How to Pronounce My Gloriously Polish Name
All too often, people look kind of nervous when they must speak my full name. I suspect that the consonant-to-vowel ratio is a little intimidating. Fear not! Although certainly well-endowed in size and vigour, my name isn't nearly as insurmountable as it looks, and it's fun to chant on boisterous occasions.
English Version
[ma-ya fri-dri-haw-vitch]. Your first guess at how to say "ma-ya" is probably right; it rhymes with papaya. "Fri"/"dri" sound like "friction" or "pin", but not like "pen" or "freak". "Haw" sounds like "father","bother", or "flaw", but not like "brother" or "lather". Finally, "vitch" rhymes with "itch". Note the emphasis on the 3rd syllable of my surname, and the absence of "ts"-sounds (voiceless alveolar affricates): many people say "fridrikavits", which is incorrect and upsetting.
What is described above is the way I usually say my name when speaking in English, since switching accents ends up sounding kind of clumsy. My parents, both very proud, would never violate our family name with such limp pronunciation, but they speak English with a Polish accent, so the Polish version (below) flows better with their speech anyway.
Polish Version
[ma-ya fri-dri-hoh-veetch]. "Ma"/"ya" sound like "mañana" in Spanish (the 'a' is very straight, flat and short). "Fri"/"dri" sound like "friction" with a gently rolled r (imagine Dracula saying "friction", but again, nothing like "freak"). It is absolutely crucial that you roll your r's! "Hoh" is short and sounds a bit like "more", but not like "flow" (too round) or "mop" or "love". "Veetch" sounds more like "each", not "itch".
I aspire to provide IPA transcriptions some day, but I guess most people can't read anything written in IPA anyway. Emphasized syllables are italicized - that's where the name has a little bounce. Generally (i.e. I can't think of any counter-examples) the second-to-last syllable is emphasized in Polish. One final note of interest: my given name was (mostly) inspired by a plump insect cartoon character. Alas, I've never watched any episodes, but the theme song is AWESOME.
Addendum
My really full name is Maja Zofia Frydrychowicz. I got the middle name 'Zofia' after my great-grandmother, who, I'm told, was very cool. Zofia is not pronounced like "Sophia" with a Z. Zofia has only two syllables, and the emphasis is on the first: [zo-fya]. You really have to mash the f with the y, kind of like when you say "fjord".