Greetings,
The main character in my story is named Zacce Nalum. My concern is that people will mispronounce his name, since I'm not entirely sure how I came up with the pronunciation. (I've had the name in my head for many many years ). So my question is, just by looking at his name, how do you pronounce it, and do you have any difficulty trying to say it?

Yeah, the only Latin I know comes from my Animal Husbandry books, so I don't know enough to know how to pronounce "cce". My guess is, neither does the rest of the population. "nah-lum" is how I would pronounce the last name, but honestly, as a reader, if the name is really difficult to pronounce, I'd just cheat and call them Zac in my mind. Then I'd wait till I heard someone else pronounce it and copy off them. I'd look at it and say "e at the end makes the vowel say its name" (I've been helping little ones with too much spelling recently). I'm sure you don't want it pronounced this way, but here it goes, "Zay-k".

I'd probably pronounce his first name as Zac, until I heard a different pronunciation that sounded more accurate. His last name looks like "nay-lum". It could be "nah-lum", but I'd be more likely to use the first pronunciation.

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately, no one had his first name right, which was what I figured would be the case (I've gotten people mispronouncing it before). Nalum is pronounced NAY-lum.

How about if I spell it "Zace". How does that change the pronunciation to you?

Then I would probably think "zace" (rhyming with space). Which, I almost thought at first, but not something I'd likely remember.

Zacce makes me think Za-Kay, and I would pronounce zace like Arias did.

How do you want it to be pronounced?

Yep, I'm with the girls, I'd pronounce it Zace, rhyming with space.

Ok, thank you. That is indeed how I've wanted it pronounced. Now I just need to reprogram myself to think of "Zace" for the character instead of the old spelling. :P

Yeah, I wouldn't have gotten Zace out of the first spelling.

I would have thought the following:

Zacce Nalum
ZAH-chee NAH-loom

But that's incorrect, you say...oh well. I really like the name, by the way.

eruheran

That's exactly what I was thinking, bro. But now I definitely think of Zace as rhyming with space.

I like it! Of course, I can be partial to fantasy names that stat with "z". XD I'm just kidding around!

I've had the same fear as you when it came down to having the reader pronounce the name you so creatively came up with...So, if there is a fear I would do what some fantasy writers do and add a pronunciation key. For instance, Christopher Paolini has one in the back of each of his books. (Which I found very helpful at times.)

I like the second spelling best as well. Cool name, by the way.

Pronunciation guides are great. I said the word "bisonbeck" like Biz-un-beck. My dad claimed it was bye-son-beck, and he was right. So, I like pronunciation guides, as they spare one from teasing. Plus you say the word the right way.