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Baby names

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

Original poster

Does my baby boy's name sound too girly? Should I add a middle name?

34 replies

AmalFish · 28/01/2019 11:10

Hi everyone,

I named my now 2 year old Eisa. At the time I liked the look of it and the meaning (its Arabic for Jesus). To be honest I didn't really think too hard at the time about names and just liked this one. Since then he has been called Elsa more times than I can remember and I am starting to worry about him being picked on at school. Its too late to change his name but I am considering adding a more distinctly masculine middle name- is that a silly idea? what do you think of the name Eisa, is it too feminine? Any middle name ideas? Thank you!

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Original poster
AmalFish · 28/01/2019 11:28

I think we went with Eisa instead of Issa because we wanted to avoid the eye-sa pronounciation. Frozen and Elsa didn't even cross my mind at the time, haha a bit silly thinking about it now as it's such a popular name apparently.

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Original poster
AmalFish · 28/01/2019 11:27

Thank you for your response :) it's pronounced Ee-sa

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juneau · 28/01/2019 11:24

Also, is it pronounced eye-sa, or ee-sa? As a Brit I'd assume the latter.

juneau · 28/01/2019 11:23

Boys names ending in 'a' are rare in the UK, so I expect the mispronunciations were just assumptions (Elsa being familiar, thanks to Frozen, Eisa not being a name that many Brits would be familiar with).

Your DC has had this name for two years, so I would just leave it as is. No one takes any notice of middle names in this country - I couldn't tell you what the middle names of my DC's dearest friends are and struggle to remember those my nieces tbh - so I'd just brave it out and make sure that the 'i' in his name is clear so people can see that it's not an 'l'. As he gets older he'll be able to correct people when they get it wrong.

Original poster
AmalFish · 28/01/2019 11:20

No I guess I wouldn't start calling him by middle name, it was more an idea to give him other options when he is older in case he wanted to use them together or interchangeably.

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steppemum · 28/01/2019 11:19

I agree with Parthenope, I have only seen Isa spelt with an I (and one S) not an Ei, so i wonder if changing the spelling would help?

It doesn't sound feminine, but then it is a familiar word to me.

Butteredghost · 28/01/2019 11:17

I don't think it's weird as I think names, like clothes, don't have a sex. However tbh I would assume it was a girl upon reading the name. Not sure how adding a middle name would help, unless you plan to start calling dc by the middle name only.

sollyfromsurrey · 28/01/2019 11:16

I take it people call him Elsa because of how it is written and that Elsa is far more known in the UK than Eisa. So it's not Eisa itself that is feminine. I don't know. Does he have a middle name? Unless you used it in conjunction all the time, like Eisa-Sam or Eisa-Hugo, it's not going to change anything

Parthenope · 28/01/2019 11:15

When people say Elsa they are clearly just misreading and converting the visual appearance of the name written down they don't actually think your son is called Elsa so consider alternative spellings? I'm more used to seeing it as Issa.