How to Pronounce Common Female Names American English
today I’m going to go over the most
popular female names the most common
female name is Mary Mary has the ayah as
in share diphthong Mary the second most
common name is Patricia the first vowel
sound is a schwa and the second syllable
is the accented it has the in as in sit
sound Patricia notice that the CI here
is pronounced as a shhh as in ship and
the final vowel sound is the schwa
Patricia a common and nickname for this
is Patti spelled P a TTY the T’s are
pronounced as a D sound patty with the
ass as in bat also a nickname could be
Pat pa T and here the T does take the T
sound Pat also Trisha could be a
nickname simply the second and third
syllables or even just Trish the third
name is linda linda has the e as in sit
vowel sound in the accented syllable and
the unaccented syllable has the schwa
sound Linda the fourth name is Barbara
it has the AH as in father sound in the
first syllable which is accented Barbara
really it is two syllables the second
being bruh with the schwa Barbara
however I think some people probably do
pronounce it with a very quick third
syllable in between the first and the
second also unaccented Barbara Barbara
Barbara so it would have the AH as in
her vowel sound Barbara or
Barbara a nickname you might hear for
this would be barb or perhaps Barbie
Elizabeth I think most people pronounce
this with a schwa in the initial sound
Elizabeth however I have a
and whose name is Elizabeth and she
pronounces it more II Elizabeth or it
can be more it Elizabeth
in any case it is the second syllable
that is accented and it has the e as in
sit vowel sound
the third syllable is a schwa the fourth
syllable has either a very quick a as in
bed or it as in sit vowel sound
Elizabeth Elizabeth common nicknames
would be Liz Lizzy Bessie Betsy with a
TS Betty here the TT being pronounced as
a D Betty or Beth Beth with an open e as
in bed the sixth the most common name
Jennifer Jennifer has the as in bed
vowel sound in the first syllable
Jennifer which is the accented syllable
the next syllable is an unaccented e as
in sit and the final syllable is the ER
as in her vowel sound Jennifer Jennifer
common nicknames would be Jen or Jenny
the seventh name Maria pronounced in
American English both of the A’s would
be pronounced as the schwa sound and the
I the EE as in she Maria Maria Susan the
first syllable is the accented syllable
with the u.s. in boots sound the first s
is unvoiced but the second s is voiced
SUSE SUSE and the last syllable has a
quick schwa before going into that MM
sound Susan Susan Margaret the first
syllable has the AH as in father vowel
sound which slides quickly into the
R sound Mar Mar the second syllable has
the schwa or Bart
I sound grit grit it is unaccented so it
is quick and lower in pitch Margaret
Margaret as with Barbara
some people would pronounce this with a
third syllable between these two it
would be a schwa Margaret Margaret
Margaret common nicknames would be
Maggie or Marge
Lisa the first and accented syllable
here has the EE as in she the second
syllable is the schwa Lisa
note that the S is unvoiced Lisa these
are the ten most common names in America
for women I will later do another blog
entry on the ten most popular baby names