Zinnia

Girl Names
1

[name]How[/name] do you pronounce it?

ZEEN-yuh

ZIN-ee-uh

ZIN-yuh

???

I’ve always said it like the first, but have heard all three…

Thanks!

2

I pronounce it ZIN-ee-uh, I could be wrong.

3

I pronounce it ‘ZIN-ee-a’, but it’s almost indistinguishable from ‘ZIN-ya’. I have never heard ‘zeen-yuh’.

4

ZIN-ee-uh…I’ve never heard another pronunciation.

5

A cross between zin and zeen, and ya.

6

Thanks!

My grandmother said Zeen-ya, as did a green-thumb I used to work for.

But perhaps it’s a [name]Texas[/name]-Mexico thing. In Spanish i is pronounced like a long e. That would explain it!

7

I’m from Pennsylvania. My great-grandmother and grandmother say ZEEN-ya, but any of the younger family members (myself included) say ZIN-ee-a. Perhaps a generational switch in pronunciation?

8

hmmm…generational switch seems likely. i just stumbled upon a gardener’s blog in which the author writes that her mother and grandmother both pronounced the flower zeen-ya.

very interesting. i really love the name(pronounced the “old-fashioned” way), but would I forever be correcting people on the pronunciation? probably.

:?

9

I pronounced it zin-ee-ah and have never heard of any other pronunciation. Btw - great name! I love most flower names, and this is a lovely one!

10

The correct pronunciation is with the short I sound, Zin, like pin. The flower is named after the botanist [name_m]Johann[/name_m] Zinn. It’s a [name_m]German[/name_m] name, and the name Zinn is pronounced like tsin. Short I

However, somehow it got changed and a large number of people say Zeen ya.

11

Zin nee ah

12

[name_f]Zinnia[/name_f] is very pretty

13

Always pronounced it Zin-ee-uh