I’ve been thinking a lot about [name]Caja[/name] lately, which means “daisy” in Cornish. I’ve a bit confused about the pronunciation though - the J is apparently the same as the J sound in “jumping”, but I’m not sure about the first A - is it kay-jah or kah-jah? Does anyone know? I’ve been been getting some conflicting information.
Thoughts on it in general? I suspect that if I ever used it (which would be a long time away) a lot of people would assume that pronunciation was something like kye-ah, but I’m not sure how problematic I find that to be. What would be your first instincts regarding pronunciation?
Ooh, that’s another pronunciation possibility. I knew about that, but I’d forgotten. Box at least isn’t really a bad association, even if it isn’t a good one either.
When I saw the name, I thought the “j” would be pronounced as a “y”, giving [name]Kai[/name]-ya The name is cute but I think someone with this name would have to deal with pronunciation & spelling issues their whole life. [name]One[/name] of my colleagues is named [name]Tanja[/name], pronounced [name]Tanya[/name]… but soooo many people pronounce the “j” as an English “j”. She has to deal with that every day. I’m sure that can be very annoying!
Yeah, I immediately thought of Spanish for box. Then I thought of [name]Kaija[/name], which you see in Finnish sometimes, which is [name]KYE[/name]-a (first syllable rhymes with eye).
If anyone’s still interested, the correct Cornish pronunciation is cah-juh, kind of like badger. Stress on the first syllable.
I have heard it (less often) as cay-juh but I think that comes down to how people pronounce things, just like how some people (in the UK at least) pronounce [name]Alexander[/name] ‘[name]Alex[/name]-ann-der’ and others say ‘[name]Alex[/name]-arn-der’. The ‘J’ is definitely hard, as in jam.
OP, I don’t know if you’re still interested in the name but I suspect it will hardly ever be pronounced or spelt properly
I immediately assumed it was a soft j so would be pronounced like [name]Maya[/name] with a k sound. I think this one might be difficult for people to know how to pronounce.
My phonetically-English mind automatically said ‘Cah-JAH’, but then I assumed it was pronounced ‘Cah-YAH’ which is what I would have said aloud.
I like the meaning and origin; something about the fact it’s Cornish makes me instantly like it. But it has a bit of a weird sound to it, almost as if it’s not actually a name… maybe because I still feel like I’m saying it wrong. I think it could grow on me.
I assumed it was CAH-jah or CAH-hah, but I did not know it meant box. Personally, I’d want to stay away from using any names that mean box or having anything to do with it for my daughter … maybe my mind goes to worse places than everyone else’s though. It seems like there are lots of pronunciations for this one … you’d have to really love it and be okay with mispronunciations and people asking about it. In the US I’d be hesitant to use such a foreign name (unless it has ties to your family), but in the UK, I think this would be more acceptable. Not sure where you are; just thought I’d point that out.
Funny you should say that as it’s not actually a traditional Cornish name and doesn’t have much history of use. Somewhere along the line in the last 50 odd years, somebody thought [name]Daisy[/name] was a nice name and plucked the Cornish equivalent out of a dictionary. It’s been called a Cornish name ever since but before that it was never a name, just an ordinary Cornish word- and Cornish isn’t renowned for being the most beautiful of languages
I hadn’t noticed that this thread had been bumped! Thanks so much for definitively clarifying the pronunciation, charlieandperry1, and thanks to everyone for the additional feedback!
