Everyone pronounces our daughter's name wrong

Is that an accent thing, or more of a regional slang?

I can see that in the NE the -ay sound of cafe would be shorter, more like the e sound in bet, but not ee

But then when I lived in Liverpool words often were shortened and then -ie/y put on the end, brekkie, ciggie, bevvy etc. So is cafee actually caf + ie?

Impossible to say without knowing the name, but my suggestion.... can you change the spelling to emphasise how you want it pronounced.
E.g. Esmé - spell it Esmay or Esmee?

I have an annoying name and my one of my kids has a name with 2 spellings, so the wrong one is frequently used. I honestly don't care. I don't really understand why mispronunciation is so upsetting.

That said I have my kids middle names and would love to redo the naming process now im not hormonal

@StarShine23 , I was at school with a Siobhan. The name was unusual then and she was initially called 'Sigh-o-ban' os 'Shoban', which she corrected to 'Shevaun'.
This led to her being called 'Shivonne', to which she'd reply 'Shevaun'.
The kids would tease her because she would rise to the bait.

(might have changed the actual name but the issue was the same)

I thought that's how it was pronounced - or more ezmay (soft s).
Sorry.

We had the same problem with our youngest.

Chose a name that we thought was totally obviously pronounced one way, and spent the first year of her life gobsmacked and stressed by almost EVERYONE pronouncing it differently from us. I had quite a few threads on here at the time as I was mega stressed by it.

In all honesty I wish I'd changed it straight away as a baby, but we didn't and now we just either ignore the pronunciation or correct them if we feel like it.

Is it Maia? I considered it for my dd but the differing pronunciations put me off. I think stick with correcting people

There was a thread on here where the mother was annoyed that her son's name was said as two syllables. It was William.

I'd say Olivia as 3 syllables - Ol-iv-ya. Others might say it as Ol-iv-y-a.

Is the pronunciation due to dialect? I know several Olivia's, where I'm from they get called ulivia whereas other regions put emphasis on the O or the Ol.

I'd keep correcting op.

I know a Karen who pronounces her name Care-ren

Am so surprised by this, as a Carolyne, am often called Carolyn and some take it upon themselves to spell it this way too. Neither are correct, and my name is pronounced Caroline.

If my mother had wanted me to be Carolyn, she would have called me Carolyn.

Because my name can cause issues, I am highly sensitive to others', so always ask how someone's name is pronounced and ensure I spell it correctly too.

Is it an accent thing? I'm Scottish and DH is English, and he absolutely cannot pronounce Ailsa, a girls name without it coming out as Elsa, as in frozen.

My son (18y) pronounces his name ‘wrong’ i pronounced it correctly as it would be known in his dad’s country but he prefers his anglised version and that’s fine

I'd remind family to get it right but let the rest go. You won't be around to correct people when she goes to school so she'll need to adjust. I worked with 2 Claudias but the Italian one was pronounced Cloudia - they never seemed to mind when people muddled it up and certainly never corrected anyone for doing it.

You have a couple of options here. Change the everyday spelling to match the pronunciation. Correct people EVERY SINGLE TIME they say it "wrong" - that's what I did with my son's Scottish name that no-one in England seems to recognise. It sinks in eventually. My mother gave up with my sister's name tho, when we lived abroad as a family, and just let people pronounce it the way they thought it should be.

I recently met someone from Latvia who introduced herself as LEE-uh-nuh. (I mean that’s how her name sounded to my ears.)

In the activity we were doing, there was a sort of roll call to make sure everyone was there. The group leader called out Lee-Ann, and she said “yes”.

Her name is spelled Liane.

I have a perfectly ordinary name with an unusual spelling. Because of this, people often mispronounce my name. Sometimes I correct them, but if its someone I’m never likely to see again, I don’t worry too much about it.

So, guess it’s as much or as little of a problem as you, and as she gets older your daughter, makes it.

I grew up with caf-ee.

parents from the NE.

My son is called Santiago in latin america its more like San-TYAG-o. English people call him sant ee ar go or San tee aye go. I call him the spanish version normally and the English version when I'm doing the equivalent of middle naming a naughty child. We don't mind the different pronunciations in different places.

@StarShine23 , is it something like Amélie, where the French is more like
Am-eh-ly and the anglicised version is more like Ammerly?

If it is, I'd say use your pronunciation but accept that others won't.

(I appreciate that it probably isn't Amélie)

Does she haveamiddle name - use that instead.

My parents brought me up with a specific pronunciation of my name which was a very unusual one. We all corrected anyone who mispronounced it. It's irish so the spelling was a challenge anyway so people used to listen and try their best to get it right.

Later in life the name got more common and when I was in work everyone mispronounced it. I got bored of correcting them so I now respond to either pronunciation. In a way it's kind of helpful as the people I care about, family and friends all get it right and work people or others get it "wrong". So I know immediately what category someone is in haha.

Keep your pronunciation and just stick with it but accept it will be mispronounced a lot

I think calling people by the wrong name and trying to correct them is an exhausting, never ending series of small fires. I am forever called the ugly diminutive version of my name. I honestly can’t stop people without sounding a pain. People do it to show they like me, I’m the arsehole for correcting them. So I inwardly sigh and life carries on.

In your shoes I would correct when easy to do so, use her original name always, but have some acceptance that in this country her name will be continuously mispronounced.

Bit weird to change her name.

You just need to correct people, I'm afraid. It's not the end of the world.

Realistically, it’s going to be the way it’s pronounced here.

I have a name that is common here but also common in my parents’ home country. They named me the pronunciation in their native language, but my entire life, everyone (who is from the Uk) pronounces my name the British way. My family do still call me the name as intended, but unless I spend my life correcting everyone, we’ve just adopted the British pronunciation outside my family.

I know several people in Spain called 'Estefania' (beautiful name in my opinion - why would you shorten it?) yet they call themselves FANNY. They were in for a rude awakening when they started to learn English, or go on trips to England, where FANNY has a non-negotiable second meaning.