A pregnant woman has taken to social media to express her fear that she may have 'doomed' her daughter for life due to the name she and her husband have chosen. Despite loving the name, she worries that people will struggle to pronounce it correctly.
Unique name causes concern
In a post on Reddit, the mum-to-be revealed that she and her husband had settled on the name Araya, pronounced 'uh-ray-uh', with the middle name Avery. While she loves the name, she is concerned that it may be too difficult for others to say. She wrote: 'I'm having a girl, and nobody has said anything about the name being weird, yet I just want to make sure I'm not dooming my poor kid. Me and the dad chose Araya (uh-ray-uh) with the middle name Avery, is this bad??'
Reddit users weigh in
Commenters on the post were divided but mostly agreed that the name would require constant explanation. One user said: 'It's not terrible, but you’ll definitely always be explaining how to pronounce it.' Another added: 'I really, really dislike it. It's so clunky with Avery, too. Any chance you can go with Avery and find another middle name?' A third comment read: 'The fact that you had to explain how to pronounce it tells us it's not a good name.'
Many users noted that they would naturally assume Araya is a variation of Aria (pronounced Ah-ree-uh) or Ariah (pronounced Ar-eye-uh), rather than the intended 'uh-ray-uh'. The parents wanted the 'ray' sound instead of 'eye', which they felt complicated the name.
Mum reconsiders pronunciation
After reading the comments, the mum returned to her post to clarify that she originally wanted the name to be pronounced 'Ar-eye-uh', but changed her mind after family and friends said they would intuitively pronounce it 'Ah-ray-uh'. She explained: 'I'm seeing the general consensus is that it'll be mispronounced, and the middle name sounds clunky with it. Would like to say it originally was going to be pronounced (are-eye-uh), but funnily enough, the first group of people we texted about it thought it was pronounced the way we settled on!'
She added: 'I also thought because it's three standalone (a)s, with no (i)s or (e)s, most people would read it as (ay) instead of (eye) because (a) by itself doesn't make that sound phonetically.'
Future plans
The mum stated that she would reconsider the middle name but noted that the father is 'pretty set' on the Araya spelling, as it is a combination of both of their first names. She said: 'I think I'll workshop the middle name again, but the dad is pretty set on the spelling for the first name, it's a mix of both of our first names, and the only one of the mixes we tried that didn’t stand out to me as letter vomit. (Are-eye-uh) does sound good with the last name at least, thankfully.'
The couple continues to seek a resolution to their naming dilemma.
