people pronouncing my baby's name the way I dont

In the same vein I Know a Siobhan pronounced Sho-ban, a Leila known as Leela and Deborah known as De-bor-rah. Felt sorry for all of them as they had to constantly correct people and you could tell these people were thinking WTF.

Narrow minded? For pronouncing Elle as Elle? No, dear, I don't think so.

OK, if you want to change the spelling, I believe you can do that until your DC is 12 months to change the forename(s) without needing to do a full deedpoll, if you DD is quite small still, then I suggest you start with contacting your local registry office and explaining you which to change the spelling of your DD's name to the more common varient of that spelling for the UK and ask them how to go about it.

There might be a small charge, but if it's done quickly, it's far easier than having to do a deedpoll.

Good luck!

Can you not simply compromise - Elle (pronounced El) on the birth certificate, Ellie as a nickname? "Her proper name is Elle but we call her Ellie". Everyone will get that.

Shame, it would be easier in Scotland.

You'd probably need a deed poll.

Why did you spell it Elle if you know most people will pronounce it Ellie and then start complaining about it?

Sorry, ribbing, not rubbing!

That's a whole other thread...

so on a serious note, how easy/difficult is it to get a name change?

What part of the UK are you in?

Are you American living in the UK? Just interested.

Seriously though, you might need to toughen up if you take the gentle rubbing you got in here as a attack

To be fair, I always have to spell my first name as there are 2 common spellings and my surname isn't that common so everybody assumes it is something else. Both perfectly traditional british names.

Once you leave the uk (and most people do these days) there are no rules.

The question is not how Elle is pronounced but how much of a bother it is to correct it.

Your OP said it's making me feel like I have done it wrong people will judge me for it. has anyone been in the same situation or have any advice?

Where you find yourself is inevitable I'm afraid. Your options are change it or spend your life correcting people.

You need to change it by deed poll I think.
I would pronounce both names as written as well.
They are totally different.

it can be pronounced both ways actually, I came on here for advice not criticism.

This will be good.

I understand that 90% of people will say el.

And they are. So what's the issue?

last time I checked I was in the UK...

Not narrow minded, you asked for an opinion and you got one.
Considering most of the population study French at school and know Elle to be El. I would say like it or lump it.

It's not 100% wrong but your pronunciation is not the norm by a long chalk so you need to accept that anyone reading it will pronounce it 'wrong' and you'll need to correct it. If you can live with this and your daughter can for the rest of her life then fine but you can't get cross about it.

OK OP, well the problem you have is that in the UK, most people will pronouce it El because of the "that's how the word is pronouced in French and most people have been taught the word for 'she' in French" issue.

If you want to call your DD Ellie, put an 'i' in. It's actually no longer about you, you aren't the one who's going to be trying to explain her parents were from New York/didn't speak French, you aren't the one who'll be calling up call centres and colleagues to explain she's not going to get that email because they've spelt it 'Ellie'. You aren't the one who's going to deal with this.

Ellie is a sweet name, if that's what you want to call your DD, that's fine. Just give her that name then.

Add the 'i' to the official spelling, or accept you've given your DD the name "El" but are trying to call her "Ellie" and that will cause niggles for you for a few years, and her for 80+ years.

(And please don't be offended if she changes it when she's older)

If you feel badgered now imagine how poor 'No it's Ellie not El' will feel after 10/20/30 years of constantly explaining her name to people.

Elle is a lovely name, but it is in 99% of cases pronounced 'El'.
Ellie is also very nice.
If you want her to be known as Ellie, you need to do one of two things:

A) swallow your pride and your annoyance - people who pronounce it 'El' are not wrong, they are just saying it as it is read. Just say when you introduce her 'we call her Ellie'. When she is older, she may prefer the 'El' pronunciation, and if you had called her Ellie, 'El' is a pretty usual nickname that she may have ended up with anyway!

B) Change her name now, officially, to 'Ellie'. No more problem. Or if you hate the letter i for some reason, Ellee would make it clearer.

To add to the Sians upthread, I was at school with a Sian pronounced Cyan.

Hi there Cyanide if you're reading this.

Your poor daughter

Please don't be stubborn and leave her with a wonky name.

You're pronouncing your baby's name incorrectly. Everyone else is right. Ellie is not a legitimate variation in the way it's prononced it's an ignorant one.