English pronounciation of a welsh name

[Littlemiss41andfabulous]

Hi,

My husband is Welsh and I'm English, and we currently live in Wales. We're choosing Welsh names but I am aware we may move to England one day so want our daughter's name to not have any problems in either country.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the Welsh name 'Efa' (pronounced Ava). Do you think that could be problematic in England, as most people/children won't know how to pronounce it in Welsh when they see how it is written down?

Thanks x

I'm Welsh and I've never seen that name anywhere. How about Manon or Menna? Lovely Welsh names which are pronounced as they are spelled.

Most english people won't know how to pronounce that without being told. Even after they're told they'll either forget whether its 'ay' or 'ee' for the first syllable or forget to sound the 'f' as an English 'v', or both.

I do think most English folk would read it as "e-fa" to rhyme with heifer if I'm honest.
Don't get me wrong, once you tell people, people will cope, especially as, once you say "Ava" that is what they will hear. I mean, they will then spell it like that......

Efa in Welsh isn’t pronounced Ava. It’s a hard e like elephant. Eh-va.

There was a whole thread on the pronunciation of Efa. It basically broke down into:

• English people saying they would pronounce it like hiefer cow or f-er like 'what a stupid f-er'.
• Welsh people arguing over whether it is correctly pronounced Ava (Ay-va), Evva (Eh-va, forever) or something in between.
• Irish people introducing the possibility of using Aoifa to get the Ee-va pronunciation used more commonly in English.

I wouldn’t know how to pronounce that name, I’d probably guess as Eff-A, or maybe think it was like Aoife, once I was told Ava I’d remember but you and your daughter will have a lifetime of correcting everyone!

I think you would have to correct a lot of people op so it depends whether that would bother you or not.

I'm Welsh and wouldn't pronounce it as Ava.

If you want to to be pronounced Ava and Welsh people aren't even sure how to pronounce it when spelled Efa, why not spell it Ava?

I'm English, I'd say Efa ey-fuh

I’d assume Efa was an attempt at a simpler/Anglicised spelling of Aoife and pronounce it the same way.

I'm English and would pronounce it Ee-fa! For such a simple name, I think it's very tricky with lots of possible pronunciations!

I'd pronounce it almost as 'ever'. It's a short 'e' sound, so I don't think the Welsh side of your family would get it right anyway.

I’ve never heard that name pronounced in Wales. I have only seen it on Mumsnet. I’m not keen on it. There are distinct regional accents in Wales so people will pronounce differently depending on the way that they speak.

I'm Irish and would guess Aoife, but Ava would be easy to remember once you told me.

I think it's a shame when people don't choose Irish names they like just because English people won't be able to pronounce them, and the same goes for Welsh. There's so many names worldwide, it would be a shame if everyone gravitated towards the one culture.

I don't think this is the ideal choice if you want a name that works in both England and Wales. I'm not saying don't choose it if you love it, but do expect to be explaining how to spell/pronounce it.

I saw that name here a while ago and was honestly laughing out loud at someone spelling Aoife phonetically. Didn’t know it was welsh. I’m not english or Welsh, I’d say that as EE FA

@LubaLuca

I'd pronounce it almost as 'ever'. It's a short 'e' sound, so I don't think the Welsh side of your family would get it right anyway.

I'm Welsh and I would think it's pronounced this way too. For a simple spelt name, I think you'll have trouble getting Welsh and English to pronounce correctly

She will be correcting people for the rest of her life.

It’s not a regional accent thing. There’s nowhere in Wales that Efa is pronounced Ava. It’s a fairly common name where I live and always evva.

So the bottom line is that if you name her Efa, nobody is going to pronounce it the way you want.

I live in Wales and I’ve never heard of it and wouldn’t know how to pronounce it. (Sorry).

When I first read it , I thought it was basically the Welsh version of aoife. However it's not difficult to pronounce once corrected. So if you love it then go for it

Efa is pronounced like the english word ever, not Ava.

I'd go for something like Alys, Nia or Mari. You will get a degree of accent variation with most Welsh names - e.g. Meg-un instead of Meg-Anne, Ni-uh instead of Ni-ah and Serrun instead of Serr-en.

I'm half english/half welsh, born and raised in England with a Welsh name only close friends and immediate family members get right. My list is Alys, Mari, Tesni and Eira. Eira probably doesn't work but I love it and can't quite give it up!

Efa is quite popular in Wales now, and it's pronounced Ev-ah, not Eevuh or Ayvuh.

Speaking of popular names, why not call your DD Gwen. Shouldn't cause any problems in either country, and is a nice change from overused names like Eva and Ava .