How to pick a multilingual name

I’ve been meaning to start a discussion here about [name_f]Clare[/name_f] [name_u]Green[/name_u]'s blog post Picking the Perfect Multilingual Name that came out a couple of months ago.

I know a lot of Berries need to find names that work in multiple different languages or have already named a multilingual child (or, you know, are trying to figure out how a name would work across different languages for fun).

What kind of multilingual names would you/did you go for, and do they fit into any of the categories in the blog post?

Personally, I found [name_f]Clare[/name_f]'s tips helpful - we’re hoping to name a Finnish-[name_f]English[/name_f] child within the next year or so :crossed_fingers:, and organising names we’ve considered into these 5 categories has clarified our options.


1. Universal (names that are the same across languages)

Summary

Technically, none of these names are pronounced exactly the same in Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f], but they are so close I think they count.

[name_f]Emma[/name_f]
[name_f]Matilda[/name_f]
[name_f]Sofia[/name_f]
[name_u]Maria[/name_u]
[name_f]Camilla[/name_f]
[name_f]Mia[/name_f]
[name_m]Anton[/name_m]
[name_u]Oliver[/name_u]
[name_m]Sebastian[/name_m]
[name_u]Noel[/name_u]

I can’t say the names in this category are my favourite - most of them are on my list only because they are the same across Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f], and neither of us particularly like them as names. It feels a like a compromise too far to pick a name we don’t love just because it works perfectly across both languages. We might still consider using [name_f]Matilda[/name_f] or [name_m]Anton[/name_m] but they’re not at the top of our list.

2. Chameleon (adapts across languages)

Summary

[name_m]Leo[/name_m] → Finnish pronunciation: Leh-oh
[name_u]Benjamin[/name_u] → [name_m]Ben[/name_m]-yah-min
[name_m]Lucas[/name_m] → Luukas
[name_f]Erica[/name_f] → Eerika
[name_f]Sylvia[/name_f] → [name_f]Sylvia[/name_f] or [name_f]Silvia[/name_f] (These are pronounced differently in Finnish. [name_f]Silvia[/name_f] sounds like the [name_f]English[/name_f] [name_f]Sylvia[/name_f]. The letter Y, on the other hand, makes a vowel sound that [name_f]English[/name_f] doesn’t have, but it’s kinda like the British pronunciation of moon.)
[name_m]Henry[/name_m] → [name_u]Henri[/name_u]
[name_u]Constantine[/name_u] → [name_u]Konstantin[/name_u]
[name_f]Maya[/name_f] → [name_f]Maija[/name_f]
[name_f]Isla[/name_f] → [name_f]Aila[/name_f]
[name_m]Edwin[/name_m] → [name_m]Edvin[/name_m]
[name_m]Emil[/name_m] → [name_m]Eemil[/name_m]
[name_f]Elvira[/name_f] → [name_f]Elviira[/name_f]
[name_f]Elvie[/name_f] → [name_f]Elvi[/name_f]
[name_f]Mary[/name_f] → [name_f]Meri[/name_f]
[name_f]Louisa[/name_f] → Loviisa
[name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] - [name_m]Nikolas[/name_m]

Some of our favourites fall into this category (and I love the idea of meeting the two languages in the middle and going with a hybrid of the two like [name_m]Lukas[/name_m] and [name_f]Erika[/name_f] :heart: ).

To be honest though, I’m only seriously considering names that are spelled differently but still pronounced nearly the same. I’m fluent in both Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f] and I’m used to pronouncing, for example, [name_f]Sylvia[/name_f] and [name_u]Benjamin[/name_u] differently depending on which language I’m speaking and I’d honestly find it difficult to decide which pronunciation to stick to… I think I would keep switching between them depending on which language I’m speaking and find that concept dizzying.

3. Hybrid (1st name from one language, middle from the other)

While we definitely want to include both a Finnish and an [name_f]English[/name_f] name in our combos (like [name_m]Edwin[/name_m] [name_m]Otso[/name_m] or [name_f]Elvi[/name_f] [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f]), in the blog post this refers to calling a child by their 1st name in one language and their middle in the other because there simply aren’t any names that work in both languages. Although Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f] aren’t particularly compatible, there is some common ground between the two, so we probably won’t be doing this.

Still, I do find the idea exciting and started toying with the idea of combos where the first and middle names are completely unusable in the other language:

Summary

[name_u]Harper[/name_u] Tyyne
[name_f]Quenna[/name_f] Säde
Helinä [name_u]Lane[/name_u]
[name_m]Väinö[/name_m] Hawthrone
[name_u]Montgomery[/name_u] Nuutti
Nyyrikki [name_m]Huckleberry[/name_m]

We have also thought about double barrelling a Finnish and an [name_f]English[/name_f] name to go for a similar hybrid effect so that our child could choose to go by either or both depending on the context, like [name_f]Lilja[/name_f]-[name_f]Belle[/name_f], [name_f]Venla[/name_f]-[name_f]Fern[/name_f], or [name_f]Helmi[/name_f]-[name_f]Alice[/name_f]. (These lovely suggestions came from @hyacinthbucket - thank you, [name_f]Lilian[/name_f]! :heart:) A part of me worries about problems with spelling/using a multilingual double barrelled name and if that would cause our child a lot of headache, but I still absolutely love the idea.

4. Decisive (a name from one language everyone can pronounce)

These are the types of names I’ve spent the most time looking for and have managed to create a fairly solid list of names that we like & are easy to pronounce for both Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers, like…

Summary

[name_u]Atlas[/name_u]
[name_f]Helmi[/name_f]
[name_m]Edwin[/name_m]
[name_u]Kennedy[/name_u]
[name_u]Alva[/name_u]
[name_m]Magnus[/name_m]
[name_f]Magnolia[/name_f]
[name_f]Fenja[/name_f]
[name_f]Fenna[/name_f]
[name_f]Freya[/name_f]
[name_m]Nikolai[/name_m]
[name_u]Artemis[/name_u]
[name_m]Monty[/name_m]
[name_f]Venla[/name_f]
[name_u]Romilly[/name_u]
[name_f]Saga[/name_f]
[name_f]Viveka[/name_f]
[name_f]Senja[/name_f]

Establishing some basic pronunciation rules has helped me figure this out, and if you’re trying to do something similar, I’d highly recommend making a list of the sounds that work/don’t work. (In our case, the name has to end in a vowel sound, S, or N; it can’t contain consonants J, Z, or Q; Finnish vowel sounds Ä, Ö, and Y are out; no Finnish names with double consonants; and no [name_f]English[/name_f] names with diphthongs.)

These names are pretty strong contenders - I like how simple and straightforward this solution is.

5. Playful (name in one language & nickname in other)

None of the names we’ve considered fit this category, but there are a few options here like naming a child [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] and calling them [name_u]Aleksi[/name_u] in Finnish. [name_u]Or[/name_u] Talvikki could go by [name_f]Vicky[/name_f] here in [name_u]Scotland[/name_u], and Ruusu could be [name_f]Rose[/name_f] to her [name_f]English[/name_f] speaking friends and family.

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I’m hoping to raise my future children multilingual, so I look for multilingual names

My “must” requirements are:

  • No special characters that doesn’t exist in the other language, such as W, Q, X, Ş, İ, Ğ and others.
  • Similar/same pronunciations

My current favourites are:
[name_f]Vera[/name_f] (veh-rah in [name_f]English[/name_f], weh-rah in Turkish)
[name_m]Leon[/name_m] (lee-on/leh-on)
[name_f]Roza[/name_f] (nicknamed [name_f]Rose[/name_f] in [name_f]English[/name_f])
Mayıs (nicknamed [name_f]May[/name_f] in [name_f]English[/name_f]) (breaks the rules, so this one is only if we live in Tr)
[name_f]Eliza[/name_f] (ee-lie-za/eh-liz-a)
[name_f]Helena[/name_f] (hell-eh-nah in both)
[name_f]Matilda[/name_f] (a very slight pronunciation difference, almost same)
[name_u]Ara[/name_u] (are-uh in both)

Most of these are “decisive”, they’re not exactly international but make sense in both languages.

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I’m trying to cover [name_f]English[/name_f], [name_m]German[/name_m] and Spanish (and to a lesser extend Catalan) with my name choices; as both [name_m]German[/name_m] and Spanish are pretty compatible, and [name_f]English[/name_f] generally “adopting” names very naturally (definitely more than the other two), my focus mainly lies on finding names that I actually like in all languages.

It’s a good thing I’m very fond of latin or latinized names as they tend to cross the language barrier perfectly → [name_f]Flora[/name_f], [name_f]Clara[/name_f], [name_m]Victor[/name_m], [name_f]Cecilia[/name_f]

Most Germanic names work great, too → [name_f]Emma[/name_f], [name_f]Ada[/name_f], [name_f]Odilia[/name_f]; [name_m]Edgar[/name_m],

There are some, however, that do not travel as well → [name_f]Rose[/name_f], which sounds more like [name_m]Jose[/name_m] in Spanish and doesn’t appeal nearly as much in [name_m]German[/name_m] either.
[name_f]Mabel[/name_f], which I quite like as mah-BEL (or MAH-bel but with a Spanish accent) but not as the [name_m]German[/name_m] MAH-bil (you could make them say may-bel but I prefer natural pronunciations)
[name_m]Arthur[/name_m] - which I love in [name_m]German[/name_m] and like in Spanish but I don’t love the [name_f]English[/name_f] prounciation
[name_m]Henry[/name_m] - which doesn’t really exist in Spanish
[name_m]Hugo[/name_m] - works really well but while I love the [name_f]English[/name_f] hugh-go and [name_m]German[/name_m] who-go, I don’t love the Spanish oo-go.

With those go back and forth between
“if the child grows up mainly in the country where the name sounds great, I’ll still use it and find sweet nicknames”
and
“perhaps I should find longer forms that work better across all languages - [name_f]Rosalind[/name_f], [name_f]Amabel[/name_f], even if I don’t love them as much - and just [name_f]Rose[/name_f], [name_f]Mabel[/name_f] as nicknames.”

Another thing to consider is the spelling, [name_m]German[/name_m] and [name_f]English[/name_f] like -ths-, even if they’re pronounced differently ([name_m]Arthur[/name_m] is AH-toor in [name_m]German[/name_m] but [name_m]Artur[/name_m] is also used) while Spanish tends to stay away from it.

What I’ve been doing lately is looking at my family tree and finding names that double as honor names for both family (even if generations back) as well as heritage; in some cases it will cost me the flow of a combo, but I suppose it’ll have to do.

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Thank you for bringing this topic, I’ll look at the blog post for sure.

My husband and I are looking for names that are easy to pronounce in [name_u]French[/name_u] and [name_f]English[/name_f], as we live in a bilingual area. Our favorite names at the moment fall into the universal and decisive categories. [name_u]French[/name_u] and [name_f]English[/name_f] share the same alphabet, so the task is definitely doable.

Our favorite girl names at the moment: [name_f]Alice[/name_f], [name_f]Arielle[/name_f], [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f], [name_f]Daphne[/name_f], [name_f]Delphine[/name_f]

We are more set on boy names: [name_m]Bastien[/name_m], [name_m]Mathias[/name_m], [name_u]Tristan[/name_u]

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I’m Finnish too and in some 10-15 years when I’ll have children, I do plan to raise them multilingual. I mainly look for names that work in Finnish, Spanish and [name_f]English[/name_f] - Spanish because I might move to Spain sometime in the future and [name_f]English[/name_f] because it’s such a common language.

However, finding names like this is quite difficult. Of the names I love, [name_u]Oliver[/name_u] fits this definition the best. Its pronunciation is nearly the same in so many languages, and it is common in so many countries.

Luca is also said almost identically in [name_f]English[/name_f], Finnish and Spanish, although in Finland the spelling [name_m]Luka[/name_m] is way more common. [name_m]Victor[/name_m], [name_m]Nicolas[/name_m], [name_m]Oscar[/name_m], [name_u]Gabriel[/name_u], [name_m]Adrian[/name_m] and [name_m]Alfonso[/name_m] also work in many languages with slight differences in how they are usually said or written.

What it comes to girl names I love, [name_f]Isabella[/name_f] is pretty multilingual (though in Spanish it would be said like Isabeya). [name_f]Amalia[/name_f], [name_f]Theresa[/name_f], [name_f]Henrietta[/name_f], [name_f]Valentina[/name_f] and [name_f]Viviana[/name_f] also work in many languages. [name_f]Victoria[/name_f] is international as well, but it’s said pretty differently in all [name_f]English[/name_f], Finnish and Spanish. I don’t love the Finnish pronunciation, it’s somehow so harsh.

This response became so long, I guess I had so much to say about multilingual names😅

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This is why [name_f]Zelda[/name_f] is one of my top names – the pronunciation is relatively consistent throughout most languages, such as Russian and Spanish. That generally remains my goal when picking out names. Names that could also work in Russian and Spanish from my UC are [name_f]Ohanna[/name_f], [name_f]Olivia[/name_f], and [name_m]Lazarus[/name_m].

Great post!

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Oliver is lovely! A lot of your choices work so wonderfully (glad to see [name_m]Adrian[/name_m] and [name_f]Valentina[/name_f] on your list). Trying to find a name that works in three languages is a tall order, so good job, @Randomdude555. :smiley:

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[name_f]My[/name_f] brothers and I were the first generation to not be encouraged to learn a second (third, fourth) language on my dad’s side and the second on my mom’s side until it was much too late to grasp the new language as easily as we would have if we were young when learning (see blurred note below). I spent some time learning languages on my own, but had no one to practice with which restricted my ability to make the new languages concrete.

The few relatives and family friends that spoke various languages weren’t around enough for me to learn from, but we did attempt to get somewhere during our sporadic visits (the most memorable are my cousins trying to teach me ASL during the short get-togethers we would have during our visits, my surrogate grandma trying to teach me [name_m]German[/name_m] during family parties and my dad’s business partner’s girlfriend teaching me what she could in Mandarin during the hour long plane flights each summer). [name_f]My[/name_f] kids will be raised multilingual, with the ability to travel, live and work across the globe.

I look at multilingual names in the same way that @Luminen has written out. I pay very careful attention to pronunciations, meanings and histories of both the [name_f]English[/name_f] variations and the international variations as I come across them. I also have the preference for some of the international spellings of names over the [name_f]English[/name_f] variations. In addition, if my kids are going to be going by a nickname, I also look at making sure that it is able to be used in multiple languages.

Note: I’m not surprised that there wasn’t any encouragement as, when I lost my hearing, I was told they wouldn’t learn ASL and I better figure out how to communicate with them in [name_f]English[/name_f] verbally. Neither would learn to communicate in ASL with my hard of hearing cousins who my dad grew up with either.

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I did a Nameberry article on this a few years ago which gave my thoughts on the subject. Opinion still pretty much the same! Baby Name Advice: Straddling two cultures | Nameberry

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Great article. Thank you for sharing as I didn’t see it the first time it was posted.

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Currently we are leaning towards the third option, there’s not a ton of options for names that fit with option one or two since Japanese and [name_f]English[/name_f] have no linguistic relation, so the handful of names that do work ([name_f]Karen[/name_f], [name_u]Lisa[/name_u], [name_f]Mina[/name_f], [name_f]Sara[/name_f]/h [name_u]Marie[/name_u]/a, [name_m]Ken[/name_m] etc) are very common with multicultural kids (and one of them is my name anyway) so they’re not really options we are looking at.

Plus we like the idea of having a strong identity in both cultures so having two names, one that fits both cultures (though I do have a lot more wiggle room with names being American) seems like the best bet for us.
Edit: We will probably still call them by their first name in non-Japanese speaking places, since I don’t think any of the Japanese names we are looking at are too hard to pronounce, by still having a “western name” as the middle name more for heritage reasons.

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Thank you for sharing your article! The cultural connotations of a name absolutely play a huge part in finding a usable name as well beyond just pronunciation/spelling. The [name_f]Eva[/name_f] example is a great one. (We live in a country neither of us grew up in, so I do sometimes worry we might miss something like this… but just hoping it would come up when we research names.)

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I feel the same way - it’s important to me to use names from both cultures to have that sense of heritage/connection to both sides of our child’s identity. I also like the idea of using the name of the less dominant culture as the first name (e.g. Japanese name in an [name_f]English[/name_f] speaking country) to help your child stay connected to that side of their identity when their environment is dominated more by the other culture.

I love how often we end up saying things like this about multilingual names - they’re never exactly the same in different languages but well, close enough. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I think this is really important to highlight - at least I find it easy to get too focused on finding names that work in all the languages we use that I can lose sight of what really matters: do we actually love the way the name sounds. There are definitely names that technically would work, but I don’t like the pronunciation in one language or the other.

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Yes :grin: In [name_f]Matilda[/name_f]’s case, I’d write both as mah-till-dah but they don’t sound same :grin:

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My family speaks only [name_f]English[/name_f] and live in the US. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband’s family speaks Spanish and some of them (mainly his mom’s generation and older) speak Nahuatl. They live in Mexico and speak no [name_f]English[/name_f] at all. [name_f]My[/name_f] family speaks no Spanish except a few key words.

Our oldest daughter is [name_f]Noemi[/name_f] [name_f]Xochitl[/name_f]. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband suggested [name_f]Xochitl[/name_f], which is the Nahuatl word for flower. Since we are living in the US, I said we could use it as a middle name because it would be hard for American teachers to pronounce and spell. [name_f]My[/name_f] daughter can say her middle name fine, but my family still can’t pronounce it properly. Her first name we pronounce like No-emmy here but No-ay-MEE ([name_f]Noemí[/name_f]) in Mexico.

Our second daughter is [name_f]Kiana[/name_f] [name_f]Rosalie[/name_f]. [name_f]Kiana[/name_f] is not unheard of in the US, and it is easy to pronounce in Spanish. We pronounce it as Key-ah-nah both here and in Mexico. The Spanish language rarely uses the letter K, but they do have the word kilo. [name_f]Rosalie[/name_f] was easy to pronounce in both languages also. Although some people I’ve said [name_f]Rosalie[/name_f] to in Mexico think I’m saying [name_f]Ro[/name_f]-sah-leen, not [name_f]Ro[/name_f]-sah-lee.

We are having our third baby in [name_u]August[/name_u], and we had wanted to name a boy after my husband’s grandfather, Zenón. I worry about this name being pronounced differently in [name_f]English[/name_f], since it’s almost unheard of and accent marks aren’t used in the US.

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Ideally I would like names that work in [name_f]English[/name_f], Chinese, and Vietnamese but it’s a bit difficult so most of my multilingual names would probably go under Chameleon* instead of Universal. [name_u]Bao[/name_u], [name_u]Hong[/name_u], and [name_u]Lan[/name_u] probably works best in all 3 languages. I’ve also considred Hybrid but I’ll probably most likely go with Decisively [name_f]English[/name_f]/western because I usually like [name_f]English[/name_f]/western names better. There are a few names in which I could do Playful but not many.

Playful ex:
[name_u]Phoenix[/name_u] would be called [name_f]Phuong[/name_f] in Vietnamese because Phượng means [name_u]Phoenix[/name_u].
[name_u]Sky[/name_u] would be called [name_m]Thien[/name_m]/Tian in Vietnamese/Chinese because Thiên/Tiān (天) means sky or heaven
[name_f]Anya[/name_f] and [name_u]Hero[/name_u]/Hiro can be called [name_u]Anh[/name_u] because [name_u]Anh[/name_u] means [name_u]Hero[/name_u] in Vietnamese and is pronounced like the first syllable of [name_f]Anya[/name_f]
[name_m]Ben[/name_m] can be called [name_u]Binh[/name_u] (Bình) in Vietnamese because they sound similar though not exact
Any [name_f]Rose[/name_f] name like [name_f]Rosalind[/name_f], [name_f]Rosalie[/name_f], [name_f]Rosabelle[/name_f], [name_f]Wildrose[/name_f] could be called [name_u]Hong[/name_u] since Hồng means pink or rose in Vietnamese and Hóng is red in Chinese
[name_f]Jewel[/name_f], [name_f]Gem[/name_f], or [name_f]Gemma[/name_f] could be called Ngoc because Ngọc means [name_f]Jewel[/name_f]/Gem in Vietnamese
[name_f]Claire[/name_f] and [name_f]Katherine[/name_f] variants could be called Qing since Qīng 清 can mean clear, clean, and purity in Chinese
[name_f]Victoria[/name_f]/Victor can be called [name_u]Khai[/name_u]/Kai since Kǎi 凱 means [name_u]Victory[/name_u]. I could also just do [name_u]Kai[/name_u] since it’s simple enough across all 3 languages though it’s supposed to have the ‘h’ in Vietnamese

*Edit: I said Chameleon but what I meant was that I intend to keep the same spelling across languages but since there are sounds and tones in one language that’s not in the other 2, most would be slightly different pronunciations even though I’m keeping the same spelling. I’m not sure what category this would go under, maybe decisive? I would not consider these names universal; I’m just going to make the other speakers learn it as best as they can. Like English speakers won’t know how to say Ngoc or Thien if they see it on paper but I’m going to make them learn to say “Knock” and “tee-ehn” and call that close enough. This is how I see immigrants here do it and as long as you don’t mind English speakers to not say it 100% right, it seems to work fine. Other than Kai, Bao, Hong, and maybe Lan and Anh, there’s very few names that all 3 cultures can intuitively know the pronunciation based on spelling.

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Really interesting post and I definately agree with your edit, I wouldn’t expect people not familiar with Japanese or Japanese names to pronounce the names perfectly; but from personal experience, having people pronounce my name a few different ways depending on where I am and what language I’m speaking doesn’t bother me at all, so hopefully a kid would feel the same way and that it’s not a huge deal if someone says [name_u]Akari[/name_u] with a rhotic [name_f]English[/name_f] r rather than the tapped Japanese r. Regardless, if they’re someone who you regularly interact with they’ll learn to pronounce your name as best as they can.

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Finally had time to answer this! So I try to find names that work in Spanish. [name_f]My[/name_f] go to is Chameleon, or another option of the version of the name (say [name_u]James[/name_u] to [name_m]Santiago[/name_m]). Some names sound pretty much the same as the [name_f]English[/name_f] pronunciation, but others sound different.

Some names that change pronunciations are-

Osiris- oh-SYE-riss —-> oh-SEE-DEES (the R sounds like a D)
[name_m]Lucius[/name_m]- loo-SHUS —-> loo-see-oos
[name_m]Lazarus[/name_m]- laz-err-US —-> las-ah-ROOS
[name_m]Aurelius[/name_m]- OR-ell-ee-US —-> or-EEL-ee-oos
[name_m]Ulysses[/name_m]- YOU-leh-sees —-> OOH-leh-sees
[name_f]Mavis[/name_f]- MAY-vis —-> MAH-vis
[name_f]Helena[/name_f]- hel-en-uh —-> EH-len-ah (the H pretty much goes away)
[name_f]Theodosia[/name_f]- THEE-oh-doe-shuh —-> THEH-oh-doe-see-ah
[name_f]Phillipa[/name_f]- [name_u]Phil[/name_u]-ihp-uh —-> PHEE-leep-ah
[name_f]Odelia[/name_f]- oh-DEEL-ee-uh —-> oh-DELI-ya
[name_f]Eupraxia[/name_f]- YOU-prax-ee-uh —-> ooh-PRASH-ee-ah

Then there’s names like [name_f]Wednesday[/name_f] where they would just go by [name_f]Wednesday[/name_f], not the actual word for it like when your saying the days of the week. It’s super important to me that my family can say the name, at least mostly.

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