people pronouncing my baby's name the way I dont

Elle is pronounced El.

Change your daughter's name to Ellie if that is what you want people to say.

Sorry El as an alternative pronunciation.

If you wanted her to be called Ellie, and your knew that most people would pronounce Elle Ell, why didn't you just call her Ellie? Genuinely interested! Seems like you made your (and her) life difficult for no reason!

Other than constantly correcting people, I can't see a way round it TBH.

Not as bad as someone I know of who liked the way the name Yvonne looked written down, so named her daughter that, but pronounced it Why-von-ee. True story.

Is there a cultural reason why you decided on Elle rather than Ellie? If not my advice it to change her name to Ellie or call her Elle with the nick name Ellie, it's not fair for you to expect everyone to know that they should use the obscure pronunciation of the name Elle.

I actually think Elle (Ell) is a nicer name and you could still call her Ellie as a nick name :)

Agree with Mary. Even if she were called Elle, pronounced El, she would probably get called 'Ellie' at least 50% of the time, and if she were called 'Ellie' there is a high chance that she would sometimes get called El.

I would just go with it and accept that people are sometimes going to assume she is called El. She might even like Elle as an alternative.

I have an adult friend who has a name that has a common pronunciation, and her parents chose a different pronunciation. Not Elle/Ellie but same idea. She now goes by a completely different name that she has chosen for herself as she got so fed up with constantly correcting people.

FWIW I would pronounce Elle 'El' as well.

My mum's name is similar. She is Scandinavian and you pronounce the e on the end. She just corrects every time. It didn't put her off as she picked a name with the same problem for me. I corrected obsessionally as a child, as did she, and now mainly people get it right. I answer to both though now and it helps that the name sounds good both ways, my mum's is awful if you don't pronounce the e. It also helps that I can explain the name is Scandinavian rather than my parents making weird pronunciation choices. No one can spell it either but that's another issue...

Elle might be difficult due to Elle Mcpherson but if you are persistent, consistent and explain why, it is totally doable. I get lots of 'what a lovely name' comments so am pleased we stuck to our guns.

SirChenjin
I call my Isobel 'Bellie' it is a pet name that only I use though, does that count?

SirChenjin

The thing is, Elle is a very common word, albeit a French one and it is pronounced 'El'. If you called your daughter She, people would assume that it was pronounced She, not Shay for instance.

I don't have a problem with people using alternative spellings, but I think you (and she) have your work cut out on this one.

People are always going to pronnounce it El. So it's either a lifetime of people getting it wrong or change the spelling.

Well, OP, Elle is a word in French, it means 'She'. It's a pretty short name, but the French pronuciation is "Ell". It can be prounouced "Ellie" as a name, but it won't be by anyone who's studied any french, which as it's taught in pretty much every secondary school in the UK, will be pretty much all of the British population.

sorry, but there it is.

If you want your DD to be called Ellie only, you need to change the birth certificate to Ellie. If she's under a year, that should be a relatively pain free thing to do. If you determined to stick with Elle, you need to accept the prouncation pretty much everyone will use is El. However, the compromise could be whenever you register her for nursery or school, you get the option of "known as" and you can put "Elle known as Ellie" to get round this.

That said, I think Elle (prounced El) is a beautiful and elegant name for a grown woman, and Ellie is a very cute nickname for a little girl, so you could keep it as it is, if you can accept you'll have to say "we call her Ellie" a lot.

You've 4 choices I'm afraid.

Change the name.

Change the spelling.

Keep repeating the correct pronunciation a hundred times a day

Opt for a nickname to save the hassle.

I'm old. Very old. I've had effing years of this, and not even because my name has an unusual spelling. Oh no! I suffer from the mispronunciation of a perfectly nice, if not too common classic name because people can be lazy, they can be as thick as mince, a lot of them are unwilling to bother to listen to how the name is pronounced when introduced to me or they're too ill mannered to bother to say it properly once they've been told and corrected eleventy million times.

I love my name but I hate the way people mispronounce it so I no longer give most of them the opportunity. I simply tell them to call me by a nickname of my choice instead.

can Belle be pronounced Bellie?

Well either you suck up the 90% pronouncing it wrong at first go, or you can add the 'i' to make Ellie, where probably 100% of people will pronounce it right first time.

Elle looks like El to me.

I've never heard of Ellie being spelt Elle. So I would get it wrong at first, not through any malice, but because it's obviously a very uncommon spelling of the name.

I don't think anyone can give you much advise! Just correct people who you know, keep using 'Ellie' pronunciation, and accept that people you don't know will call her 'El'?

The advice is that you (and she) will have a lifetime of explaining to people you have just met that it's pronounced differently to the way it is spelled - and you both simply have to keep explaining. Not sure what other advice there is tbh

If you up your 90% by 10, OP, you'll be in the right zone.

If you want her called Ellie then you will just have to correct people. Even if I heard you calling her Ellie I would assume you were using a nickname and that I (as a stranger) should call her El. You would have to tell me, which would be fine.

I once worked in a class with a girl named Elle pronounced Ellie, I am going back sometime though probably 10 years or more that is the only time I have heard it. I thought it was odd then, I only ever remembered it because she had a cousin called Shelley in the same class and I knew there names rhymed.

Elle is pronounced El This is a classic case of everybody else is right and you are wrong. If you want to call her Ellie, spell it correctly and you won't have a problem...

I would presume it was pronounced El.

Unfortunately, the most common prouncation of Elle is "Ell", not "Ellie" which is normally spelt Ellie or Elly.

if you want the 'ie' sound, then do you have time to reregister with Ellie? FWIW, even if someone's name is "Elle" to be pronounced "Ell" they will often get called Ellie as a nickname. Most people probably think her 'real' name is Ell and you are calling her Ellie as a nickname, not that they are prouncing this wrong.

Sadly, if you spell a name with one common pronoucation, that's what the bulk of the population will call that child for the rest of their life, even if you prefer the less common version.

I've never heard of Elle being pronounced Ellie and I would presume it was a spelling mistake (sorry). She will probably have a lifetime of correcting people but people will soon get the hang of it when they've heard it a few times. Personally I would put the i in there but everyone has the right to name their children as they wish.