How would you pronounce this girl’s name?

[Babynamessss]

Due our third girl in January and a name that was on our original list from #1 has came back round…Blythe. We both really like it and were almost decided on it until I mentioned it to my sister in law (I know, you shouldn’t). I had text it to her but when I saw her she was saying it but she was saying it differently to how I would. I didn’t say anything but I’ve since looked it up and it seems there are two ways to pronounce it and both are used, no one seems to know which is right.

How would you say Blythe?
Option 1: the ending sounds like the ‘the’ in bathe
Option 2: the ending sounds like the ‘the’ in bath?

Sorry no easier way of explaining 😆

Maybe it's the terms voiced and non-voiced.
Analogous has a hard g, but some say it with a soft g. - would probably make people think 'which one is a guh sound and which is a juh sound?'

It's Bl-eye-th(e), with the harder 'th', Option 1.

Amazing, isn't it?

Rhymes with scythe

The town Hythe in Kent is pronounced ‘Hive’, well it by everyone who lives there

The problem with bathe and bath is that these words are pronounced quite differently depending on your accent

In hiberno English the voiced and non voiced TH can often be closer in sound than in RP.

This is often pilloried as 'Dese, Dat, De, Dose' but it's not an English D sound. It's close to the French D as in 'du', 'de', 'dans'.

In some Irish accents of English (north side of Dublin for instance) the TH is an out and out D sound.

Great post @mathanxiety. You can also sometimes hear a similar plosive sound for /th/ in Liverpool accents.

It's a 'v' sound for me.

It's a 'v' sound for me.

So 'Blive'?

Option 1.

Option 2 is not an alternative pronunciation, it's an incorrect pronunciation.

Rhymes with Clive for me

Blyth like the north east town..

Several posters say Blythe would rhyme with 'Clive' or 'strive'. I realise that many British accents no longer maintain the distinction between voiced 'th' and 'v', and between unvoiced 'th' and 'f', but I'm interested to know if people hear the difference even if they don't say it.

Also the difference in standard English between the 'th' sound in 'the' and the 'th' sound in 'tooth' is only very slightly the tongue position, but mainly the voicing ie the vibration of the larynx which also gives us the difference between 'b' and 'p' or 'd' and 't'.

Yes.

I think 'teethe' and 'teeth' is the best analogy as you can't be distracted by the difference in vowel sound. Teethe is option 1 and teeth is option 2.

For those of you with South-East accents. The voiced 'th' is pronounced as 'v' (option 1) and the unvoiced pronounced as 'f' (option 2).

Egham Hythe is pronounced to rhyme with scythe. Must be a regional thing.

@MsBlythe - maybe. I think it might be a south East accent then?
As growing up everyone would say they went to ‘hive’ for Hythe, even the bus announcements say ‘ stopping at x y z and then ‘hive’.

I think most people in South East would say ‘Blive’ thinking about it. Although I would pronounce ‘ Bly-th’, as in th from Think. But I haven’t live in Kent for 20+ years

I think most people in South East would say ‘Blive’ thinking about it.
You seem to have thought about it too much. There are many accents in the South East and most people in the South East probably can distinguish between th and f and v.

I’m SE and always have been and I wouldn’t pronounce it Blive and nor would anyone I know it would be Blythe as is Hythe !

I think most people in South East would say ‘Blive’ thinking about it

Of course they wouldn't! Are you saying that most people in the SE can't or don't pronounce 'th'? I know some can't or don't, but it's far from a majority!

@AllProperTeaIsTheft - a lot yes. Not everyone no. But I would say most people where I grew up, at school etc don’t say th.
I have a nephew, Theo, he’s Feo to own parents, friends, at school. A great aunt Ethel has always called herself ‘Efel’.
It’s just an accent isn’t it? It’s not a bad thing, just something to be aware of if naming child in those areas if you want a th pronounced.

The vast majority of people in most of the areas of the SE where I lived pronounced 'th'. It's certainly regional to a certain extent, but there are people from exactly the same area, and even with the same accent, some of whom do pronounce 'th' and some of whom don't.

I don't think it's an issue but am surprised at the number of posters who don't say it like blithe.

Outing but I have a Blythe born this year. We have always had option 1 apart from one time a doctor did option 2