I've recently come across the name Veryan, which I don't quite know what to think of but am kind of intrigued by. It apparently originated as a Cornish place name and eventually came to be rarely used on baby girls and even more rarely used on baby boys.
According to Wikipedia:
"Veryan was originally mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the manor of Elerchi (now Elerkey in street names etc.), which name was derived from 'elerch', the Cornish for 'swan'.[1] The origin of the name is by corruption of "Symphorian" to "Severian" and then "Saint Veryan".[2] The church is one of the few in west Cornwall for which there is no evidence of its existence before the
Norman Conquest. The church was given by the lord of the manor of Elerky to the monks of Montacute in Somerset, ca. 1110, but a later lord,
John de Montacute, gave it to the
Dean and Chapter of Exeter, ca. 1220, and they held it until 1859.[3]"
And according to Namipedia (apparently from Surname DB):
"Recorded as Farren, Farian,
Farran, Varian, Varran, Varren, Verran, Veryan, Verryan, Verring, Verrion, and others, this is a surname of at least three possible origins. It may be Olde English, Old French or Gaelic Irish and can either originate from the medieval "farhyne", which is either an occupational name for an oxherd, from the pre 7th century word "fearr", meaning a bull and "hine", a servant, or as a nickname from "faeger", meaning handsome, and "hine", as before. The second is a variant of Farrant which is either a nickname for a person with grey hair or the Old French personal name Ferrant, a form of
Ferdinand. The third possible source is from the Gaelic surname O' Farachain, "forcha", meaning a bolt of lightning!"
What would your intuitive pronunciation be? I'm pronouncing it something like Very-an or Very-un in my head, but I'm not sure if that's right.