Love the name Rainer, especially since it honors my husband’s German lineage (he’s second generation American). However, I like it pronounced Ray-nur. I believe the correct German pronounciation is Rye-nur. Can anyone confirm? Is it weird to pronounce it Ray-nur? I don’t like the way Rye-nur sounds.
I would instinctively pronounce it RAY-ner. Based on my very quick research, it does seem like the [name_m]German[/name_m] pronounciation would be RYE-ner. If you’re in the US, I wouldn’t worry too much about using RAY-ner instead of RYE-ner
I would instinctively pronounce it as ray-nur here in the US and I’m sure most people here would. I honestly think he’d have more problems with the rye-nur pronunciation, even though it’s the traditional pronunciation the name isn’t popular enough for most people to know that.
I’d say it like Rain-er (trainer w/o the T) . It’s reception on either pronunciation likely depends on your location.
I’d pronounce it Ray-ner (aussie), there is also [name_m]Rayner[/name_m] or [name_f]Rayna[/name_f] which i’d pronounce the same way and i know a boy with this name, i think it’s the [name_m]Rayner[/name_m] spelling.
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Before I knew it was [name_m]German[/name_m] I said Rain-er. But I think the second vowel determines the pronunciation in [name_m]German[/name_m], so as soon as you said it was [name_m]German[/name_m] I mentally switched pronunciations. Honestly, it would bother me a bit to know I was knowingly mispronouncing a name. But I do agree that Rain-er is preferable, and if it doesn’t bother you, it’s fine.
Rye-nur would be the [name_m]German[/name_m] pronunciation, but I’ve met people with the surname [name_m]Rainer[/name_m] in the UK, pronounced as ray-ner.
The original pronunciation is closer to RY-ner than RAY-ner but the [name_m]German[/name_m] language uses a different kind of R than (American) [name_f]English[/name_f] and also most varieties of [name_m]German[/name_m] are non-rhotic (meaning the terminal R is not pronounced) while most American accents are rhotic. I feel that [name_m]Rainer[/name_m] is the kind of name that’s never going to be pronounced “correctly” unless you live in an area where [name_m]German[/name_m] is spoken. So I personally would not worry about trying to get people to use the [name_m]German[/name_m] pronunciation because it’s (probably) never going to happen.
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The [name_m]German[/name_m] pronunciation is RIE-nu (/ˈʁaɪ̯.nɐ/). If you like RAY-nər, why not spell it [name_m]Rayner[/name_m]?
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As some previous posters have said, the [name_m]German[/name_m] pronunciation is similar to RY-ner but [name_m]German[/name_m] uses a different r sound than [name_f]English[/name_f].
In an English-speaking country, I think you could definitely use [name_m]Rainer[/name_m] with the expected RAY-ner pronunciation, and it would still be a nod to your SO’s [name_m]German[/name_m] heritage IMO.
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[name_f]My[/name_f] initial thought was to pronounce it like the [name_m]Mountain[/name_m], (Ray-Neer)
I know a guy in his 30’s with this name and he pronounces it Ray-nur.
I speak both [name_f]English[/name_f] and [name_m]German[/name_m] so for me pronouncing it anything other than Rye-nur seems very counter-intuitive, I however think that in an anglophone environment you can use the Ray-nur pronounciation on the daily and probably noone is going to have a problem with it, especially because it seems more automatic for [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers. You could just spell it [name_m]Rayner[/name_m] then , too.