Maya pronunciation

[GinRummyandRaisin]

Can someone please confirm how you pronounce Maya? Or whether there are two possible pronunciations? DH is adamant it's My-a, but I'm sure when we did Maya Angelou at school it was May-a 🧐
Thanks!

I'd say My-a rhyming with Higher rather than Maya like layer.

But it never occurred to me people would mispronounce the name I chose for my daughter and approximately 98% of people do so much opinion probably shouldn't count for much.

My-ah. Maya Angelou is also a My-ah. I think your teacher was just pronouncing it wrong @GinRummyandRaisin 😄

My niece is a My. She was named after Naya Angelou so I'm sure the My pronunciation is the one that she used.

I’ve found the same thing with children recently! And then I hone in on the child for clarification and they usually mumble “I don’t mind either way really.” NO! It’s your name, make people pronounce it properly! I end up saying “Ok, what do your parents call you?” and repeat it back to them / the class.

Thanks all!

I'm in agreement with your DH, i've only ever heard it pronounced at as MY-A (similar to liar)

I've only heard My-a.

The Mayans are covered in a lot of primary schools these days, so I think there is a lot more awareness of the civilization that there used to be.

I'd pronounce it May-a.

I've heard both and get very confused.

I'm going to hazard a guess you're from South England?

We don't pronounce our Rs properly!

So saw and sore, for example sound identical.

In my friend's Scottish accent, though, they're entirely different as one audibly ends in a W, and the other in an R.

Similarly, Maya has no R in it but Fire does. So if you pronounce your Rs they don't rhyme.

We don't pronounce our Rs properly!

Yes we do. We pronounce them properly in our own accent.

In most countries Maya is pronounced My -ah like the author Angelou and the ancient Mayan people.

In the UK the May-ah pronunciation is also used due to our pre- Christian heritage- Maia/Maya was the Ancient Greek Goddess of Spring and whom we derive the name of the month of May from.

May -ah is my personal preference but I always assume My-ah unless corrected as it’s definitely the more popular.

Lovely name btw and if it’s your favourite I don’t think the difference in pronunciation is a huge deal - all the Esme’s, Leila’s, Andrea’s, Naomi’s ,Helena’s, Evelyn’s etc seem to survive.

To me, Maya is always "may a" My brain just doesn't see "May" being pronounced "my".

Yes! May is pronounced May and not My..!

So May-a for me.

If you want Mya then spell it as Mya?!

Why would you spell the name incorrectly just because some people don't know how to pronounce it correctly? It's a v multi cultural name and nearly always pronounced My-ah.

Mya's an accepted spelling but Maya is far more popular. The name is used internationally. Anya isn't An-eye-a .

Mya is a modern spelling, probably made up because some people don't know how to pronounce the name. The traditional spellings would be Maya/ Maia or Maja in Eastern Europe.

I know two. One pronounced May-ah and the other My- Ah. I'm a teacher. It's confusing when they are in the same class!

In Welsh we have Mair which is pronounced like Fire with a rolled R.
It's quite old fashioned now - like Margaret, Edith, Joan, Jean age group but it's a lovely name so imagine it will come back into fashion.

@Serencwtch , Mair is like Myra without the a. It doesn't rhyme with Fire as it's only one syllable.

People who struggle with r might say My-uh but it's MyR

It's My-a to me unless an individual Maya asks me to pronounce it a different way.

Having said that, I have also met people whose name was pronounced My-a and spelt in other ways - Mya and Miya are two I remember. Miya had another sibling with a name spelt in a very unusual way.