Pronouncing Scandinavian names - pet peeve

[dylexicdementor11]

This is meant as a friendly reminder to all the Liv’s, Sören’s, Astrid’s, Freya’s etc out there.

As a Scandinavian, I think it’s quite charming that Scandi names are all the rage. However, if you do not speak a Scandinavian language and you decide to name your child a Scandinavian name, or if you have a Scandinavian name please be aware that you are probably mispronouncing the name.
So if a person that actually speaks the language correctly, pronounces the name, please don’t throw a hissy fit and correct them. 😊

at least both those pronunciations are in the correct ballpark.

sore-sha isn't even in the vicinity of the ball park

I never knew Freya was a Scandinavian name.
Learn something new every day I suppose 🙂

Mispronunciation is mispronunciation. There is no 'English'way' of pronouncing Caitlín, for instance. It's a mispronunciation that's arrived back via Irish America and the diaspora.

For how long should it be categorised as mispronunciation then? Should we be applying this rule to all names which have ever been imported into English from other languages (French, Italian, Spanish) over the past centuries?

Surely the correct way to pronounce a name is the way the person who's name it is does so. It might not be the original pronunciation, but that's how they say their name.

I think it's safe to say that horse has firmly bolted. Especially when there are lots of Irish Caitlins who pronounce it as kate-lynn.

My son has a Scandinavian name. We know how to say it in Norwegian as his grandfather is Norwegian. It sounds slightly different in Danish and Icelandic. I wouldn’t dream of being upset or offended if a Scandinavian pronounced it as it is said in their country (I’d be fascinated), but neither do I accept that the name is being “mispronounced” when we use it in English. FIL doesn’t care that we say it in an English/Scottish way. His own daughter is called Kirsten and he doesn’t call her “Shashten” unless talking about her in Norwegian to Norwegian relatives.

If you think about it, pronunciation of English names by native speakers tends to align with the speaker’s accent anyway due to the huge regional variations in the UK - for example if I (Scottish) meet a girl called Lara I’m going to say it with two short “a” vowels, whereas her English mother will lengthen the first one much more. They’d think I was taking the piss if I tried to sound English when saying it!

Firstly not everyone in Scandinavia uses a single pronounciation for Scandinavian names. Secondly, some 'scandinavian' names have been used for centuries in Scotland. So how do you think we should say them? For example Magnus is pronounced differently in Scottish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish. All have been using the name since the tenth century but it's a word with Latin roots. So what is the 'correct' pronounciation?

Lots of names are pronounced differently in different countries. My SIL (English is her second language) says my name differently to how I say it, neither of us is 'wrong'. Sometimes names change spellings as well as pronounciation.(Freya/Freja, Rachel/Raquel, Sophia/Sofia).

If someone tells you their name you say it how they ask you to say it to the best of your abilities, don't change the spelling or pronounciation.

Oscar is an Irish name pronounced, wait for it, Oscar

Lol

Surr-a-ka and Sor-ka are completely wrong to my ear.

@LongIslander , it's Siân. If anyone wants to call their child Sian pronounced Sy-anne, then that's ok as long as they don't say it's Welsh.
I think Sian is an Indian surname.

how would you pronounce it?

The point that OP is making, which lots of people seem to have epically missed… is if a name originates from a specific language then when a native speaker pronounces it in accordance with their native tongue then being told off is fairly rude. Which it is.

No one is arguing that there aren’t anglicised versions of a names or that it isn’t right to pronounce someone’s name according to their preferred pronunciation, just that don’t get shitty if you choose a name from another language and get weird about it when a native speaker pronounces it in accordance with the language from which it originated.

My name is Rhian, I pronounce it the Welsh way when speaking with Welsh speakers and the English way when speaking with non-Welsh speakers.

I’ll tell you what my name isn’t, it isn’t ever pronounced Ree-Anne. In year eight at school my geography teacher said to me: “It is Ree-Anne though isn’t it? I’m sure I have heard it said that way before.” Well maybe you did but don’t tell me how to pronounce my own name in English, which I am doing for your benefit because you are English and can’t wrap your tongue around the Welsh.

I thought Saoirse was pronounced Sur-shuh.

OP you can't tell someone how their child's name is pronounced. You might be pronouncing it 'correctly' but it's the child's name, so how the parents pronounce it is the 'correct' way for that child. Otherwise you're just being rude.

I taught a little girl called Freya a few years ago whose mother was Norwegian and pronounced it in the same way as most English speakers.

I agree, however if I say my name with the correct pronunciation English people will ask again... and again... and again.

Until I pronounce my name the English way. It's soo frustrating!!
But I also know that the 2nd syllable of my name doesn't exist in the English language. So I gess English people just can't make sense of it.

I make a phlegmy back of the throat sound instead of a clean K sound. It’s hard to explain!

ah yeah the ch is there for sure but I write it as a k as I don't know what a ch sound is called and people might think ch as in changes.

Thanks both! I don't know how I got that so wrong.

The baby names book I had said it was "Old Norse" which I assumed to be Scandinavian whereas I now understand thanks to Google that many originally names were assimilated into Irish Gaelic when the Vikings settled. So "Aisgaar" became "Oscur".

I admit I was also lulled into my presumptions as I knew that Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish writer, was named after his godfather King Oskar I of Sweden.

Sorry everyone, I feel as thick as pigshit now 😂 Never too late to educate myself further!

It is an Irish name but it's often pronounced in Irish as though the first letter was u. Like Oisín is Ush-een.
It can vary a bit depending on where you are in the country though. Definitely a u sound in Munster, probably Connacht.
Also, most Irish people don't say the name in Irish, so it's Oscar then.

Didn't Scandinavians invade and live in England for centuries? There must be plenty of Scandinavian origin names that are passed down and are just English names now, like Kirsten etc.

I admit I was also lulled into my presumptions as I knew that Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish writer, was named after his godfather King Oskar I of Sweden.

@honeylulu Napolean contributed to the naming of him (the baby who later became king of Sweden) or so the story goes. Napolean waa fan of the Irish Ossian tales which were popular at the time. Oscar was Ossian's (Oisín's) son.

But the name has meaning in both Scandinavian and Irish and as pp said there was a large amount of cross-over. It's hard to be sure of the origin of really old names.

Very early 80s in Stockholm I couldn't work out who someone meant when she was referring to the Wimbledon champion Bee-yorn Bee-yoori.

@honeylulu Oscar means something like 'deer friend' in Irish.
His granny was enchanted into the form of a deer.
His dad's name (Oisín) means little deer.

@Sue152 Saoirse is said more like Seer-sheh, or sometimes Sayr-sheh, than Sur-shuh.

Freya is on our list for a girl and my Swedish Husband pronounces it the same way as I do - although he can pronounce it the Swedish way, he doesn't as we don't live there.

Same way that he and everyone else pronounces his Niece's very traditionally Swedish name with a W sound rather than the V sound it has in Sweden, because she was born and raised in the UK.