Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

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

Original poster

How would you pronounce this name?

33 replies

8DaysAWeek · 14/03/2017 20:28

Eli

If you saw it written down and were to call it out, how would you say it?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Original poster
8DaysAWeek · 20/03/2017 22:42

Pallisers my husband watches a lot of American Football and all I ever hear is "Eli Manning" and I'm like "See! What's so difficult about this name!?!"

Yeah I think we might have to just move.

On a related note, I just googled him and his full name is Elisha! Now that's a new one to me.

OP posts:
Pallisers · 20/03/2017 00:21

move to the US, OP. Everyone will pronounce it the correct way (or at least they will if you move to New England).

I love that name.

buttercup54321 · 20/03/2017 00:16

Ee=lie

OneSecondAfter · 19/03/2017 16:34

Ee - lie if I know they're an English speaker / we're in an English-speaking country.

Almost anywhere else in the world and I'd say Ellie. That's presumably where the confusion comes in (are lots of your doctors foreign?), because in most languages it would pronounced Ellie.

AmysTiara · 19/03/2017 16:27

Definitely Eee lye

BAR91 · 19/03/2017 16:25

Ee-Lee but only because that's how a Swedish friend of mine pronounces it.

Gummibears · 17/03/2017 09:37

English really has 2 pronunciations for the letter E:

El as in Elefant or Electric or Eliott

Or

E as in ee

But most words beginning with EL don't start with ee, so people will read Eli as El-i

Mrsleighdelamare · 16/03/2017 23:24

Our Elias gets shortened to Eli (ee lie) which makes no sense really in terms of pronunciation!

Funny to see the name Elias getting mentioned, we've never met another one, seen it as a surname a few times.

Spanish would pronounce it Ellie ass so I've been told.

1horatio · 16/03/2017 23:17

*speaking

1horatio · 16/03/2017 23:17

Depends on whether I was speking German or English.

Ee-lye

Or E-lee (e like egg and an short, open ee)

Original poster
8DaysAWeek · 16/03/2017 07:54

Thanks pony! I think it's a lovely name too (obviously).

DS is only 8 months purple so there hasn't really been much opportunity for anyone other than doctors to mispronounce his name so far! Hopefully they are the only ones who do it too!

I just don't get how a very old, tiny 3 letter name can cause such confusion Grin

OP posts:
Ponyboycurtis · 15/03/2017 20:33

It's my nephews name, he's 23 and has had many years of it being pronounced 'Ellie' at parties. We pronounce it 'e-lie' but we all call him 'E', that was started by his brother.

I came on to say it's a fab name and if all Eli's grow up to be as lush as my nephew there will lots of lovely boys/men out there.

PattyPenguin · 15/03/2017 20:29

Ee-lye. Like Eli Woods in Last of the Summer Wine or the Rev Eli Jenkins in Under Milk Wood.

Even Wikipedia says it's pronounced iːlaɪ i.e. ee-lye, without giving any other pronunciation.

purplepingu · 15/03/2017 09:49

I have a two year old Eli and the only people to pronounce it as Ellie are doctors! Literally nobody else pronounces it wrong and it really winds me up every time. And we get some odd looks in the waiting room when I stand up with my obviously male 'Ellie'.

I get people spelling it Ely too which is annoying as it's surely the easiest name in the world to spell right!

MollyHuaCha · 15/03/2017 09:32

I would assume it was pronounced Eee-lye with the stress on the first syllable. 'Eee' to rhyme with the word see and 'lye' to rhyme with the word sigh.

BarInSpace · 15/03/2017 09:22

Ee-lye. It's a Biblical name (a separate person from Elias) which I've always heard pronounced that way when mentioned.

Original poster
8DaysAWeek · 15/03/2017 08:55

Oh I kind of get where people are coming from now with Eh-lay gummibears. That does make sense!

Eli is a name in its own right and so I don't see it as a nickname/shorter version of something but I guess it commonly is.

OP posts:
Gummibears · 15/03/2017 08:46

But I'd say EH-lie-ah and not EE-lie-ah

Purpledaffodils · 15/03/2017 08:40

Ee-lie like you would say the beginning of Elijah.

Gummibears · 14/03/2017 21:52

I'd also say Eh-li as I'd assume it was short for Elias or Eliot.

Original poster
8DaysAWeek · 14/03/2017 20:47

Thanks folks for the replies!

OP posts:
Original poster
8DaysAWeek · 14/03/2017 20:47

The consensus is Ee-lye then, which is how I say my son's name.

He's almost 8 months old and the vast majority of health professionals read it as Eh-lay (as in Ellie). I assume his sex is on his medical notes. The other day we had Ee-lee Hmm

I still like his name but if we have another I'm going with something like John or Carol!

OP posts:
Pencilvester · 14/03/2017 20:38

Ee-lye

Writerwannabe83 · 14/03/2017 20:38

I mean E-lye for a boy Smile

Writerwannabe83 · 14/03/2017 20:37

For a boy: E-lyr
For a girl: Ellie

Please create an account

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

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread