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.

Bride in the CS books has always been pronounced Breej in this house. We’re N.Irish and my mum taught a pupil called Brid pronounced that way. I think we always just assumed it was short for Bridget and therefore pronounced it as the shortened version would be where we are!

I know several Dougies (used to live in Scotland). Some pronounce it Duggie, some pronounce it Doogie.

Thanks Lizzie and LightACandle!

I've been thinking lately that as the title of the book where she's the main character is:

Bride Leads The Chalet School

that Elinor Brent Dyer possibly intended Bride to rhyme with 'leads' ...?

“Breej leads” or “Breed leads” definitely reads better than “Bride leads” (pronounced like bride and groom). I have never picked up on that before but we’ll just take it as further evidence that I’m pronouncing the name correctly

I hated the Chalet School books.

I'm absolutely certain that Elinor M Brent-Dyer had no idea about pronunciation of Irish-language names, and did not intend Bride to be pronounced as Brid (Breed or Breej) or Bridie-- she gets so many things about Irishness wrong throughout the series, that she can never have actually encountered an Irish person in real life!

I think the name was intended as a vague gesture towards Molly Bettany's Irishness, but the only clue to how EBD imagined the pronunciation was when a character says 'Weird name, I've never heard it before' and someone else (possibly the insufferable prig Peggy Bettany) 'Yes, you have, what about St Bride's Bay in Wales'?

So she clearly intends Bride's name to be pronounced the same as the bay -- perhaps a Welsh person can comment on whether that's pronounced like 'bride and groom'?

Joaquin
Genevieve

Ptolemy is Toll-uh-mee
No one helping me with Bodhi? (Beginning of thread.)

I've always hoped it was 'Breed' - most appropriate for the Maynard family who majored in reproduction.

@beanaseireann, assuming we are of the same nationality, would you have had any objection to the Creamy Oirish Brogue of Stage-Irish Colleen-in-Chief Biddy O'Ryan, despite the fact that she left Ireland aged about eight and has lived the rest of her life in Europe, the UK and Australia, including about eight years at a school where her accent was criticised/punished every time she opened her mouth?

Or the Wild Irish Girl Deira O'Hagan who, despite presumably being Anglo-Irish, as she's presented at Court in London as a debutante when she leaves the CS, is still given to saying things like 'The curse of Cromwell be on you!'

I agree they're bad, but I found them kind of compulsively bad as a child.

But Bride was a Bettany, @PerditaProvokesEnmity -- the branch of the family that got hopelessly left behind in the reproduction stakes by the At It Like Rabbits Maynards.

I went to school with a Mairead who always joked that her parents should have given her "rhymes with parade" as a middle name.

Bow (as in bowtie) - dee is Bodhi

Evelyn
Bea

Idris
Asa

Sorry, wasn't thinking! I meant the entire Bettany clan - including the females who became Maynards and Russells.

Dilisk

Caitlin. Is it Kate Lin or Cawtch Lin (Irish pronounciation ) or Kat lin ? Obviously with a fada it would be Katleen.

Mia - Me a

or
Mia pronounced My a
I invariably get that wrong.

Shouldn't Brid have a fada if it's pronounced Breed.

🙄🙄🙄

I thought our male DHL driver was called Carol for ages until I realised it was actually Carl. I blame my Scottish DH who can’t say Carl without it sounding like Carol no matter how many times I make him try.

Oh I know Oran LizzieAnt but there's an Odran name as well, thought that was the Irish spelling but you're right, that's the Irish for Oran.

Saoirse is “saw-sha”, or at least the one I know is!

It's Seer-sha.

Not saw-sha.

Ah I've checked it there and I see the (pronounced Odren) I know does spell it Odhran so I suppose if no fada it has that option, might be a regional thing. Also a famous Odhran (Odren) was linked to scientology and his family lost him completely. I always associate the name with him.

@Fanciedachange1 I'd say nee-v, I'd assume they were aiming for an "alternative" spelling of Niamh.

There is Sorcha, often mispronounced sore-sha (or saw-sha' for those with a non-rhotic accent).

The correct pronunciation is Surr-uh-kha.

Odhran and Oran are pronounced the same. Oran is an anglicised spelling.

No one helping me with Bodhi? (Beginning of thread.)

The Bodhis I know in the US pronounce it Bo-dee. (Long O).

Bride is pronounced Bride! Mary Robinson’s chief of staff was Bride Rosney. I always thought it sounded like a more metropolitan version of Brid/Breege/Bridie