Another reason to hope for a boy

Naomi named this baby months ago, back when she made her pronouncement that we are having "a girl baby!" We want to use it. We still haven't figured out how to spell it.

MARE-ee-ah. Marya. Merya. Miria. Mereya.

Naomi will volunteer this name if you talk to her long enough. She's quite wedded to this name, and has never wavered about it. She's told all her teachers, relatives, and random people on the street about her baby sister Mareya. They've all taken guesses as to how to spell it, and no one can come up with a solution to the mispronunciation problem.

Pronunciation is important to me. It would be important to you too if you grew up with a name like Kateri. "Katter-eye?" "Katrina?" "Katolia?" Um, NO. Kuh-TEER-ee.

We've considered dodging the whole question and naming the baby Miriam, which we both really like, and sounds the most similar to Marea. We're worried that Naomi wouldn't make the transition to calling the baby Miriam (so neither would we), and this kid would have a name on her birth certificate that, basically, isn't hers.

Josh's contribution? "How about, if the baby's a boy, we name him Mileaux?" Thanks Josh. You're a big help.

Comments

[Emma]

How about Maria or Marie? They seems to sound similar, and they're known names.

[kristen]

I think Marya (maybe throw an h in there - Maryah?) is the only way to go. Everything else looks strange to my eyes. And just to be fair, if it IS a girl, perhaps you should change the spelling of Naomi's name to Nayomih? Ha. Very expectant to be Aunt Kristen, again.

[J]

What about Méria with an accent over the e? I really like Miriam, that might be a good option. I think you're going to have a boy, though...

[qp]

Merria? Meria? It seems like the first vowel has to be an E, otherwise people'll try to say it "ah." Hunh.

[Amy]

I LOVE Miriam. Very pretty.

I also think the name she is pronouncing could be a really cute nn for Maren (a favorite of mine), Marian or Marisol.

Other options...because I'm sure you don't have better things to worry about right now (ha ha)

MÁRIA - Hungarian version of Maria. MAH-ree-a

MARJA - MAHR-ya (finnish form of Maria)

MARIJA - another finnish (or Slovak?) name I think. MAHR-ee-ya

[Lisa V]

Aubree named Linley "Baby Sunshine" before she was born, and everyone was sure we would call her "Sunny" but we stuck with Linley.
Mason renamed Aubree "Rory" and she goes by it as a nickname with the family. My niece Miranda was called "Mina" by Mallory and it has stuck with family too. We are used to living with two names I guess. Good luck, thinking of you and hoping for a peaceful birth.

[Lilian]

How interesting all this discussion.

I personally like Mareya, but it seems people do find it strange. Miriam is a good compromise (I've also seen Meriam or Meriem, with one or two r), even if you do pronounce it differently.

Kelvin also decided on Linton's name, not on his own, though, we did give him a few options of names starting with "Li" (not very easy for boys), and he chose Linton one morning when I was 7 months along and stuck to it.

Well, I hope you can decide on names before he/she gets here, since it's no use hoping to get either a boy or a girl :)

[Tanya]

How about Mairea. I think the fewer letters the better and spelled this way, it has just enough to imply the correct pronunciation.

[giddy]

commenting on Amy's comment above--my middle name is Marija--which is the Lithuanian form of Maria--and it is pronounced exactly like Maria. Maybe in another language it's MAH-ree-yuh, but not Lithuanian. I also concur with GP that Merria might be the way to go to get a "MARE" pronunciation. But Miriam is also good. good luck!

[goodsandwich]

I like Merria too -- I would pronounce that correctly on the first try. I wouldn't go for "Marea" if you live around a lot of Spanish speakers -- it means "dizzy" in Spanish.