# The "how do you pronounce these names?" thread

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-do-you-pronounce-these-names-thread/589226>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 16, 2011, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-do-you-pronounce-these-names-thread/589226 "2011-07-16T07:01:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-do-you-pronounce-these-names-thread/589226/21 "2011-07-17T22:30:51Z")

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> [@bucketybuck](#):
>
> I would say they are still common enough over here, using the metric that I have a number of friends of each name.

Me too, but then I was born in the 70s 🙂 I remember going to Irish college and realising that almost literally half the girls there were called Aine, Mairead or Deirdre. I don’t get the sense they’re as common for babies born now.

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**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-do-you-pronounce-these-names-thread/589226/22 "2011-07-17T22:35:26Z")

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> [@Antigen](#):
>
> I know two Cassandras - it’s not that unusual a name.

Yeah, but I would never give it to a child because of the baggage it carries.

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**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-do-you-pronounce-these-names-thread/589226/23 "2011-07-18T00:06:18Z")

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> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> My husband and I both really like Greek girls’ names, but they all have such problematic associations. Medea? Ismene? Cassandra? Cressida? All lovely. Can’t be used.

I think Cassandra has lost a lot of its negative connotation. Yay for ignorance of the classics?

And there are still names like Penelope, Thalia, Daphne, Calliope, Cleone, Myrine, & so forth.

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**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-do-you-pronounce-these-names-thread/589226/24 "2011-07-19T10:12:38Z")

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> [@RickJay](#):
>
> The Small One recently received an invitation to a birthday partys for twins named - well, hell, I can’t even figure out how to properly show you:
> 
> Aine, except there’s a rightward-leaning accent over the A
> 
> Mairéad
> 
> Look, I know Celtic names are all cool and stuff, but I don’t speak Celtic and neither do 99.8% of all Canadians, so how do these parents expect anyone, ever, to get these right? Why would you, in an English-speaking country, give your children names that are practically DESIGNED to be totally unphonetic to an Anglophone?
> 
> Anyway, I have to RSVP to the party and take my kid there so I’d appreciate knowing how to say these names when we sing “Happy Birthday.”

I read them as “Ann” & “Mary”

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**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-do-you-pronounce-these-names-thread/589226/25 "2011-07-19T10:23:52Z")

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are those names or magical incantations? ooops… wrong thread.

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