Amaya

austenreader85

I had to take my DS to the ER last night due to a high fever, pain and other complications from an ear infection (that's been treated for 3 weeks and it's getting pretty freaking ridiculous).  He's doing fine now, resting and temperature is coming down.  While we were there they had to call people up for registration.  They had to call one little girl (probably around 2) by her last name only.  They specifically said "Last name Shifflett."  (That's not the real last name they called, but it was something else that is definitely only a last name and equally common in my area).  The mom explained to the little girl "Oh, that's us Amaya.  They can't say your name."

Um, it's not exactly my style but I've heard it before and it seems pretty straight forward, assuming there wasn't a crazy spelling involved like Am8ia or something.  The mom said it like she was totally used to it, not exasperated or anything, just like she knew that was the reason they said it that way.  The staff sees a lot of diverse groups and several other people (not the same girl though) had no problem saying Nikolai and not changing it to Nicholas, as an example. 

Just found that kind of interesting!  I never would have guessed that it would be that common for people to not even be able to attempt the name.

MommyLuvsMe1210

People almost never attempt to say my name (Janae, pronounced ja-nay). even when they "try" it comes out like "jay-nee" or  "ja-nay-uh". I wouldn't think that ja-nay is that hard but hey... I'm used to being called by my middle or last name at pubic/government offices

bearkatjen

Maybe it's because I grew up with a family that has this name as their lastname, but it seems like a VERY straightforward name. Maya is uncommon, and it's not much effort to add an "a". 

jlsimon56

That is bizarre.  

Amaya is actually on the list of multiethnic names, where we picked LO's name from.  Those sounds - a, m, a, y, a - are in every language, so anywhere Amaya goes, people would (in theory) be able to pronounce it.  IN THEORY, haha.   

mlf625

That's weird.  A good friend of mine has an Amaya and nobody ever has an issue with it. 

MommyLuvsMe1210:

People almost never attempt to say my name (Janae, pronounced ja-nay). even when they "try" it comes out like "jay-nee" or  "ja-nay-uh". I wouldn't think that ja-nay is that hard but hey... I'm used to being called by my middle or last name at pubic/government offices

OMG, yes.  My mom is Jenae and same thing.  She gets Jenna or Jeena allllll the time.  She's started going by Jen in her late 40s.  We gave DD the middle name Jenae only because we figured she'll very rarely have to deal with it being butchered since it's in the middle name slot!  Beautiful name, not sure why it's so hard for people to get? 

blingbean

I'm Indian American with a two syllable, 5 letter, completely phonetic name comprised of sounds that exist in pretty much ever language I have ever heard.  Even so, I've dealt with this for most of my life (especially in more rural/suburban places I've lived).  Even when folks do try to pronounce my name, they routinely add letters/syllables/sounds at will.

There are idiots everywhere.  I initially wanted to pick a baby name that would always be pronounceable on the first try, but realized that unless you name your kid "Kate" or something there will *always* be someone who f-s it up.  My revised criterion is to find a name that's easy enough to say that if you correct someone once they should never make a mistake again (unless they are an idiot ).  I would say Amaya solidly fits in that category.