Xavier

[Perpetualmisery]

What do you think of this?
I've always loved this name and was worried my Moroccan husband wouldn't but luckily zaviyar is also an Arabic name and same meaning apparently so he's fine with it but it's not common either here or Morocco so I'm worried I'll look try hard.
Not sure how I'll spell it yet but baby not due till Jan so have plenty of time.
Do you think it sounds chavvy or pretentious and also any arabic speakers have you heard of zaviyar?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_(given_name)

I only know of it as a catholic saint's name. It was on the list of names for DC. The risk of some saying Ekzavier put us off.

Also, the French don’t pronounce Xavier with the ‘Z’ sound.

The X means it’s pronounced ‘Kss-zav-e-ay’. The K sound is fast, aspirated and kinda like the noise you make when you impersonate a snake… ksssss, but short.

I like the name.

I pronounce it starting with a Z sound and thought that was correct and that is how a French friend pronounced their name.
In fact, this French friend definitely used a Z sound because when I was young and dim I assumed the name must also start with a Z letter and was surprised to see the X letter.

Quite a common and normal name in France.

zav-i-aye

That is how my French friend pronounced his name.

possibly the 'aye' sound at the end was more of a 'eer'
depends if you can roll your 'R's French style.

Everywhere I look ot says it has arab origins. Tbh I wouldn't particularly care if it did or didn't I'd just be happier if we have a name that fits both cultures.

I know of a Xavier born quite recently to an acquaintance and I did think ‘pretentious’ when I first heard it…

Xavier is a Basque name originally meaning new house.

I love Xavier. I was campaigning hard for it when I was pregnant, all 3 times but we had 3 girls in the end!

@tillytoodles1

I know a French woman whose son is called Xavier - pronounced Zaviay.

This is the only version I know.

I really like it but would definitely spell with X. Seems a bit classier/cooler.

Only in the X-men movies have I heard the Ex pronounced.

I would take the baby name sites with a pinch of salt, @Perpetualmisery.

It is unlikely to be a muslim name, and the arabic form is more likely to be a transliteration.

Many what we think of as Arabic names have different transliterations, which is why you get variations like Said, Sayyid, Saeed Saïd, Sayeed etc. Sayeed means happy I think, which brings me to Felix - easy to write in arabic (but would be something like Feeliks) and it's nothing to do with cats

The French pronunciation is

Ksa-vee eh

The pronunciation zayviar is awful and beats no resemblance to the name

Aww it’s lovely! Very catholic (to me!)

Pronounced - (to me) either

Hav-ier
Or Zavier, like Francis Xavier

I’d assume some love of Spain!

Mixed opinions here but at least most seem to actually like it despite the differences in pronunciation.
I wouldn't pronounce it the French way tbh as I'm not French and i was looking at it as an Arabic name but I'm really not sure whether I'll go with it at all anymore.
Baby remains nameless for now

Having typed it in to Google as Zaviyar it's meaning comes up as brave rather than bright or new house so maybe it's an entirely different name and I've just mixed them both up!

The arabic name lists may contain french and christian/biblical names.
French names may include maghrebi names like Sufyane and Azeddine.
I suppose similarly, English names might include British but not English-origin names like Caitlin, Liam, Dylan and so on.

Any X Men fans will pronounce it Egg-savier as well.

I think it’s a lovely name but if you go for it please use the traditional spelling or you condemn your son to a lifetime of having to correct people and spelling his name.

*The French pronunciation is

Ksa-vee eh*

Indeed it is, as I tried to point out up thread!

The French don’t pronounce it with a hard ‘Z’. It’s a ‘Kss’ sound for X.

I know this as my husband is French, my kids are half French and one of them has a name starting with ‘X’.

I would spell it with a z as per the arab spelling but it seems its a different name to xavier anyway so it wouldn't matter.
I think it's meant to be produced zah- vi- yaar...( this is the arab name NOT xavier)
So really I guess I'm not even asking about xavier anymore .

I'm going to go back to the drawing board on this one.
But thank you to everyone's help so far. I'm going to leave the thread before I get anymore confused .

I'm French and I'd start it with a hard G sound 😁

There have been a few threads on what names work in arabic and english. I'd look for some of those.

Asking about names from different cultures on here is a bit tricky, because most of us probably only know some names and those will be adult names or names of friends' children.

The maghrebi people I know are now over 40, so the names (things like Aziz, Samia, Sami, Samir, Kamil, Sufyane, Azdin etc) are probably a bit dated. (probably the equivalent of Claire and Rebecca or Mark and Richard), and their children are probably the equivalent of Ryan and Chloe or something.

It might be worth you familiarizing yourself with the arabic alphabet - it will seem scary to begin with but it should click into place fairly quickly. Google translate can be useful. Set it to English to Arabic and try a few names and listen to the sounds

(in the picture the arabic Adam is written as Adm)
You might find that a name looks good in the arabic script.

Maa salemma

The French don’t pronounce it with a hard ‘Z’. It’s a ‘Kss’ sound for X.

Interestingly it is the same in German. The name Xaver us pronounced Ksa-ver

So I do know where the Z coms from.

@KeflavikAirport

Yes, a hard G sounds really similar to Kh/Ks for pronouncing. I always hear it as a kinda Khs sound when DH, MIL say it.

My youngest is called Xander and all the French side call him Khs-ander!!