View Message

[Opinions] Xanthe or Xanthi
As some you may (or may not) know I plan on using the name Xanthe for my next baby if we have another girl (provided my fiance' likes it but I will try really hard to convince him ) anyway a few people have said that the spelling Xanthe is pronounced as zanth and not zan-thee so now I am worried about mispronouniation problems. Do you think spelling it with the i would be better (Xanthi) so that people would automatically say it as zan-thee? Or just leave it as it is. Personally I do prefer Xanthe (the correct way) but Xanthi doesn't look too bad to me either. I thought about Xanthie too but I dunno about that. Thoughts please? TIA.

This message was edited 10/31/2007, 3:15 AM

Archived Thread - replies disabled
vote up1

Replies

I pronounce it Zan-thay but I much prefer the spelling Xanthe whichever way you pronounce it.
vote up1
Xanthe
vote up1
Xanthi is correct too...Both Xanthe and Xanthi are perfectly legitimate transcriptions from Greek. In fact, the name of the city in Greece is transcribed as Xanthi. I and E are used interchangably to represent the letter eta. That is why you can see Eleni and Elene, Kyriaki and Kyriake, and Zoi and Zoe, etc. In either case I rather prefer the Greek pronounciation, KSAHN-thee.
vote up1
Oh ok, I didn't know that. Thats good then. Thanks for that info.
vote up1
I think Xanthe would likely have pronunciation issues no matter how it was spelled, so I'd just leave it the correct way. It definitely looks best that way.Love the name. :)
vote up1
I think that Xanthe will be pronounced correctly. Xanthi and Xanthie look too cutesy to me. You could always spell it Xanthé
vote up1
I assumed Xanthe was prn. zan-thee in the first place, so I'd stick with Xanthe. I think no matter what name you pick, someone at some point will miss pronounce it. Xanthi doesn't look right to me, so I don't like it.
vote up1
Xanthy would look better with Hayley and Skye, but I prefer Xanthe (I don't think the pronunciation will be a very big issue, the only thing I think is weird that you (English speakers) don't pronounce the X as an X, but as a Z (Xanthe would be KSAHN-tu for me)). one more thing: I'm still rooting for Iris Chrysanthe ;)
vote up1
I will think about Iris Chrysanthe too don't worry. ;)
vote up1
That's a hard one. I get the point you're making, but Xanthi doesn't look right.Xanthea or Xanthia would solve the problem?
vote up1
Yeah I have thought about Xanthia with the nn Xanthi but I am not sure. Hmmm, I will think about it (I do like it but it is hard to make a decision if you know what I mean)
vote up1