Comments for the name Xavier

The Amharic pronounce it, Eg-za-be-er.

This name is pronounced "shuh-vee-ehr" in Portuguese.

My son is called Xavier. We pronounce it as a flat zah-vee-ur, unlike any of the ones suggested here. Most people have never heard of it. We are Greek and it goes well with our surname.

Spanish speakers pronounce this name hah-VYAIR, and I think that is the best pronunciation.

The pronunciation for XAVIER in original languages such as Catalan, gives the initial X a sound as the English "Ch" or "Sh", and totally mutes the ending R.

cha-VYAY (Catalan)

Xavier Castellà www.uniweb.cl/xavier.castella

Czech and Slovak pronunciation is "Ksaviur".

My husband is French and his son from his previous marriage, my stepson, is named Xavier. In French the pronunciation is eg-ZAH-vee-ay. It took my French teacher a full half hour to teach me to say it right because the American brain wants x's to sound like z's instead of "egz" -- that is, with a slight vowel sound at the start.

In Spanish, it's Ha-vee-AIR.
In English, it's "ZAY-vee-er".
And NEVER is it meant to be pronounced ek-SAY-vee-er, except maybe in French, a language I know little about.
That said, it's a rather tacky name and overused in alphabet books.

This is my name. I am very familiar with the difficulties English speakers have understanding this name because it was not popular when I was named. HERE'S HOW IT IS:
gzahv-YAY is the proper French pronunciation
hahv-YAIR is the proper Spanish pronunciation
ek-ZAYV-yuhr is the proper English pronunciation
English speakers will frequently mispronounce the name a dozen different ways and confuse it with many other names.
Now you've got it from the horse's mouth.

The 'X' in Xavier (Xabier in Basque, like Xabi Alonso, the footplayer) is pronounced in Basque like 'SH' in English: Shabier.

In Czech, Polish and Slovak, it's ksa-vee-AIR.

ZAY-vee-ər? I'm an English speaker and I've only heard Xavier pronounced ZA-vee-ər.

In Portuguese this name is pronounced "Sha-vee-air".

It's pronouncer Sha-vee-EHR in Portuguese. [noted -ed]

I pronounce the X. Otherwise why not just have a Z and be done with it? I like the X sound much better.