I am due with our first baby soon and my husband and I keep going back and forth on the names we like for a girl. (We chose not to find out the sex) We have recently found the name [name_f]Carys[/name_f] and both really like it. We live in the northwest part of the US and the name is relatively unheard of here. Our only concern is how much she would have to correct people on the pronunciation of her name here. We don’t mind a little bit of corrections here and there, but don’t want her to have to correct people all the time.
[name_m]How[/name_m] would you pronounce [name_f]Carys[/name_f]?
[name_f]Do[/name_f] you think it will be butchered often or just occasionally?
Would you use [name_f]Carys[/name_f] or would you choose something a bit more mainstream for our area? Suggestions welcome! Other names we like are in my signature if needed.
I love [name_f]Cerys[/name_f] and have this on my list, a top contender. [name_f]Carys[/name_f] is lovely too, and I would pronounce it kah-RISS (whereas [name_f]Cerys[/name_f] would be keh-RISS), although I am British so it’s easy for us across the pond. Go with it if you love it, people will soon catch onto the spelling and pronunciation of it, and it’s a legitimate name too!
I knew a little [name_f]Carys[/name_f]. I did have some issues picking up here name since I always heard it and never saw it. I pronounce it Care-iss like the beginning of carry and the end of hiss. Before I heard it a lot though I kept trying to say something more like [name_f]Cherish[/name_f].
I pronounce it Care-iss, which is how I would want it to be pronounced.
I think it will only be butchered occasionally, but it would be better to spell it phonetically - [name_f]Caris[/name_f] (depending on how you want it to be pronounced).
I think [name_f]Carys[/name_f] is a lovely name! I’ve met a [name_f]Karis[/name_f] before and she was wonderful and beautiful! I think this name, when pronounced Care-iss, is gorgeous and would be perfect for you little girl.
In terms of the other names in your signature, I am a big fan of [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] and [name_f]Isla[/name_f]!
I live in [name_f]Canada[/name_f], and my instinct is to pronounce it CARE-iss. I imagine people would butcher the spelling some, but I think its pronunciation is fairly clear when you see it on paper (so, Starbucks baristas would come up with many misspellings, but I think a teacher reading it off a roll call list would probably be able to make it out).
Personally I’ve loved it since reading “The Robber [name_f]Bride[/name_f]”. It has a character named [name_f]Charis[/name_f], which (as far as I understand) is pronounced the same way but which I think would also be way more difficult for people to sound out. I vote that you use it, but be prepared to help people out with spelling/pronunciation at first.
I actually think the pronunciation is pretty obvious. Most everyone will see Car- and pronounce it “Kare” just like the familiar names, [name_u]Carey[/name_u], [name_f]Caroline[/name_f], etc. As for the -ys ending, i/y alternation is also pretty common in names. [name_m]How[/name_m] else than “iss” could you really say it anyway? The only likely problems I can foresee would be pronouncing the first syllable like the word “car” or people not looking closely enough and mistaking it for a more common name like [name_u]Carey[/name_u]. As far as unusual names go, I think this one is pretty non-problematic.
This is 100% true, but the issue is that most people with [name_u]North[/name_u] American accents do not differentiate between the sounds. Basically, people in the UK (and elsewhere) have two sounds where people from [name_u]North[/name_u] [name_u]America[/name_u] only have one, so not only are they usually not able to pronounce them differently, many people would not even be able to hear that there was a difference.
See the PP who posted that it would be the same sound as in [name_u]Carey[/name_u] and [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] - for people who make the distinction, [name_u]Carey[/name_u] and [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] don’t have the same a sound, but where OP is from, they do.
There are actually more cases of this - there are literally just more vowel sounds in British English than there are in American English.
So although this thread indicates that most people would pronounce it ‘wrong’ for the UK, it would really just be the name in an American accent, and therefore ‘right’ in an American context.
Thanks for everyone’s feedback! I’m wondering then, if all the Americans pronounce [name_f]Carys[/name_f] like care-iss and all the British/Europeans pronounce it car-iss, if it’s more of a dialect and accent difference maybe? We do like the care-iss pronunciation and we realize that’s not how it’s pronounced in Europe, but in [name_u]America[/name_u] that’s how most would say it because that’s phonetically correct for our speech. If we spelled it [name_f]Cerys[/name_f] people here would think it was sare-iss and that’s not what we want either.
So we are leaning towards spelling it [name_f]Carys[/name_f], pronouncing it care-iss, and realizing that the accent on the a would be different in Europe just like other names and words would be pronounced differently because of the differences between English and American English accents? I’m not really a fan of changing the spelling to karis or the like… thoughts?
No matter the spelling([name_f]Karis[/name_f], [name_f]Caris[/name_f], [name_f]Carys[/name_f], or [name_f]Charis[/name_f]) the primary pronunciation I hear is: Care-iss.
Our daughters name is [name_f]Charis[/name_f](pronounced: Chair-iss), even though I think it should be clear, she is always being called “Care-iss” or “Sherese”.
We have decided if we arw choosing unique names(or spellings) we just have to expect people to pronounce it wrong
I actually do know someone named [name_f]Carys[/name_f] and she pronounces it “care-iss”. She is American, so I’m thinking it is a regional thing, as other people have suggested.
