Using a Scottish name if you can't pronounce if perfectly

[Mamma37447]

DH is half Scottish, I'm not. We love several Scottish names, like Mhari, both the spelling and the pronunciation. DH's pronunciation is ok, mine is quite flat however hard I try, MIL's pronunciation is wonderful, the way she kind of rolls the Mh- and -ri.

Is it silly to use it even if I can't pronounce it perfectly?

Scottish Gaelic speaker here and everyone I know that spells in Mhairi is pronounced with a ‘V’ like sound. If you chose to go for the ‘M’ sound, Mairi would be better. You can obviously do as you like but to keep with tradition and save your DD from a eyerolls from Scots on the incorrect pronunciation of a Gaelic name (no offense, just giving an honest opinion)

I find it slightly annoying when people use the vocative as a name. In Gaelic, Mhairi is not a name, the name is Mairi. Mhairi is used when you address Mairi, but it’s not a name in itself. But definitely if you want to use the h pronounce is Var-ree - otherwise why wouldn’t you use the correct spelling? Although my DH is Hamish, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain!

Better not tell the 6,374 people registered in Scotland with Mhairi as a given name that. Lots from the Highlands and Islands too.

I'd pronounce it with a V
If you are in England it might be quite annoying for your DD to keep having to tell everyone how to pronounce her name.
A relative of mine is called Eilidh, a lovely and common name up here but she gets frustrated when dealing with work colleagues down south that, absolutely not intentionally, just can't pronounce it correctly

OP The Scottish Gaelic name is Mairi, pronounced Marry/Mahree. It's the Scottish Gaelic version of Mary.

As a previous poster @IaltagDhubh has said, Mhairi, pronounced Varry/Vahree (Mh=V in Scottish Gaelic) , is the vocative case - that is, the version of a name used when speaking directly to somone. So if your name was Mairi, you'd say 'My name is Mairi', but if someone wanted to say to you 'Hello', they'd say 'Hello Mhairi'. (The use of different forms of nouns as they occur in different usages is common in several languages, not just Scottish Gaelic. Latin is perhaps the best known, but there are others.)

In recent years, many people who don't know Scottish Gaelic or understand its grammar - or perhaps are not bothered by it - have started using Mhairi as a name, and pronouncing it in all sorts of ways. Technically, they are wrong. Perhaps this doesn't matter to them or to you. Everyone has a right to choose a name that they like, after all.

Just got this far to echo what @nameXname and pps have said. Mairi is the name: Mairi is the vocative case of the name. Call your child what you want (there are plenty of Mhairis out there) but if you're looking for actual correct Gaelic, it's Mairi.

Argh. Mhairi is the vocative case of the name. Obviously autocorrect agrees with me.

Go for it

Mhairi is Varee. Drop the H if you want it to me maree.

How about Morven?

There's lots of lovely Scottish girls names that don't have an R in them, if your R sound is bothering you!

Yes, as an Irish speaker I’m always intrigued by the fact that Máire and Séamus seem to have made it into Gaelic in the vocative form — do any other names do similar?

Muireann is an easily pronounceable name. The joke in Catastrophe was on Rob Delaney’s character’s ignorance.

Highlander here. Have to say certainly where I am we assume Mhairi = Maa-ree, unless it’s Gaelic and it’s actually Vaa-ree. I find Va-ree is certainly less common, I think.

I would go with a straighforward name personally.

I used to see a girl called Mhari from time to time at a hobby. Every time someone said her name, I tried to listen carefully to what it was as I'd never heard it and couldn't work out what it was. Eventually, the clearest I could hear anyone say was Vari. But it was just difficult so I avoided addressing her by her name.

I can't really understand why people overcomplicate things. There are so many names, Scottish or whatever, that are easier to use.

I'm Scottish and I don't roll my rs. I can and I would do it for my (not quite fluent) second language where doing otherwise would be incorrect but not for speaking English. It's not a requirement. As to the v or m debate, both pronunciations are common. So overall I can't really see any way in which you will be pronouncing it wrongly.

Also you should ask your MIL to say "purple burglar alarm"

I’m Scottish.

i know a Mairi pronounce Marry.
i also know a Mhairi pronounced Varry but I also know a Mhairi pronounce Marry.

I personally prefer the Varry pronunciation,

Why do you need to roll your r’s? I’m Scottish, but I never roll mine, I can, but don’t !

The only time I’ve every noticed it being pronounced with rolled r’s are from people with a strong accent who don’t even know they doing it or on TV programs such as Balamory!

Both pronunciations may well be common but one is correct and one is not.

At some point though that stops being true. Same with all language. What is in use is de facto correct and then one day it's in the dictionary.

Yes, as an Irish speaker I’m always intrigued by the fact that Máire and Séamus seem to have made it into Gaelic in the vocative form — do any other names do similar?

I always wonder if Hamish is a confusion between some form of Seumas and the Mediaeval French name Amis, which was clearly very popular in Scotland.

Same with Mhairí as a form of Mairí and Norse name Borg, which sounds like Vari.

Op seriously if you struggle to pronounce it I'd go with something else completely.

I believe the correct pronunciation is Vari
But I've also heard it as Marry,

A third name you might like is Marie - pronounced Mar-iee, with a longer ending that Marry

Is your DH's family from a part of Scotland that traditionally spoke
Gaelic? I feel like a lot of lowland Scots culture gets erased when it's assumed that Scottish = Gaelic.

You don't 'need' to roll your rs but it sounds lovely iMO and it's his most people that I know speak every day.

I'm Scottish and have never rolled my r's! Maybe it's a dialectical thing?

Just use it I'm assuming your husband has a bit of a lilt so the pronunciation lifts a bit, are you going Vari or Mari?