[name]How[/name] would you pronounce this name?
ro-WEN-a? or ro-WEEN-a?
I like roWENa but not roWEENa, and am wondering are they both acceptable pronunciations? Or is one more traditional than the other? If I wanted it to be roWENa, would it always be mispronounced?
I looked it up and it is pronounced [name]RoWEEna[/name], which is also how I would say it if I read it. I do like [name]RoWENa[/name] better though, but I don’t know enough about the name to say if it would be a faux pas to just make it pronounced that way for you or not…
This is my dilemma with this name, too. I thought [name]Ro[/name]-wen-uh and loved it but when I asked around I got a lot of [name]Ro[/name]-wee-nuh which I don’t like nearly as much.
I would usually pronounce it as [name]Ro[/name]-ween-a but then I worked with a lady who pronounced it [name]Ro[/name]-wen-a! She was from the Philippines. now I think of the name as [name]Ro[/name]-wen-a. I’m sure you could pronounce it this way, you would just have to correct people. I actually do think [name]Ro[/name]-wen-a sounds much prettier (not a fan of the ‘wee’ sound).
[name]Rowena[/name] is the middle name of my youngest daughter, [name]Scarlett[/name]. We pronounce it Row-enn-uh. All my family and friends instantly pronounced it like that too. Not sure whether its a welsh thing or not but thats how everyone I know pronounces it.
I have also just looked up the name and found that there are three ways to pronouce it: Row-EEN-uh, Row-enn-uh and Rowne-uh.
Thanks for the responses! So I think I will put this one on my list since it seems [name]Ro[/name]-wen-a is acceptable enough although maybe not the traditional pronunciation. I think it is uncommon enough that most people probably won’t have a pronunciation really ingrained in their mind. Though that does bring up if I would choose a name that people won’t know how to pronounce. Not the end of the world, but I have that issue myself with the name [name]Kirsten[/name] and have to constantly correct people.
Then my other consideration is if I could pronounce it [name]Ro[/name]-wen-a if I could potentially use the nickname [name]Wendy[/name]. [name]Wendy[/name] is kind of growing on me as a nn but I don’t like it on its own, nor do I really like the name [name]Gwendolyn[/name].