How would you pronounce this baby name?

[MondaysFunday]

If you saw the name Mariana written down with no context provided, how would you pronounce it? DH and I completely disagree on the pronunciation, and we both think we’re right. I reckon there’s also the possibility that we’re both wrong.

1. Mar-ee-on-ah
2. Mar-ee-ann-ah
3. Mary-on-ah
4. Mary-ann-ah

Ooo I've just said on in my best attempt at an Irish accent and it does sound very similar to ahn.

Rude!

@RaraRachael , the pp mentioned Juliana not Julianna.

Julianna - Joolie-Anna. Juliana - Joolie-ana (however you choose to say ana)

If you name your DD Julianna, you will find the anna bit not always said as Anna.

It is tedious, you do your best to explain it and there's a pile up to question things I've already explained.

Mari Arna

It was just a typo but regardless, to me -
Juliana = Joolie-Anna
Julianna = Joolie-Anna

No difference

That's option 3. She's just writing it differently.

Please don't saddle your poor child with a name that she will have to keep correcting through out her life.

It might be - it is quite common in American English (although not at all universal - the north east coast, particularly, doesn’t always use it) - but equally, her name may be pronounced like that because of the culture/language group it’s from (which I don’t know off the top of my head).

It’s not dissimilar to the cot-caught merger.

Anyway, if your accent has the father-bother merger, you won’t distinguish between ah and a short oh sound, hence Mari-ahn-na being rendered as Mari-on-na when written. Just think of how so many American accents make ‘on’ as in the preposition sound like ‘ahn’. You can see it also in the vowels of balm and bomb for those accents. Or hear it, anyway.

It depends on your accent. The -anna to me says clearly anna as in Anna, and the -ana like the last three letters in banana - how you say banana depends on your accent.

The problem is that if you call your baby Julianna thinking nobody will think it is anything but Joolie-Anna, you'll find that's not the case.

(I don't like the -ana names because I don't like the last bit. Susannah and Diana are pretty)

I agree with this pronounciation

I believe it is more like Don and Dawn in the accents where they sound the same.

Muh-ree-are-nuh

I once had a work colleague whose husband was Don and daughter was Dawn. We (Scottish) thought it was odd because we'd pronounce those the same but she was English so they sounded different.

Similarly with names ending in ana or Anna.

Same 😁

Why are you adding an R?

Surely it’s Mari-ah na

@Bellybellas , the r is silent. It is only there to indicate that it's a like in car not a like in cat.

Basically marry-AH-na here. Your option 2 comes closest.

Why would you type a silent R in a name with no R?!

Did you not read this bit: It is only there to indicate that it's a like in car not a like in cat?

Why not think before you post?

Banana
Juliana
Julianna
Susanna
Diana
Mariana
Marianna

...all have the same Anna sound as far as I'm concerned.

2, nice name

Mar-ee-ah-na

Your opinion is not the only relevant comment, no need to be nasty.

Why would you post a silent letter in a post where you're spelling the name phonetically?

Phonics means correspondence of letter and sound.

If you wouldn't use a silent K or B or G in a phonetic spelling of knead, lamb, or gnaw, you shouldn't include that R in an attempt to render the name phonetically. It can be shown by AH, or you can use the sort of phonetic symbols you see in a dictionary to make it even more clear (for those who can read them).

The R that is pronounced 'ahh' is specific to non rhotic accents. It is not a universal feature of spoken English. You shouldn't expect everyone else to automatically understand it.