diff --git a/mne/io/fiff/raw.py b/mne/io/fiff/raw.py
index 232decd3b3f..23b9498cb48 100644
--- a/mne/io/fiff/raw.py
+++ b/mne/io/fiff/raw.py
@@ -550,9 +550,12 @@ def read_raw_fif(
 
 def _path_from_fname(fname) -> Path | None:
     if not isinstance(fname, Path):
-        # Try to get a filename from the file-like object
-        try:
-            fname = Path(fname.name)
-        except Exception:
-            fname = None
+        if isinstance(fname, str):
+            fname = Path(fname)
+        else:
+            # Try to get a filename from the file-like object
+            try:
+                fname = Path(fname.name)
+            except Exception:
+                fname = None
     return fname
diff --git a/mne/io/fiff/tests/test_raw_fiff.py b/mne/io/fiff/tests/test_raw_fiff.py
index 7d19a07bed6..2978a09287c 100644
--- a/mne/io/fiff/tests/test_raw_fiff.py
+++ b/mne/io/fiff/tests/test_raw_fiff.py
@@ -2180,3 +2180,12 @@ def test_expand_user(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
 
     raw = read_raw_fif(fname=path_home, preload=True)
     raw.save(fname=path_home, overwrite=True)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("cast", [pathlib.Path, str])
+def test_init_kwargs(cast):
+    """Test for pull/12843#issuecomment-2380491528."""
+    raw = read_raw_fif(cast(test_fif_fname))
+    raw2 = read_raw_fif(**raw._init_kwargs)
+    for r in (raw, raw2):
+        assert isinstance(r._init_kwargs["fname"], pathlib.Path)