Too hard to spell/say?

Writers' Corner
1

The surname of my central characters (they are siblings) is McReigner. I do not know if it is a real surname, however that doesn’t matter as it is fantasy story.

Questions:

  1. What was your initial pronunciation of McReigner?
  2. Would you have trouble spelling if you had to?
  3. Is it unpleasant on the eyes?

I pronounce it mick-[name_u]RAY[/name_u]-ner.

2
  1. I said [name_m]Mick[/name_m]-[name_u]RAY[/name_u]-ner, just like how you say it.
  2. I think there would be a couple different spellings that I would consider if I had to spell it. McRainer and McRayner would be possibilities, but I think McReigner works just fine.
  3. I think it looks nice.

I don’t think its too difficult to pronounce. Readers may get it wrong here and there, but I don’t think that’s a big issue. McReigner is fairly intuitive because of the word “reign”.

3

I say it muh-KRAY-na, because I have an Australian accent :stuck_out_tongue: But I don’t think it’s too difficult in any case - like 123names, I think the existence of “reign” as a dictionary word makes it fairly intuitive.

I might have trouble spelling it if I had to, only because there are so many possible combinations that make the “ay” sound (ae, ai, ay, ei, ey, ait… even agh and augh and oe sometimes). But that’s true of a heck of a lot of names, especially if you have regular contact with other languages (or at least other languages’ names).

I think it’s quite easy on the eyes. “[name_u]Reign[/name_u]” is quite a graceful word [name_f]IMO[/name_f], so I like how this looks.

4

I would pronounce it like you do.

And I think the spelling is fine.

5

I like the name! The spelling is fine :slight_smile:

6

I think it sounds like a real name and I would pronounce it the same way as you. I’d probably lean to McRaynor for spelling, but any way works.

7

Yup. My thoughts ^^^^^

8

I think it’s fine, as others have said the similarity with the word ‘reign’ means it’s fairly easy to work out how to pronounce it, but even if people are getting it ‘wrong’ in their own heads I don’t think it would become a barrier to engaging in the story. One of my protagonists has the surname Jankowski, and I’m sure some people without a vague understanding of Polish will struggle, but so long as they it doesn’t affect their enjoyment of the story I’m not too worried.

9

I’d pronounce it the same way you do. There’s nothing wrong with the spelling, I really like it.

10

I would definitely pronounce it “muhk-[name_u]RAIN[/name_u]-uh”; more-or-less the same as you (:
I don’t think anyone would have a problem with getting the idea.