Closing thread
My friend is Dutch and her father is a [name]Gerrit[/name] - pronounced with a ‘Kheir - it’ sound. But he is in [name]Holland[/name] but I am not sure if other countries would get it and it would be a situation where you would have to just correct people on pronunciation.
I think unless you’re Dutch or have knowledge of the language or names, then [name]Gerrit[/name] as being closer to [name]Garrett[/name] would be the most common way of attempting to say it. [name]Reading[/name] the Ger as a Kher sound isn’t instinctive to most English speakers at all.
The first person who came over to the US in our family was a [name]Gerrit[/name] (i believe thats the spelling) - my brother holds the name [name]Garrett[/name] in honor of him 
[name]GAIR[/name] IT is how we pronounce his name.
I don’t like the idea of purposefully mispronouncing an ethnic name to make it “easier.” It would be like naming your daughter [name]Saoirse[/name] and pronouncing it “say-oh-ir-see” or something silly like that. If I came across a [name]Gerrit[/name] who pronounced his name as [name]Garrett[/name], I would assume [name]Gerrit[/name] was just a misspelling. I would have no idea of the Dutch heritage. In my opinion, when you drop the Dutch pronunciation, you drop the heritage as well.
Closing thread