My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Baby names

Leni

6 replies

longtalllady · 27/02/2014 10:45

I notice some people are mixing Lenny and Leni up. Two totally different pronunciations - Leni rhymes with rainy. The German film maker, Leni Riefenstahl, may have been involved with making films used by Hitler but that's no reason to dislike a name - after all, look at Germany as a whole during those years - may as well go off all German names. Leni is my name, and I consider it really ignorant when people mispronounce it as Lenny - a name I truly hate - especially when they've been told how to pronounce it.

OP posts:
Report
squoosh · 27/02/2014 10:57

Do you feel better for getting that off your chest?

Report
Onesleeptillwembley · 27/02/2014 11:03

I like kittens.

Report
bebopanddoowop · 27/02/2014 11:04

To be honest if I read that name I would have thought it was an alternative spelling to Lenny because I have never heard of it before. I live in UK and it's not a name I've come across. I think it's a really nice name though - I know of someone with it pronounced the same way but is their surname and spelt Lainey I think, or perhaps Laney, I've never had the need to write it.

I can imagine it's frustrating people mispronouncing your name but I think you are being over sensitive - once you've corrected them I'm sure they don't KEEP calling you Lenny, do they? It's just a simple mistake - we can't all be expected to have heard of every name across the world.

Report
TheScience · 27/02/2014 11:06

I think Leni is a lovely name, but it's not massively surprising that a name from one country is mispronounced in another when the languages have different vowel sounds.

Report
squoosh · 27/02/2014 11:08

I know it's pronounced Lainey because of the Riefenstahl connection, she is the most famous Leni so unsurprising most non Germans associate it with her.

Report
bouquetofpencils · 27/02/2014 17:52

I read it as Lee ni. Sorry!

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.