The name Tyanna...?

Question

Ok I know a lot of people use this version of Tianna with the same pronuciation, but my name is pronouced Tea-yawn-na when you say it, even though it's spelt the same way. A lot of people mix this up. So what do you think? And please, don't say it's a racial stereotyping name, when it really isn't.

Answer 1

It's nice, but people will pronounce it Ty-ona not tee-yawn-a so maybe spell it Teana. :-)

Answer 2

This is a lovely unique name

Tyanna

I would pronounce it

Tie-Anna

Its gorgeous xx

Answer 3

I think it sounds pretty but if you spell it Tyanna, most people will mispronounce it!  

I have a daughter named Gianna (pronounced jee-AHN-ah).  I get everything from Gina to Gianni...but I just smile and politely say the correct pronunciation!

Maybe spell it like you want the name pronounced...Teayanna?  I like your spelling better but just something to think about.

Answer 4

You are running into a basic problem with phonetics.

In English, a vowel followed by a double consonant takes the short vowel sound:  

An not Ahn or Awn.

It does follow some racial stereotyping because many African Americans choose to give non-phonetic pronunciations to names. I don't have enough linguistic background to know if those pronunciations are truly African or just a way to distinguish a name.

The primary example of this this type of choice is "aunt". Most dictionaries choose the "ant" pronunciation while "ahnt" is listed as secondary or British.

Most people will pronounce words following phonetic guidelines, even if they never took phonetics courses. It seems to be somewhat ingrained. They pronounce a word they way it looks. Thus, your name will usually wind up as Tie-AN-na. That's the way it looks and the simplest pronunciation.

Many years ago, I met a girl named Shaherah (similar to Scheherazade in 1001 Arabian Nights). I said her name as Sha-HER-uh, similar to the pronunciation of the character name (shuh-her-uh-zah-duh: [er] as in teacher, afterward, murderer )

She screamed at me that I was racist because her name is pronounced Sha-HAR-uh. I couldn't-and still can't-fathom where she got that sound.

It's the same with Antoine. In order to get the correct French pronunciation, people changed the spelling to Antwan to avoid the inevitable Antoyn.

So, good luck to you and all on this site who choose odd spellings and odder pronunciations. You need to resign yourself to explaining your name for the rest of your life.

It's NOT racist, just phonetics and the tendency to pronounce words the way they look.

Answer 5

Sorry, I'm not that keen on Tyanna, especially with it's tricky pronounciation.

What about Tatiana, with Tianna/Tyanna for a nickname?

Answer 6

I like the name, but it has no real history. I would go with a name like Tatiana. That way your baby has a fun sounding name, but is also the queen of the fairies.

Answer 7

I, personally, really like it. As for people getting it mixed up, they do the same with my name. You just gotta let it go, correct them, and proceed, ya know? You can't MAKE people know that's how you say it. But it is a really cute name.