Would you find Eira difficult to pronounce?

[Factor50sun]

Hi!

DH and I are on our third and final baby (our third girl 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣)

We both love the name Eira (eye-ra) but I am unsure with how known it is in England? (Where she will be raised)

Would you struggle to pronounce the name?

Would I be saddling her with a life of teachers mispronouncing her name in the register?

There is the possibility of spelling the name Eyra - however that technically is a misspelling of the name, so I am only willing to do so if Eira is very difficult for everyone.

Thank you all in advance!

I'd have assumed it was like Eire - as in Ireland so Air-ah

Pretty name though.

Most Irish names have regional variations which is why people argue about how Saoirse Ronan pronounces her name.
Caoimhe is Keeva in some parts and Quee-va in others. People learn eventually.

I’m Welsh, so no difficulty for me!
I worried when naming my daughter that Welsh names would be am issue if she moved to England, fast forward 26 years and she lives in London after going to Uni in Coventry and the reality is that with such a cosmopolitan, multicultural population unusual names are the norm and no one comments!

Now I’ve seen that even Welsh people disagree on how it’s pronounced, I would avoid it. Which pronunciation would you pick?

I’ve not heard of the name so on first glance I would pronounce it ee-rah

I think it’s hard to pronounce.

I gave my child a totally unpronounceable name ( unless you are from that country )
name and spelling

and I say go for it
I am a teacher and at the start of the year I check and write it down so it makes sense to me and u can remember then , ( hopefully ) then get it right rest if the year

raise a polite child who can correct people nicely, not the horrible child I know who throws a tantrum if teachers say her name either way ( it’s always wrong)

Regional variation is completely different to Anglicisation. Welsh names are constantly being pronounced as if they follow phonetic English rules. It isn't gatekeeping to try to preserve a minority language.

I have never heard the name before so wouldn't be sure if it was Eye-ra, Air-a or Ee-ra

@Sunnyatlast25 , it's a word in the Welsh language.
A Welsh person is not necessarily someone who can speak Welsh, so might not honour the word's pronunciation when using the name.

Someone who has learnt Welsh as a second language past age about 10 yrs might not quite get the sound right (especially how they say their Rs).

@3ormorecharacters , the pronunciation in Welsh doesn't really vary, but the accent varies a lot.

I knew two in the same village, both Welsh speakers and pronounced the name differently. We managed, in fact it was how we could tell them apart when they came up in conversation!

@foreverbasil , that was probably down to accent. I can think of two girls who lived nearby who had the same name, and the mother of one said her daughter's name in a slightly anglicised way. The name wasn't Eira, but it did have a diphthong followed by an R. Everybody else said it the same way.

I've not seen it before, but would have assumed 'Eye-ra'.

I'm English but have Welsh speaking parents and many of their friends and family have very 'Welsh' names, so I might have an advantage.

Either way, once you've told people, it isn't difficult to remember.

I would have mispronounced it too OP, sorry.

The reason Irish people argue about Saoirse Ronan’s name is because she made up a version of her name to teach people how to say it on TV, Sursha.

She doesn’t actually say Sursha herself in Ireland. Her parents don’t call her that.
She caused lots of confusion.

Do not change the spelling…

the pronunciation in Welsh doesn't really vary, but the accent varies a lot

@DanDin
I don’t understand.
Aren’t pronunciation differences a large part of what makes accents different, different vowel sounds for example?

The emphasis on the various syllables of a word can be different too, I know. There are probably other things that distinguish them, I’m not an expert.

But…what is it that makes various Welsh accents different if it’s not pronunciation of letter sounds? Is it just the stress on the words, or something else?

I wasn't suggesting anglicising the name. I just think there are a few people here who are very adamant on Welsh name pronunciation when, as this thread has demonstrated, there are wide variations within Wales. Which pronunciation would be "correct" for a non-Welsh speaker, the North or South Wales version? And besides, pronunciation is always going to vary with accent. My own name could be pronounced differently in various accents, I'd never dream of correcting someone and demanding they pronounce my name in my own English accent. That seems to happen a lot on these threads.

It was on my list but my DP wasn't keen. It's a beautiful name for a winter baby!

@3ormorecharacters , the accent is what changes it, not the pronunciation.

If you took a word like Seren, it probably sounds different in, say, Llanelli to how it sounds in Caernarfon. The pronunciation doesn't change, but the accent does.

How somebody says the name Seren is up to them, but the 'Serrun' is an anglicization. How they say the word Seren is a different matter, 'serrun' is wrong.

It's not gatekeeping. It's protecting the language.

If you compare pronunciation to accent, what I'm trying to get across is that both the South Walian and the North Walian are saying 'sɛrɛn, but the anglicization is
'sɛrən.

I love the name Eira. I live in Wales and all of the Eira’s I know pronounce it Eye-ra.

I hadn’t seen the name before - it’s pretty. However when I saw it I wondered if it was pronounced Ay-ra or Eeera. Eye-ra didn’t occur to me! But once said then it shouldn’t be an issue.

I've never heard of it but it's lovely. I would have guessed eye-ra but I'd only need to be corrected once 😊

I would have pronounced it as you have explained eye-ra. I think it’s a nice name

But the pronunciation can clearly be different in different regional accents, as the name Eira demonstrates?

My childhood friend had Welsh speaking father, she was a Bethan but always pronounced Bethun. Was her Welsh speaking dad wrong? Languages just aren't that simple. I'm all for protecting the language but we need to be careful not to deter people from exploring the language for fear of being told off for being "wrong" or disrespecting the language.

@3ormorecharacters My childhood friend had Welsh speaking father, she was a Bethan but always pronounced Bethun. Was her Welsh speaking dad wrong?
Yes, in theory, because he was mispronouncing it. No, in that he could say it however he liked.

If I named my child Sophia but said it as Soph-ya (stress on the soph, ya one syllable), would I be wrong? How about Stella said in with Welsh phonetic pronunciation? By your argument, someone discouraging me would be gatekeeping, or telling me off for being wrong.

I read it as ear-a, I don’t think it matter too much though as any of those pronunciations are nice and once you tell people the correct one they’ll remember.