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Original poster

How do you pronounce Esme?

65 replies

Muddywellyboots · 29/01/2016 13:10

Our 3mo DD is called Esme. We love it and pronounce it Esmay. However everyone calls her Esmee despite us introducing her as Esmay. Just wondered what the consensus was?

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hollyisalovelyname · 01/02/2016 18:24

Ez May

MamaMotherMummy · 01/02/2016 18:00

I know Es-mee and Es-may. Prefer the second.

squoosh · 30/01/2016 21:34

I would pronounce it ez-may but know that some pronounce it ez-mee. It's like Evelyn in that it has more than one legitimate pronunciation.

GingerNutRiskIt · 30/01/2016 21:32

Ez-may

It wouldn't enter my mind to pronounce it any other way.

SimonLeBonOnAndOn · 30/01/2016 21:31

Definitely Ez-may, it's French.
Es-mee doesn't sound right at all.

TeaT1me · 30/01/2016 21:31

I grew up with Es -me not may. In the south. When I heard ezmay for the first time I thought they didnt know how it was pronounced or had made it up... I've since seen on musket it's becoming more popular that way and isn't made up at all. It still sounds "wrong" to.me though, esme sounds pretty and ezmay sounds harsh to me. Elsie?

KoalaDownUnder · 30/01/2016 21:31

I think Ez-mee sounds awful!

cece · 30/01/2016 21:30

I have an Esme and we say Esmee. I'd never heard of the Esmay pronunciation till after we had named her and we get the occasional Esmay even now - she's a teenager.

FWIW I know about 8 girls/women with the name and only two say it the Esmay way the rest are all Esmee.

BathshebaDarkstone · 30/01/2016 21:29

Esmay. Confused

dimdommilpot · 30/01/2016 21:26

My Esme is 5 and is Esmay. Occasionally she gets called Esmee or Esmi but not frequently.

PufflesMC · 30/01/2016 20:35

Ez-may

Alisvolatpropiis · 30/01/2016 12:19

Same as you.

I didn't even realise there was an alternative until a friend of a friend introduced "Es-mee". I really struggled not to go Hmm because obviously that would have been very rude.

I think Esme is a bit like Clara. Klah-ra was the only pronunciation I'd ever come across until I joined mn and people mentioned pronouncing it Claire-ah. Again another Hmm moment and one which had me strike the name from my list of girls names!

PurplePotatoes · 29/01/2016 22:37

Ez-may

Never heard of it being pronounced Ezmee before reading this thread but I am in the North of England so maybe it is indeed a regional thing!

MissAlabamaWhitman · 29/01/2016 22:28

Ezmee.

Sorry

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 29/01/2016 22:26

I have only heard of Es-mee.

Stephieee · 29/01/2016 22:22

Ez-may

EskSmith · 29/01/2016 21:34

Dd is Esmé prone Ez may although most of the time we just call her Es anyway. When she was tiny dd1used to call her may-may which helped get my preferred pronunciation across beautifully Wink

fieldfare · 29/01/2016 21:27

Muddywellyboots are you my sil? I have a 3 month old niece called Esme!
Her name is pronounced Ez-may and it really gets on my sil's wick about family members mispronouncing it repeatedly when she's corrected them. V irritating.

AlmaMartyr · 29/01/2016 21:25

Muddywellyboots - I'm in the SW as well so maybe it is regional!

mrsschu · 29/01/2016 21:24

Ez-may. I don't like the sound of Ez-mee at all. As pp have said, spelling it Esmé might make the pronounciation easier for people? Although personally I have never heard it pronounced Ez-mee.

TrinityForce · 29/01/2016 21:23

Esmay.

Beautiful name!

PooDogMillionaire · 29/01/2016 21:21

Esmé (masculine) or Esmée (feminine) is a French given name, the participle of French esmer "to esteem" (whence also English aim).[1] Esmé came to be used in Scotland in the 16th century as the name of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox (1542–1583).

Ham69 · 29/01/2016 20:28

Mine's Esme pronounced Ezmee . I don't mind people pronouncing it Ezmay though the only people that do are from the North of England!

needmorespace · 29/01/2016 20:23

Esm-ee
definitely

Claraoswald36 · 29/01/2016 19:10

Ours is called ez-may.

Sadly it's a name people pronounce how they want. I have such a name Angry

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