enya spelling was easier careerwise? I've never met an Eth-nee, but then I'm not in Scotland.

That's interesting, never made the Eithne/Enya connection. I wonder did/does she actually go by Enya at all?

Well, I think Eithne is pronounced Enya in the Donegal Gaeltacht where she's from. I don't know how she spells it in a private capacity, maybe Eithne with family etc, and then Enya professionally? I'm guessing wildly though, I really don't know

She is very far from my image of an Eithne

I'm also thinking that if it's Enya in Donegal, and if that is the older version, then the 'y' sound may not have been pronounced in the other Gaeltacht areas, as it's more a Donegal thing. En-eh maybe?? I'm really not sure. Eth-na is the way I've always heard it, but I'm not from the Gaeltacht.

Is it not just an anglicised version tho? Like Jennifer Aniston did.

Can anyone help with how to pronounce Noemi? Is it like “noe-mee” or noe-EM-ee? Or something else?!

@Heygirlheyboy
The spelling Enya is an anglicised phonetic spelling of the Donegal Irish pronunciation of the name Eithne. So in the Donegal Gaeltacht, Eithne is pronounced in Irish as the word Enya would be in English. That's my understanding of it anyway. I'm sorry, I don't know what Jennifer Aniston did?

Yes I get you Lizzie.

No Jennifer Aniston shortened her original Greek surname when she began acting ie professional name but different to Enya.

@Heygirlheyboy
Oh right, I didn't know that about Jennifer Aniston. I think with Enya, yes, the spelling of her name is anglicised, but the pronunciation isn't.

She was Anistonopolis or something similar!

That's certainly challenging for anyone not Greek

@Twerking9to5
I think Noemi is more like Noe-em-ee than Noe-mee, but I'm not very familiar with the name, so I'd wait for someone else to confirm that.

I thought Enya was Donegal anglicisation of Áine

No, I think Enya is the Donegal Gaeltacht pronunciation of Eithne as described above. Even though Eth-neh seems to be the most popular pronunciation today, at least in my area (Munster), I've also come across an Eh-neh pronunciation once or twice. And I have a feeling that the 't' in Eithne shouldn't really be pronounced in the Irish language anyway? I could be wrong though.

Aniston— opolis .

LizzieAnt I wasn't disagreeing withnyou. Note my embarrassed emoji.

Ah sorry, @LadyEloise, I didn't mean to imply otherwise.