Name Koa for a boy?

[Soph903]

Hi, we are due our baby boy soon and love the names Koa, Oakley or Arlo but so far Koa seems to be the favourite. We like more of the unusual/less common names what does anyone else think? Any name suggestions? Thankyou.

@SoOutingWhoCares , I know you weren't.

@TheOriginalEmu , I doubt it's a Welsh language thing or an accent thing. I say high [hʌɪ] as Hi. I don't know anyone who says it as h[uh][ee].
I'd say [haɪ] and [hʌɪ] the same. I'd say Hit [hɪt], Hut [hʌt] and Hat [hat] differently

Why post on here that Cai doesn't sound like Kigh (or Kite without the t) when you can easily check on the link I gave?

Why direct this at me also cai isn’t pronounce ‘kigh’ it’s an ‘Ah’ U.K. the first part of the diphthong.
As I said, it makes no sense.

I'm a teacher and in 15 years I have NEVER heard of a child being teased for their name.

@LizardOfOz you do know that children give teachers nicknames based on their names too?

@SoundTheSirens , This is such a weird viewpoint! It's a viewpoint. I don't particularly agree with it but people tend to have opinions on names.
Some companies recruit blindly, but not all do, and once you are in the company people will know your name.

Names don't have to "age well"; surely you just treat the person with respect regardless of their name?
In theory, yes, but people will have thoughts on a name and will have preconceived ideas about what someone will be like based on their name.
You wouldn't, for example, expect to find that Gary and Sheila were part of the 2023 graduate intake.

Thanks so much for your lovely reply, means alot to hear supportive comments, its been a hard fertility and pregnancy journey for us.

Surprised to hear teachers saying kids don’t get teased about their names. Times must have changed - back in my day it was very common (poor Marcus springs to mind, nicknamed Mucus all the way through secondary school).

That said, I don’t think Koa is particularly teaseworthy and it would blend in with a lot of other similar sounding names these days. I don’t think the lack of a Hawaiian heritage is a huge problem either. There are hordes of non French Ottilies, non Scandinavian Astrids, and non Irish Niamhs running around. Nobody cares.

How about Cole?

@VenusClapTrap , me too, but the teasing doesn't usually happen in the classroom itself. I got teased as did another girl and the teasing usually happened in the school grounds or on the school bus.

Bullies won't pick on a common name because they'd risk provoking several with the name or with a sibling of that name.

Completely biased as I have a one year old Koa but we absolutely love the name. Both of my partner are I are teachers too 😁 so super fussy about names and wary of teasing. BTW if kids want to tease each other they will find something,literally anything about each other in order to do so, so I wouldn't let that sway your name choice.
It has a few gorgeous meanings and a softness to it which some of the other typical 'K' names don't have. It just always felt like the right name if we had a boy and nothing else came close really.

You can doubt it all you like, it’s a fact that in my accent there is a vowel difference between Cai and High. It isn’t the same. Not for me or for any of the people where I live. I’m a speech therapist, I work with sounds all the time and there will be difference in how words are pronounced in different accents. When you don’t have that distinction in your accent or language, you lose the ability to hear the difference easily. That’s a perfectly normal thing in linguistics. An example would be the difference between the L sound in listen and the L sound in pull. In English they mean the same thing so we don’t hear that distinction very well. In other languages those two sounds are as different as b and d are to us.
The same is true of vowels. it makes no sense to you because you simply don’t have that distinction in your accent. I can’t listen to the link, it’s BBC and I don’t do BBC. But I don’t need to. I know how the word is said in Welsh/my accent and it isn’t the same. There is a distinction for me.

@TheOriginalEmu , it doesn't matter how many times you post that you are a speech and language therapist or that certain words sound different in your accent.

The link does not need a tv licence and neither does S4C Clic.
Clic | Rownd a Rownd - Cyfres 2024 | 6 Mawrth 2024 (s4c.cymru) (9.04 minutes in). Cai gets lot of mentions in that episode.

It's said exactly the same as in the other programmes I mentioned. I think that all the different actors saying it the same despite being from various parts of Wales is a strong indication that the name has a standard pronunciation.

it makes no sense to you because you simply don’t have that distinction in your accent. You don't know what my accent is and it's a bit rich to say I can't distinguish between sounds. I was well aware, for example, that l in listen does not sound the same like the l in pull, without needing you to tell me.

@Soph903 that 'lovely' post was almost certainly ChatGPT...

@Gibs0nGirl Well spotted, there’s so much of it on MN these days.

Ok. You seem quite upset and I’m not sure why really. I don’t know what you know about language, I don’t know you. I was trying to explain why it might be that you don’t hear a distinction, using dark L as an example. I wasn’t suggesting you don’t hear the difference in those Ls. It’s not an insult to say some people don’t hear distinctions between sounds; it’s just factual that If those sounds are the same phoneme in your accent/language your brain filters out that difference as unimportant.
I know how Cai is pronounced in my accent, I know how high is pronounced in my accent. They are not the same sound. That’s all my point is. I don’t know what your accent is but if you don’t hear them differently then chances are you don’t have that distinction in yours.

https://www.howtopronounce.com/cai

If you click the first and 3rd pronunciations there, to me they are not the same. I say it like the 3rd lady, the man is saying it how I would pronounce the vowel in high.

@TheOriginalEmu
You seem quite upset and I’m not sure why really.
Because you are annoying and you keep saying I can't distinguish between sounds.

I don’t know what you know about language, I don’t know you. I was trying to explain why it might be that you don’t hear a distinction...
I DO hear distinctions between sounds. Stop telling me I don't.

I know how Cai is pronounced in my accent, I know how high is pronounced in my accent. They are not the same sound. That’s all my point is.
You said you have the same accent as the Pobol y Cwm Cai actor. His screen family say it the same way as I, the people I know IRL who are called Cai or have a Cai in their family, Mali Harries and the cast of Rownd a Rownd say it.
I don't care how you say high. It is fairly clear that you think that your pronunciation is the only one that is correct.

I don’t know what your accent is but if you don’t hear them differently then chances are you don’t have that distinction in yours.
Which part of there is nothing wrong with my ability to hear sounds are you struggling to understand?

Back to Koa, if you like it @Soph903 , use it. It seems to have a strong meaning.
Best wishes with your pregnancy.

Thanks, this has definitely cleared it up for me. I can hear a very subtle difference in the first vowel between recording one and three. Not enough for me to personally see it as a big deal but I can see how it could be a bugbear for some Welsh people.

My exes Granny was Irish and would go crazy at me for how I’d say his name (Eamonn). She’d insist I got the first vowel wrong but I simply couldn’t emulate her! I’d say AY-mun and she’d shout at me and I’d try and correct myself to closer to her pronunciation and it would come out “EE-mun” and she’d scream at me even louder. I genuinely couldn’t help it. I just wasn’t a native Irish speaker. And neither was he lol!

Sorry but Koa and Oakley are try-hard and chavvy names for me. On that basis, I'd go for Arlo.

It’s definitely not a huge deal for me and I lived with a guy named Llyr with multi-national housemates for long enough to understand that close enough is good enough! I’m not an accent purist by any means, and I don’t know if I’ve someone given the impression I am to but it wasn’t my intention.

You are taking my points completely the wrong way and being quite rude tbh. I am not insulting you by saying you may not be able to hear the difference, it’s just how brains work. If you DO hear the difference then great, you’ll understand how in south wales accents at least high and cai don’t have the same vowel. I posted a link with the difference. I can’t use any bbc affiliated links because I don’t have a tv license and I can’t sigh in without one. But I have seen plenty of pobol y cwm to know they say it like I say it, but the word high or kite is not the same in our accent so posting people saying cai is only half the story, you need the other sound.

@TheOriginalEmu , You do not need a TV licence to listen to BBC radio on BBC Sounds. You do need a TV licence to watch BBC iPlayer.
Do I need a TV licence to listen to BBC radio online? | BBC Sounds

I posted a simple comment on here only to get lectured over and over again about how you pronounce English words and how I can't distinguish between sounds.

Stop derailing the thread.

Same

Koa?

That's the name of a type of wood, isn't it?

I think they make good quality guitars out of it.

https://www.wood-database.com/koa/

I think it's OK, however I have heard of a couple very recently, so it may not be too unusual in a few years if that's a concern for you.