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. 😊

They're both reasonably right, though a native Irish speaker would not use the hard K sound.

It would be more like Surr-uh-kha.

Soresha is every shade of wrong possible.

Grabs coat and skedaddles....

You are far from the only one. I think lots of pepple in Scandinavia don’t know this about Finland either tbh! You are lucky to have travelled a lot, and this is not very important information anyway. We have similar life styles and standard of living.

@gardenmusic

Scandinavian in general denotes Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Thank you, I am fascinated and want to go to Greenland.
There is no way we have a Greenlander on here?

Someone shouted at me yesterday because they said they had a nice time in the Valleys, but they were in Cardiff… apparently I shouldn’t have corrected them because ‘I knew what they meant’. What I do know is that that you couldn’t care less about the geography of the place you were in! Not only do maps exist… but also there is a massive cultural implication attached to the Valleys. And I am from Sirhowy Valley myself. But I’m the prick because you had a day trip to Cardiff and were ‘trying to be nice’. Bloody doughnut.

Ha ha, this reminds me of my mate Caoimhe.

Call her Keeva, all is well, call her Queeva and all hell breaks loose! Both are acceptable Irish pronunciations!

But you are doubling down on your statement that a British person who uses a Scandinavian name is MISpronouncing it!

They are not getting it wrong or making a mistake, they are choosing to say the name in the way that best suits their accent, when speaking in English, not Norwegian, Swedish or Danish. There is no correct or incorrect pronunciation where names are concerned. You can’t say it’s mispronunciation just because the name originated in your language.

Here, I’ve fixed it for you:

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 not mispronouncing the name in the authentic Scandinavian way.
So if a person that actually speaks the language correctky, pronounces the name as it is spoken in the original language, please don’t throw a hissy fit and correct them. 😊”

Watch out, Trump wanted to buy Greenland a few years ago. He is deluded. 😂

So if a person that actually speaks the language correctly, pronounces the name, please don’t throw a hissy fit and correct them

@dylexicdementor11
I'm curious whether you'd continue to use a Scandinavian pronunciation when you discover they pronounce their name differently though?

I mean some people might be charmed at someone using a different, arguably more authentic pronunciation, but lots of others might prefer the way they're used to.
And it's their name after all.

If everything could be done without hissy fits it would be great of course!

I’m sorry, but it is so annoying when people write ”I fixed it for you.” OP is capable of having her own thread and opinion and she has stated several times that it is light hearted.

@AndiOliversGlasses “There is no correct or incorrect pronunciation where names are concerned.”

Yes there is! I worked in an office where someone mispronounced my name for five years and did not see it as an issue. Obviously I just had to give up in the end, but it’s pretty horrible having someone call you a random word for half a decade. It’s lazy and rude, but they thought the same as you, that there wasn’t such a thing as incorrect pronunciation. My name in English is two syllables and it’s basically Ian with an R in front of it. Lazy and disrespectful. And as I say IN ENGLISH, I wasn’t making them speak Welsh.

Agree, patronising and unnecessary.

Very patronising.

She might as well have called her Pappskalle.🙃

Would have been the shorter version.

😂

I meant that the owner of the name cannot be said to be pronouncing it incorrectly. Of course others can mispronounce it!

But OP is not being at all patronising by insisting that other people are mispronouncing their own names?! Okaaay..

I guess that Scandinavians are known for their bluntness, which is clear from the indignation to my suggestion that the OP be could have been worded in a politer way. It’s also rude to make in-jokes in other languages.

The problem is that there is no uniform Scandi way of saying names because there are differences between the 3 Scandi countries

It depends on what the traditions are for hard/soft vowels and consonants

For example - Kersten/Kerstin
Danish - Keer-stin or Kier-stin
Swedish - Sher-sten/Sher-stin

... then you get the regional variations in each country

.... and don't get me started on Oscar/Oskar/Åskar or Matilda/Mathilda/Matilde/ Mathilde

Yes it was Saoirse I was thinking of!

How arrogant you are! A name is pronounced how tge name bearer or their parent decides, not how a Scandinavian person would pronounce it.

A name is pronounced how the name bearer or their parent decides, not how a Scandinavian person would pronounce it.

Absolutely this. If someone chooses to call their child Robert but pronounce it Frank then Frank is the correct pronunciation (even if we might all privately think they are mad and that child’s life is going to be an endless stream of correcting people).

There are hundreds of names that started out in a different country being pronounced a different way. These names now have a new variant here (and often other variants in other countries). The variants are not wrong. It’s just not quite the same name as it is in your country.

So if a parent corrects your pronunciation they’re not wrong or rude, they are telling you the correct way to pronounce their child’s name.

Thank you. As the Scottish mother of a Magnus I agree. Surely it‘s more likely that the Scandinavians are the ones who are pronouncing the original Latin word incorrectly, if they are transposing the N and the G in the way that @TooMuchRedMaybe dictates? In any event my Magnus’ own Norwegian grandfather does not say it that way, when speaking either English or Norwegian. His “g” is definitely softer than ours is in English, and the final syllable is “oos” rather than “us”but the letter order does not change.

I find people apostrophising plurals, especially names, equally as bad. It's Livs, Frejas, etc.

Skedaddle, that would make a good name.

Lets face it half the English language has alternative ways to pronounce things. I'm quite a visual person (BSL user) so when I hear the word 'cow' a Frisian cow pops in to my head, but if I hear 'coo' Iit's a highland cow.

OK people here is something to think about, in sign languages you have a 'sign name' it rarely has anything to so with your actual name and can relate to your job, something about you such as wearing glasses or having a piercing.

BUT if there is ever something embarrassing you have done that becomes your sign name. I have come across sign names that mean 'grave' an interpreter who slipped and almost fell into a grave. Wet Furniture - had too much beer and slept on the sofa, you can imagine how the name came about. My favorite 'toilet', there are a number of signs for 'toilet' but one of them is the same as the sign for belgium where this person is originally from.