Okay… I think I’m the resident Norwegian name nerd here on Nameberry, but although my English is practically flawless, I face some issues regarding pronunciation of names since I have not heard these pronounced by native English speakers in a way I can trust they’re saying it right… There’s also the fact that Norwegian has at least three more vowels than English, and so the switching of i’s to y’s for instance is completely absurd to me as they do not sound alike at all! ([name]Lyn[/name] and [name]Lin[/name] are two completely different words in Norwegian, and no one would mistake one for the other…)
So, my problems are usually with the vowels, and I tend to like vowel-heavy names, so I would just love to hear your thoughts on how these names should be pronounced and if maybe that differs from how most people would pronounce them… (I’m not sure if I’m making sense now…)
I’ll just list the names and how I pronounce them and you can correct me or the likes where you see fit ^^
[name]Tamar[/name] - I’ve heard it pronounced [name]TAY[/name]-mahr and tah-MAHR… I prefer the first, but I think the second is tradition?
[name]Salome[/name] - I know it’s sa-lo-[name]MAY[/name], but I always thought it was sah-LOME. Am I way off track?
[name]Liesel[/name] - I just want more insight on this one. I say [name]LEE[/name]-sull or something like that…
[name]Merle[/name] - One or two syllables?
[name]Petra[/name] - PEE-tra or PEH-tra?
[name]Ianthe[/name] - I see three syllables, people say two… ay-[name]ANN[/name]-thee is my thing…
[name]Ophelia[/name] - I see four syllables, people say three… oh-[name]FEE[/name]-lee-uh is my way, and thus I can’t see the [name]Feel[/name]-ya jokes either…
[name]Cosima[/name] - Is it CO-see-mah or co-SEE-mah?
[name]Ivo[/name] - EE-vo or AY-vo? I know EE-vo is the “right” way, but to me that just sounds like “Evil” so I wonder how most people would pronounce it I guess…
[name]Ishmael[/name] - Three or two syllables?
[name]Ferdinand[/name] - is so long I get confused…
Anand - [name]Indian[/name] name, I’m wondering how you would pronounce it. I say ahn-AHND
[name]Matei[/name] - I say it with an accent on the e, mah-[name]TEY[/name]…
[name]Zacchaeus[/name] - Where would you put the stress on this one?
[name]Leander[/name] - [name]How[/name] many syllables… I’m just a bit unsure ^^ I say three - lee-[name]ANN[/name]-der
Thank you for any help!!
And if you have any questions regarding Scandinavian names, don’t hesitate to ask ^^
[name]Tamar[/name] - tah-MAHR is traditional.
[name]Salome[/name] - I thought that too when I first saw it … I’ve heard it pronounced both sal-OH-may and also sal-OH-mee.
[name]Liesel[/name] - lee-zul.
[name]Merle[/name] - I believe it’s just one - [name]MURL[/name].
[name]Petra[/name] - peh-tra.
[name]Ianthe[/name] - I say yan-thee, but ay-ann-thee sounds pretty too (it’s so rare that it probably doesn’t matter if you alter the pronunciation a little).
[name]Ophelia[/name] - I say oh-feel-ee-uh (four syllables) too, which is correct. I think it morphs into oh-feel-ya if you say the name without paying proper attention to it, in general conversation (but even when I say it quickly, I can’t get oh-feel-ya, perhaps because of my British accent).
[name]Cosima[/name] - coh-zi (z is like a hard ‘s’ sound)-muh
[name]Ivo[/name] - when I first saw it, my instinct was to pronounce it I-vo (I as in I am, I smile etc.), but the correct way is EE-vo … I’ve never met and [name]Ivo[/name], so I can’t say for sure.
[name]Ishmael[/name] - I’m not sure myself! I say both ish-male and ish-may-l, with a slight pause between the ‘may’ and the ‘l’. I think both are fine, really, as they are so similar.
[name]Ferdinand[/name] - fur-din-and
Anand - I have no idea, I’m afraid! Possibly ahn-and, but I’m just guessing.
[name]Matei[/name] - I’ve never heard of this name, but it does look like it would be mat-ay … it could be mat-ee or mat-I, though.
[name]Zacchaeus[/name] - za-KEE-as.
[name]Leander[/name] - you’re right; it’s lee-[name]ANN[/name]-der
I’m glad you asked, because I was wondering - the 'o’s with a diagonal line through them in Norwegian … does the line have the same affect on the pronunciation as an umlaught does in [name]German[/name]? (Very odd question, I’m sorry!)
If by umlaught you mean ”, then yes ^^ It’s a bit like the u in curl or the e in fern, but not exactly if that makes any sense…
And thank you for your help with pronunciation, I would just like lots of people’s thoughts to get a clearer picture of it all ^^ And I’m very happy that you’re British! My first thought after making this post was that I hoped I would get insight from [name]Britain[/name] as well! I’m almost planning to move there next year which has been my dream since I was very little (-anglophile-) but it’s a big thing to do at 20 o.O
I know Anand is strange, but it really intrigues me… Nameberry has [name]Ananda[/name] for girls which is the closest, but I really like the sound of Anand for a boy ^^
I think my first thought on [name]Ishmael[/name] was ish-[name]MAY[/name]-el, but that’s all the vowels again… arrrgh…
The difference between s and z is hard for me… Z is practically unused in Norwegian and s is the second most common letter! We don’t even have zebra, but sebra! So when you ad z’s in the pronunciations of [name]Cosima[/name] and [name]Liesel[/name] I go faint cause it makes it a lot harder for me ^^
What an interesting post, and I hope that many more Norwegians will soon join in! When I was just out of school (MANY years ago now), I spent a year in Norway - on a little island in the [name]Oslo[/name] fjord, being an “au pair” to a family called Oust, who had two lovely little boys called [name]Hans[/name] and Esben. I was always fascinated by their pronounciation, which was sometimes so unlike anything I had imagined.
For example, the lady of the house was called [name]Kirsten[/name], but UNlike our English pronounciation of this, it was said something like “SHISH-ten”!
As for your list I would just say that I would pronounce [name]Tamar[/name] “[name]TAY[/name]-mar” like the river.
[name]Do[/name] you have children or are you just interested in names generally?
What an interesting post, and I hope that many more Norwegians will soon join in! When I was just out of school (MANY years ago now), I spent a year in Norway - on a little island in the [name]Oslo[/name] fjord, being an “au pair” to a family called Oust, who had two lovely little boys called [name]Hans[/name] and Esben. I was always fascinated by their pronounciation, which was sometimes so unlike anything I had imagined.
For example, the lady of the house was called [name]Kirsten[/name], but UNlike our English pronounciation of this, it was said something like “SHISH-ten”!
As for your list I would just say that I would pronounce [name]Tamar[/name] “[name]TAY[/name]-mar” like the river.
[name]Do[/name] you have children or are you just interested in names generally?
Redridinghood, I’m pleased you find my post interesting ^^
That’s awesome that you’ve been an au pair in Norway! I’m only 19, so I don’t have any children yet, I just adore them and want like six or something… I guess I got into names the same way many others do, through hating my own I’m actually thinking about going to [name]England[/name] as an au pair next year, in the Cornwall area (where [name]River[/name] [name]Tamar[/name] is, or so google tells me) which is a fun coincidence if you ask me ^^ This gives me hope that my favoured pronunciation of [name]Tamar[/name] will be the one people stick to if I end up in [name]England[/name] for good…
The SHISH-ten pronunciation is characteristic of the [name]Oslo[/name] region or the east side of Norway… It’s more like CHEER-sten in the rest of the nation, but we have VERY many dialects with different pronunciations of the majority of the words, and there are no dialects that sound like either of our two (!!) written forms of Norwegian, so these differences are reflected in the names as well… It’s pretty cool, and although all the dialects lead to some confusion, it’s mostly just fun, and it also gives Norwegians a unique ability for understanding other languages because we’re constantly faced with different dialects with different sounds and forced to identify the variations and such, so Norwegians in general have a good ear for languages, and thus a lot of unused potential… ^^
Canyr12 - Thanks for your input! I really appreciate it ^^
[name]Hi[/name], how cool that you’re Norwegian. My aunt by marriage is mostly Norwegian, so four of my cousins have a lot of Norwegian in them. Here are some Southern [name]California[/name] pronunciations:
[name]Tamar[/name] - [name]TAY[/name]-mar
[name]Salome[/name] - Saw-LOW-may
[name]Liesel[/name] - LEEZE-uhl
[name]Merle[/name] - MERll
[name]Petra[/name] - PEH-tra
[name]Ianthe[/name] - I see three syllables, people say two… ay-[name]ANN[/name]-thee is my thing… - I wasn’t sure how to pronounce this. I thought it was ee-AWN-thuh, but I could definitely be wrong.
[name]Ophelia[/name] - oh-[name]FEE[/name]-lee-uh
[name]Cosima[/name] - Is it CO-see-mah or co-SEE-mah? - I thought it was co-SEE-mah.
[name]Ivo[/name] - EE-vo
[name]Ishmael[/name] - Three or two syllables? - ISH-my-ell
[name]Ferdinand[/name] - is so long I get confused… FER-di(short i)-nand
Anand - [name]Indian[/name] name, I’m wondering how you would pronounce it. I say ahn-AHND - I never heard it before.
[name]Matei[/name] - I say it with an accent on the e, mah-[name]TEY[/name]… - don’t know this one either.
[name]Zacchaeus[/name] - Where would you put the stress on this one? - zack-KEE-us
[name]Leander[/name] -I say three - lee-[name]ANN[/name]-der - that’s how we say [name]Leander[/name] here.
[name]How[/name] do you say [name]Annika[/name]? Is [name]Annika[/name] a name in Norway? Are there nicknames for it?
As for [name]Annika[/name], it’s a known but not too often seen name in Norway… There are currently 750 [name]Annika[/name]'s in Norway, and most common names have at least 10000… It may sound little, but we’re a small nation! 4,5 million and rising in total ^^ I think the pronunciation is practically identical, except for maybe some extra stress on the first letter in Norwegian? I’m not sure… It’s hard to say, but I think the pronunciations are identical… [name]ANN[/name]-i-kah, right? ^^ As for nicknames, we have a completely different tradition for that here in Norway. We hardly have nicknames at all, and only about half the population has middle names… I think [name]Anja[/name] and [name]Anny[/name] would be nicknames if I had to mention any, but an [name]Annika[/name] would just go by [name]Annika[/name] to everyone, including the closest family…
As well as being an au pair there, I used to have sixteen penfriends from all over the world when I was about 15. One of these was Norwegian, and called Oddny. [name]How[/name] would this be pronounced, please?
And, amusingly enough, I [name]DO[/name] have six children! They are aged 19 (same as you!), 18, 17 16, 15 and 13, and for the past twelve years, I have brought them up on my own.
I live in [name]Wales[/name]. And we say EYE-vo for [name]Ivo[/name], NOT EE-vo. Is this list some of your favourite names at the moment, then? And how did you find the Nameberry site? Sorry I posted my last post twice. I am still getting to grips with all the technology!
Oddny is a sweet name! A bit old fashioned here, like [name]Mildred[/name] or something else not likely to come back in full again ^^ It’s charming! ODD-ny would be the pronunciation I think, with the y being slightly different form ee… A little more like an a, while still more ee than a if that makes sense…
More coincidences! [name]How[/name] beautiful ^^
Almost all these names are in my collection, except for [name]Petra[/name] which I’ve just been seeing a lot around Nameberry the past couple of days ^^ I collect pretty names not in the top 1000… At first, it was hard giving up on the more popular names I had really liked, like [name]Lewis[/name] and [name]Dexter[/name], but all in all, there are so many beautiful names to make up for those that are unique and legit and often have a fantastic history behind them, like [name]Selene[/name] and [name]Hadrian[/name], and I’m not crying over [name]Tabitha[/name] or [name]Maxwell[/name] at all, it’s a fantastic Adventure, and I just love exploring the world of names! ^^
I don’t remember how I found Nameberry. I guess I googled, and there it was one day I really like it here…
And don’t worry about the double post, technology can be rough some times! o.O
Thank you. [name]Do[/name] you have a charming Norwegian name yourself, Dearest? [name]Mildred[/name] is all poised for a come-back in [name]Britain[/name], so look out for some more Oddnys in the future, then!
I have been “collecting” names and name-books and birth announcements etc. since the late 1950s. The subject is still just as fascinating to me today as when I was a little girl.
I’m afraid my name doesn’t have the offbeat charm of Oddny, but it has the same type of composition… Odd is a common part of many different names (plain Odd, Oddhild, Oddlaug etc.). Same goes for -ny (Eirny, [name]Dagny[/name] etc). We have VERY many of these pre- and suffixes both male and female, and practically any combination is legit, although some are more common than others… The gender of the suffix usually determines the gender of the name, Brynjulv is male, [name]Brynhild[/name] is female and so on ^^
Mine is comprised from ”s (As/Aas if the Norwegian letter butchers it) and Hild - making ”shild or Aashild. Aas is the norse gods, while Hild means battle, so Aashild means the God’s warrior maiden or something very Viking-ish like that XD The Aa is pronounced like the a in walk, making AAS-ill (the h and d is mute)… I was named after my two grandmothers Ragnhild and Aasbjoerg (oe being the o with a line through it or ”), which tells you more about the suffix/prefix thing… (Yes, you could name your child Oddbjoerg or Aasny ^^) (The Norwegian vowels makes this a bit hard… I apologise if my using them makes this post unreadable… It looks fine to me as I have a Norwegian IP ^^)
[name]Annika[/name] is one of my favorite names! Thanks for answering my question.
My aunt who is half Norwegian is named [name]Violette[/name].
Her youngest daughter, [name]Karen[/name] [name]Annette[/name] is named after two Norwegian relatives.
[name]How[/name] do you pronounce [name]Magnus[/name]? [name]Filip[/name]?
No problem [name]Susan[/name]! I’m glad to be of help ^^
[name]Filip[/name] is pronounced almost identically in Norwegian and English as well, except for perhaps a slight extra stress on the i in Norwegian. Making fI-lip…
[name]Magnus[/name] has more stress on the s, just making it more audible, and the majority add an extra n to make MANG-nus, but this is very dependent on dialect as well and how good you are at articulating yourself… The a is also a little different, more like the a in [name]Maria[/name] than [name]Mary[/name] I think? I’m not sure if it makes any sense, so let me know if anything is hard to understand…
Norwegian is a very straightforward language when it comes to pronunciation… We usually say things the way they’re written without any extra letters to make it harder…
Oddny is for a girl, yes, and it’s supercute! It does have the Odd part though, which might pose a problem ^^ It’s a bit dated in Norway where we’re all over the melodious names like [name]Emma[/name] and [name]Leander[/name], but I’d be thrilled to meet a little Oddny!
And I don’t mind about my thread becoming something else, I absolutely adore helping out Although I wouldn’t mind some more insights on the pronunciations… I can be more confident about them when I have many people agreeing with me ^^
Norway is gorgeous! I had the pleasure of being able to visit about ten years ago for only about three days! It was wonderful. I have a few questions for you about names! [name]How[/name] do you prounounce Anethe? [name]Marin[/name]? [name]Iselin[/name]? [name]Siri[/name]? Are these popular names in Norway? speaking of that, what are the most popular names in Norway? I’m sorry this turned out to be like 70 questions! thanks!
Dearest, I think you will have to do a Norwegian blog for [name]Pam[/name] and [name]Linda[/name]! What you say about Norwegian names is so very interesting! I would really like to learn more and by the sound of it, other Nameberries would like to as well. When I was an aupair in [name]France[/name], my best friend there was Norwegian (also an aupair) called [name]Astrid[/name] - I really [name]LOVE[/name] this name. Is it now considered old-fashioned? ([name]Astrid[/name] and Oddny would both be my age - i.e. in their 50s)
I’m actually thinking about going to [name]England[/name] as an au pair next year, in the Cornwall area (where [name]River[/name] [name]Tamar[/name] is, or so google tells me) which is a fun coincidence if you ask me ^^ This gives me hope that my favoured pronunciation of [name]Tamar[/name] will be the one people stick to if I end up in [name]England[/name] for good…