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Favourite names that aren’t easily pronounced in English
I think sometimes names that aren’t easily/obviously pronounced right to most English speakers don’t get enough love here! So, what are your favourite names wouldn’t normally be pronounced right in English (particularly UK and USA)? Mine are:
Bohdan
Ceren
Čiela
Csilla
Ekene
Esteban
Fajra
Mbali
Milja
Pau
Phaedra
Saela / Sæla
Silke
:)

This message was edited 4/25/2024, 8:15 AM

Replies

I recently discovered Wapanacahkos and fell in love.
I'm a French speaker and here are the French names I find are hard to pronunced for non-native French-speakers.Anaïs. I think umlauts can be confusing. It mainly means that ''Ana'' and ''iss'' are to be pronunced seperately)
Camille (the ending in ''ille'' is so often pronounced Ka-meel, but the sound in French is hard to describe)
Eulalie, Eugénie, Eudes. Iseult. All the ''eu'' sound that are so lovely in French, seem harder to emulate in English. It ends up being ''yoo''.
Flavie and Flavien. In English it often seems to be pronounced like ''flavor'' (flay) whilst it's closer to the ''a'' in ''apple''.
François, Françoise (the ''ç'' is more like ''sw'' and ''s'' and the ''ois'' is not quite like ''swa'')

This message was edited 4/25/2024, 1:06 PM

I have a whole list on my PNL designated for names outside of Anglophone culture: https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/132018But these are the ones where I think the bearers would have the most difficulty:Johannes / Yohannes
Vivek
&
Azélie
Eilidh
Fairuza
Mirèio
Niamh
Shahrazad
Solveig
Viveca
Zyanya
Arsinoe
Asgeir
Charikleia
Dietlinde
Hjördis
Kallirhoe
Nilüfer
Nofretete
Ragnhild
Uxue
Róisín, Áine, Niamh, Alastríona & Siofra

This message was edited 4/25/2024, 11:24 AM

Agnieszka
Annunziata
Austėja
Bisera
Bogumiła
Eithne
Elfriede
Euphrosyne
Lăcrămioara
Lucrezia
Luljeta
Melpomene
Mnemosyne
Nausicaa
Oenone
Parthenope
Semiramis
Sieglinde
Terpsichore
Thulile
TimareteArkady
Éleuthère
Ivaylo
Otieno
Szczepan
Wojciech
Zbigniew
Thank you! I like Elfriede, Euphrosyne, Luljeta (I’ve never heard this before but I think it’s gorgeous), Nausicaa, Thulile, Arkady, Ivaylo and Otieno best.