Old-fashioned pronunciations
A hundred years ago, Nina and Maria were pronounced NY-nuh and muh-RY-yuh, according to baby name expert Cleveland Evans. Just as baby names fall in and out of fashion, so do pronunciations and spellings. Evans notes that, especially in women's names, "i" was often pronounced as a long I, until Spanish names became popular and the long E sound became more prominent. But today, perhaps thanks in part to pop star Mariah Carey, most parents who want to name their daughter muh-RY-yuh would tack an "h" on the end of Maria.
Sometimes, though, parents didn't know how to say a name—they just liked the way it looked. Evans says that several generations back, Candace was mistakenly pronounced kan-DAY-see and Desiree was DESS-ee-ray. In the late-1940s, around the time that actress Yvonne De Carlo was headlining on the silver screen, Evans reports a boomlet of babies born with the name Yvonne. But parents who had never heard the French pronunciation ee-VAWN instead called their daughters wy-VAW-nee.
Since old-fashioned names are hot again, we'll include those long I pronunciations of Nina and Maria, as well as the Spanish pronunciations that are prevalent today, in case your retro sensibility leads you to want a name that harkens back to an earlier time. But we hope that Candace, Yvonne, and Desiree can put their mispronounced pasts behind them forever.
Sometimes, though, parents didn't know how to say a name—they just liked the way it looked. Evans says that several generations back, Candace was mistakenly pronounced kan-DAY-see and Desiree was DESS-ee-ray. In the late-1940s, around the time that actress Yvonne De Carlo was headlining on the silver screen, Evans reports a boomlet of babies born with the name Yvonne. But parents who had never heard the French pronunciation ee-VAWN instead called their daughters wy-VAW-nee.
Since old-fashioned names are hot again, we'll include those long I pronunciations of Nina and Maria, as well as the Spanish pronunciations that are prevalent today, in case your retro sensibility leads you to want a name that harkens back to an earlier time. But we hope that Candace, Yvonne, and Desiree can put their mispronounced pasts behind them forever.
