[name]Just[/name] to preface: I’m not having children anytime soon, but I’m still always thinking through names anyway. I really like the name [name]Antonia[/name]. I like the literary (My [name]Antonia[/name]) connection and how unusual it sounds. I’m not sure I would use it as a first name, but I’d love to use it as a middle. Anyway, I was curious how people pronounce it. I say it Ahn-toe-NEE-a, but then I wasn’t sure if Ahn-TOE-nee-a was the right way to say it. If you pronounce either of those ways, that should technically be written with an accent on the A, right? So I guess my second question is, would it be okay to leave out the accent mark, but still pronounce it as if it was there? I’m just concerned that including an accent complicates things.
Haha, now I just found somewhere else that it is said [name]Ann[/name]-TONE-ya. So, I guess there are a lot of correct ways to pronounce it. I’m still wondering how you all would pronounce it if you saw it in writing. Thanks!
I say it something like [name]Ann[/name]-[name]TOny[/name]-uh, with the first syllable having a short A like [name]Anne[/name] or [name]Ann[/name] rather than the longer Ahn/Arn sound. Never heard it said differently, and never seen it spelt with an accent either.
I say it more like ann-[name]TONY[/name]-a in English (quicker than ann-TOE-nee-ya.)
I’ve actually never heard the name with the syllable stress anywhere other than the TO-sound.
If it were ahn-toe-NEE-a, I’d spell it [name]Anton[/name]ía, but even then, that’d strike me as being Spanish, and the Spanish form is still [name]Antonia[/name] (ahn-TO-nya). I guess if a French person had this name, it’d be “ahn-toh-[name]NYA[/name]” which is close.
For me, because I speak 3 languages that use accent marks (either for stress, or for sound), I find that they help names, but I also understand them and generally live in areas where everyone knows how to use them. I feel like they’re worth a try, but unless you live somewhere where the language spoken uses accents, you’re going to have problems either with people spelling the name with the accent (knowing which one to use, if it occurs to them to include it at all), or realizing its function (spelling a name with an accent mark doesn’t mean anything to someone who doesn’t understand what it does.)
If you don’t include them, but pronounce the name a different way, and you’re an Anglophone in an Anglophone area, then I don’t really think it matters because people would probably misuse the accent anyway (like all these people named [name]Ren[/name]èe…)
I lived in the Basque Country and there’s no accents in Basque, so while the city I lived in, in Spanish, was called San Sebastián, the Basque people I know with the same name are called [name]Sebastian[/name] with the same pronunciation of Sebastián and no accent (which in Spanish would be pronounced seh-BAHS-tyan without an accent.)
So I guess it mostly depends where you live and the languages spoken/ understood.
I’m just not sure what type of accent you’re wanting to put over which A… I can’t figure that one out
@[name]Lucia[/name]: I guess at first I was thinking maybe an accent was needed over the first A. https://nameberry.com/babyname/”ntonia
But now that I think about it, I think in My [name]Antonia[/name], the accent is over the i, the way you were saying you would spell it.
I don’t know…The name is just really appealing to me, and I actually like all pronunciations, but I think it would be too difficult and confusing as a first name.
I say ann-toe-nee-uh with the slightest stress on toe-nee. But lots in my area (including DH) would automatically pronounce it ann-tohn-ya, rhyming with [name]Sonya[/name].
Mm, I know what you mean. At first when I read the book, I was saying [name]Ann[/name] -TOE -nee-uh, but then it was pointed out to me that there is an accent on the i. So, I guess I would want to spell it with an accent on the i to make things slightly more clear. Funny thing is, this name sounds good any way it is pronounced.
I really like the name [name]Antonia[/name]. I like the literary (My [name]Antonia[/name]) connection and how unusual it sounds. I’m not sure I would use it as a first name, but I’d love to use it as a middle. Anyway, I was curious how people pronounce it. I say it Ahn-toe-NEE-a, but then I wasn’t sure if Ahn-TOE-nee-a was the right way to say it. If you pronounce either of those ways, that should technically be written with an accent on the A, right? So I guess my second question is, would it be okay to leave out the accent mark, but still pronounce it as if it was there? I’m just concerned that including an accent complicates things.