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.

Joaquin

Wa-KEEN. (In the US).

@LizzieAnt and @Heygirlheyboy thank you!

Odhran for Oran has a fada I think (on O and a) and can be pronounced Oh-rawn ie the more Irish way. There is also an Oh-dren pronunciation without fadas too, as explained. Both I know of are from Wexford.

My gran was Bridie (from Bridget) and pronounced it as Bride-ee.

I always thought Evelyn was Ev-lin for a boy and Eve-lin for a girl? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I only know a french Anais so she is An-eye-eese. Spent a lot of the 90s pronouncing that perfume wrong . Elise is with a Z sound because it’s French although I prefer it with an S.

I love Helena but only as Hel-ay-na so felt we couldn’t use it as I hate Hel-un-ah.

Or Hel-een-a! Too many possibilities!

Jaime....hi-me

Aneurin is an-neigh-rin. In some parts of Wales it will be pronounced more like An-eye-rin.

Welsh has a lot of letters not found in English - Ff, Ch, Ng, Ll, Rh etc. F in Welsh is pronounced V and Ff is like F in English.

So the ng in Angharad is one letter and is sounded. Ang-ha-rad.

www.bbc.co.uk/wales/livinginwales/sites/howdoisay/names/index.shtml?a

You can hear Aneurin and Angharad at that link.

Idris pronunciation too, on the 'I' page.

Clodagh = Clo (as in Clover) - dah.

What I'm never sure of is Rosemary.

I pronounce it like Rosemarie I.e. rose and marie blended together, like the herb.

My parents pronounce it like the names Rose and Mary blended together. As in Thomas Edison's "Love grows where my Rosemary goes".

So is it Rose Marie, Rose Mary or can it be both? I like both.

I would say Rosem'ry. Emphasis on the Rose part.

Rosemary is the same pronunciation as the herb.
Eugenie?

My faves are

Padraig - Porrick
Mhairi - VAR-ee

Also going to sling in my own name, Oonagh - not as difficult as many but I can assure you it’s been a pain much of my life.

I know a Rose-Mary pronunciation. It's like Marie/Marie! I love Paw-rick also!

Eugenie is You-je (French pronunciation) -knee!

The trouble with most of these names, perhaps all, is that there are genuinely more than one way of pronouncing them, either because there always have been, or because eg Irish names have been adapted to make them easier for English people to pronounce, or because someone just thought that was the right way to pronounce it

So the issue isn't that I don't have to pronounce eg Evelyn, Naomi, Marie, Alicia, Helena, Irene, Mia, Esme, etc. It's that I don't know or can't remember which of the alternative options that particular person uses. However, I know that I struggle with some Irish names

When naming my children I deliberately avoided names that could be pronounced in different ways. I also avoided names from different cultures, as I knew I might not be able to pronounce them properly myself.

I've always known Rosemary and Rosemarie to be different names with pronunciation to match the spelling it would never enter my head to mix them!

The Mairead I know (native Gaelic speaker) says My read - definitely not like parade. Similarly the Aonghas I know is Innes not Angus...

My-raid (never heard read?) would be an old fashioned way of saying, to my ear.

The one that's always baffled me is Eimear. How is that pronounced?

Eimear is pronounced Eemer

Ee-mer!

Siobhan

Is that how you spell it Siobhan?? Is that She-vorn?

Shuv-awn!

Yes, Sh-von

Persephone?