Wondering if this name would work in the UK

[NordicNell]

Selja?

Any first thoughts? How would you pronounce it? It means elderflower in my language and I've been encouraged by MN to go with the name that I love despite it maybe being a bit tricky in other countries :)

My husband is English/French and he seems to like it too

Beautiful name!

@Talkwhilstyouwalk

Like see-lee-a A bit like celiac?

Where have you generated the long ee and the i from? Surely Celia is much more similar to celiac?

I would say Sell-ya OP
Pretty name

It’s a very pretty name. Go for it!

I'd pronounce it sel-ja??

Very pretty. Go for it.

Sell -ya could cause a bit of teasing about your parents wanting to sell ya.

But if it's not your name it'll be something else I suppose.

Pronunciation shouldn’t be a big issue with the hundreds of girls named Maja and Freja. As long as you know ja is pronounced ya then it’s pretty straightforward and if you don’t you’ll soon learn

I like it

Sel-ya

I'd pronounce it Sell-ya because that's how the Estonian one I know pronounced it.

Don't sell'ya car'ya

Not bad but has potential to be made silly

Absolutely it would work. J being a Y is not an alien concept here.

I knew a Jakob, pronounced Yakob and no one had an issue with it.

As others have said it’s very like ‘sell ya’ something.

I was so hung up on worrying what others would think or how they would pronounce names for my first but for my second we just thought- the people who really matter will take the time to learn how to spell and pronounce it correctly! The rest will just have to deal with it. My second born will have to spell and break down her name and repeat it slowly in syllables for probably her whole life. She's one and every new person I speak to I have to break it down and spell it out but at the end of the day that's their issue not hers. I'd rather name my child the name I love and suits her to a T than the one that I feel other people will pronounce off the bat.

One of my DDs has a Scottish name. It takes people five seconds to learn how to pronounce it. (Just ignore some of the letters). Its not a problem. A lot simpler for many English people than Irish names for example.

She might get asked which country the name is from. But diversity in names is very common now.

I'd pronounce it sell-ya and I think it looks and sounds very pretty.

I'd guess "Sel -ya" since Maja and Freja are fairly well known. I don't think it woud be a problem.

But yes, she could get the occasional "Sell -ya for X amount?" teasing from kids. However since the name doesn't sound rude or particularly funny I can't see it happening often.

It's a nice name, and no more likely to cause teasing than Celia, Bea, Freya, Amelia etc.

I think it’s actually a pretty obvious pronunciation, most people would guess Sel-ya. It’s nice enough and sounds like it had a lot of meaning to you.

Hello darling,

I woul like to say that most names works in UK as it is multicultural country. The only thing I would like to advise,if you can, replace j with i. My daughter is Marija. Where ever we go I have to correct pronunciation of j. I had no choice to replace, as back in my country it is very strict rules about the grammar of names registration. So if you can,just replace that j with i to avoid all the hassle of constant correction how to pronounce name ;)

Changing the j to an i will make things worse. First, it's changing the name, and second, it will be said as Sel-ee-a (cf Maria and Sophia)

I'd pronounce it Sel-ya (is that correct?) rather than like Celia. I think it's workable, though the similarity to "sell ya" might inspire some jokes.

It's lovely.

I think it’s lovely