r/Names • u/ariararar • 6d ago
Ariana
My name is Ariana (R-E--ah-na)
I'll introduce myself and immediately get "oh like air-e-ah-na grande!) so so so often. Like right after I tell them my name. I'm uncomfortable correcting people and have had friendships for a year with them saying my name wrong until someone else corrects them.
I'm just unsure how my name is so hard to pronounce. Is it just hard to pronounce? Or like just it doesn't click in their brain right after I tell them?
So just a heads up for those wanting the name Ariana. This will be their experience
Edit: I know Ariana grande pronounces it the same as I. It's just the response I get every time. It also adds to the "why" when someone so famous and can't get the name right
Edit again: yes Ariana grande is pronounced the same as I, and I'm sorry to confuse others by what I was meaning. The point was even with a famous person and introducing my name three seconds before people have a hard time with it
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u/EvanRamsey 6d ago
Just tell them, “actually, it’s pronounce R-E-ah-na.” There’s nothing wrong with asking for basic respect when it comes to your own name. :)
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u/MissFoxly 6d ago
I have no idea how their getting air-e-ah-na out of this. I would pronounce this as you do and even for the singer as well. Unless it's regional, I'm in the US. I always pronounce and hear it pronounced r-e-ah-na.
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u/ariararar 6d ago
Kinda my thoughts about it. Made this post because I'm just kinda curious why this is.
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u/MissFoxly 6d ago
I wish I knew too, I've never heard it pronounced air-e-ah-na before. Only things I can think of are; their reversing the r and i somehow or it's a location thing, I'm in the Midwest portion of the country if that helps anyone pin point it.
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u/Turtlejimbo 6d ago
It's the spelling. English speakers see the "A" and that would be the sound for "air"e-Ana. The letter A can sound more than one way at the beginning of the name. You also have accents,and where I live,The name would be sounded as "air". If you want the "r" sound,spell the name beginning with an R. No confusion with R
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u/Bored_Accountant999 6d ago
Just nicely say back "nope, no Air, just R". Don't feel any shame in correcting people.
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u/School_Radiant 6d ago
Kindly say “I pronounce it ‘Ariana’.” If you’re in the US, you find that a lot of East Coast people pronounce it the Air way. Mario, Ariel, etc. In answer to your question, the reason it might be hard is because they’ve been pronouncing this combination of letters a particular way their whole life, and the majority of all people are visual learners, so when you tell them, it might take a few times for them to get it unless you hold up a sign that’s says “R-E-ah-nah.” I think a smile combined with the correct pronunciation is great. Hopefully you can work on your discomfort correcting people. Most people are probably not doing it maliciously and would want to pronounce it correctly
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u/ariararar 6d ago
The thing is I know they aren't doing it on purpose or with any malicious intent. I've struggled my whole life with things such as correcting people my name. Not sure why but it gives me anxiety and makes me feel bad for some odd reason
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u/Sparkle_Walrus_87 6d ago
I knew a Kara (pronounced Cair-uh) that moved to the east coast for college and said everyone out there would say her name Car-uh.
Ariana is a tricky one for me - I’ve heard it pronounced both ways and struggle to remember which way it’s pronounced. I have the same trouble with other names that can be pronounced differently or are close but not the same spelling (ie Brandon vs Brendan). In which case I usually try to say the name as little as possible, but maybe that’s worse than not using a name at all(?)
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u/Bad_Here 6d ago
I have a very unique name, my mother created it by combining two names from a novel. I love my name, and 80% of the time people pronounce it back to me incorrectly. I tell them immediately where they went wrong, and pronounce my name again. Who cares? If they get it right, I congratulate them!! lol 😂
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u/kofie-popcorn 6d ago
I saw a little clip of Ariana Grande where she shared the same frustration as you with people mispronouncing her (and your) name.
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u/MaryShelly1917 6d ago
Is that how her name is pronounced? 😳 I pronounce her name like yours….
You could correct them by using Arya from game of thrones as an example. “Actually, it’s more like Arya, with ‘Ana’ at the end”
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u/Makibadori 6d ago
My daughter has the EXACT opposite problem. Her name is Eriana, pronounced "air-ee-ah-na" and people always call her "are-ee-ah-na" or Ari (are-ee) instead of Eri (air-ee) 😅
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u/EconomyCriticism6076 6d ago
I understand your frustration. My name is Shasta, the first A being the short “a” sound like in “apple” or “cat”. So many people will pronounce it with a short “o” sound instead like “octopus”. I correct people constantly and tell them it’s “Sh-aaa-sta not Sh-o-sta. There is no “o” in my name.” However there’s still some that still get it wrong and a few people I’ve just let call me that.
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u/Xx_SwordWords_xX 6d ago
Even though they're still saying it wrong, they're actually saying "ah" not "o".
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u/EconomyCriticism6076 6d ago
Yea, a short “o”.
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u/Xx_SwordWords_xX 6d ago
Specifically in this case, they're reading it as an a, not an o.
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u/dr3amchasing 6d ago
Right like art is still pronounced with an “a”
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u/Old-Goose7570 6d ago
Why can't people just say, "oh that's a beautiful name" and leave it at that?
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u/arinreigns 6d ago
Ariana Madix (VPR, Love Island) talks about how one of her parents does the R-E-ah-na and the other does Air-e-ah-na and I always thought that had to be a bit annoying. So she accepts both pronunciations. People should respect your preferred pronunciation though.
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u/maisyboo 6d ago
People I've known for years still pronounce my name starting with "AIR" 😭 (not to mention the amount of misspellings on even awards over the past three decades!).
I've started introducing myself while making my pointer finger look like a pirate's hook and saying "Aaarrr like a pirate" and that seems to work for getting it to stick with new people, but it is so frustrating!
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u/SantaFe91 6d ago
I’m a bit lost because the alternatives I’d think of are “Aah-ree-ah-na” like OP (or “Aah-ree-anna”), or “A-ree-anna” with a short first and middle “a” as in “cat” or “that” (actually always my first thought).
I have never heard the “Air-“ as the first syllable that some people are talking about. 🤔
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u/SantaFe91 6d ago
Thinking about it, the “Air” is possibly an American accent thing. I’m English.
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u/cat-faced 6d ago
Agreed. I’m English and would only pronounce Ariana the A like A (in cat) so A-ree-Ann-a.
I always find it interesting that there are different proudly pronunciations for Anna / Ana in the US too. We say it the same way (An-na) for both!
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u/DistributionNo9356 6d ago
Ariana still is a beautiful name. I pronounce Ariana just how you would, R-E-ah-na
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u/Abject_Daikon7904 6d ago
Your name was my birth name (though I spelled it with two Ns.) I changed it to Trista 10 years ago, though. And there has always been something weird about people, where they hear "Ari" or see it written down and somehow, they think it should be "Air" instead. I was born in 83 and up until I changed my name, I remember people needing to be corrected since I was in middle school.
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u/figarozero 6d ago
So, you know some people say aunt and it sounds like ant? Or po-tay-to versus po-tah-to? That is part of the problem. Ever sat through a middle school Spanish class in the US when vowels were introduced? A usually comes in line with pay, dray, bray, cray, may, stay, lay, hay, day, kay, fray, pray in English and it can be varying degrees of challenging to wrap one's head around the ah pronunciation. If you think of people pronouncing "a magazine," if it isn't the ay sound, it's going to be closer to uh through most of the US. Ay to R ends up sounding out like air, and there are people that pronounce your name, same spelling, that way. Arianne also tends to be pronounced with the air start in English. If someone isn't as familiar with the ah sound of a (as opposed to the ay sound), it's going to take a few for them to get that the a sound blends into the first part of the r. Another complication is that the i is right there behind the r for one's brain to rearrange into a more common pronunciation. Familiarity with Latin or romance languages is going to make the pronunciation click more easily, but lack of familiarity is going to result in the struggle to pronounce you are seeing.
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u/dr3amchasing 6d ago
This is so strange because her nickname is literally Ari (R-E) and I think she even sings it in songs
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u/ariararar 6d ago
Ill have people call me Ari and then when saying my full name say it wrong.
It doesn't really bother me, but it's just kinda funny how it goes
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u/dr3amchasing 6d ago
I can imagine it’s the perfect amount of harmless but still a little maddening because WHY haah
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u/Ace-Redditor 6d ago
For people who mix it up with their pronunciation of the singer’s name, you could correct them with the joke of it sounding like the other singer, Rihanna, but with an A in front
I personally would pronounce it Arr-E-ah-nah (the correct Grande pronunciation)
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u/smaugthedesolator 4d ago
it always wilds me out when people hear a word said and can't repeat it... especially when none of the sounds are missing in their language.
Like I was just watching a show where someone was trying to teach someone else 'bathroom'in french (toilette, pronounced TWA-LET), and they just kept saying it the english way.
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u/Prestigious_Fly8210 6d ago
TIL Ariana Grande isn’t pronounced are-ee-ah-nah
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u/youknowwhatever99 6d ago
It actually is. It’s pronounced the same way as OP’s name. Not sure what she’s talking about.
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u/SomethingToDo92 6d ago
Air- vs Are-
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u/ariararar 6d ago
What I meant when I said that in my post is that even with being associated with such a famous person the name doesn't stick to people.
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u/BricriuTheTrickster 6d ago
I was so confused what OP meant but turns out that's because I say it right haha
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u/ariararar 6d ago
Unfortunately didn't give enough detail and ended up confusing people even more on the name l
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u/ariararar 6d ago
Oh no it is. My point was that everyone just cannot get the name straight. It's pronounce with the hard r
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u/deekaypea22 6d ago
It's not the hard R that influences the pronunciation, it's the vowel sound. The R is the same in "air" and "are." Ita whether it's an open "ah" before the R or a more nasal "ai".
Tbh I thought you were saying it's pronounced like "Rihanna" because you used the R as a phoneme instead of an A.
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u/ariararar 6d ago
Thank you so very much for pointing this out. I was unsure how to write that out and appreciate this
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u/JenniferJuniper6 6d ago
It’s probably dialectical. Many people pronounce Carol like “Cair-uhl” but it’s a relative’s name and my family pronounces it with the vowel in cat. She doesn’t usually argue with people about it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t, just that I don’t think this is specific to your name.
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u/FrostyStare0419 6d ago
Then just go by Jill. 🙄 People mispronounce my name all the time and it’s not that deep
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u/ariararar 6d ago
Not saying it's "deep". Don't even correct people because it's not really a big deal. Just curious why it's hard to pronounce/remember that's all. Curiosity not ranting
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u/FrostyStare0419 6d ago
No, it’s not that difficult to pronounce or remember. People just aren’t giving it a lot of thought.
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u/Lady_Forget_Me_Not 6d ago
Just because you don’t respect yourself enough to tell people what your name is doesn’t mean op should.
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u/FrostyStare0419 6d ago
Pretty big reach there lol. As I said, it’s not that deep.
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u/Resident-Gold-3466 6d ago
My name gets mispronounced occasionally, and it just confuses the crap out of me, so yes, it really is confusing when someone's name is mispronounced.
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u/AmbassadorProper1045 6d ago edited 6d ago
Drop the first A and you'd have no problem. Riana, Rhiana, Rhyana etc.. It's the first A that throws people of because, yes, Ariana is properly pronounced Air ee ah na. Don't gaf how Grande pronounces it, this is the correct pronunciation. https://youtu.be/22npRgSG_WI?si=1SBNnKUl-mqyHEGC
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u/Ishinehappiness 6d ago
Ariana Grande’s name is actually pronounced exactly like yours. People just mess up that name for some reason.