To think i know how my childs name is pronounced?

[crappymummum]

So my friend says she has just had an in depth argument with one of her friends who i happen to know over my daughters name.

DD is called Luisa.Not Louisa but LuiSa as in emphasis on the S not the soft sounding s in Louisa.I think the name originates from Germany but is widely used in Spain.
My DD was born in Spain (we are now back in the UK) so i liked the thought of a Spanish name, especially as we planned on staying there for some time.My Aunt is Spanish and also called Luisa.

Apparently this argument started when the lady started arguing with my friend when she was pronouncing it correctly saying no its Louisa,it's stupid etc and how it is just an alternative spelling but pronounced the same etc etc.

This is becoming a bit of a problem as i have noticed friends/teachers etc calling her Louisa...even receiving invites to parties with Louisa on.

Should i just let them get on with it for an easy life for my daughter and just accept that Louisa is what she will be called?

AIBU to be really bloody annoyed about this woman?

[heliumballoons]

Oh confuddled can you get the accent when using the computer????

PLEASE tell me how and I'll tell you how I get this: °

[Dozer]

Yabu, if you pick something unusual, of course people are going to mispronounce it, your dd will just have to get used to dealing with it.

[confuddledDOTcom]

Press and hold Alt then type 0226 on the number pad (doesn't work on the top line) when you let go of Alt it will give it you.

I didn't think as I was typing before but I also insist on the accent - not so bad when typed as not everyone knows how to do it, but just lazy when missed off in writing - I do mean when people know, not when they're new to the name. People tell me it doesn't matter but to me it's either Shan without it or the Si doesn't count either so it's Si-an or See-an. Either they both count or neither do.

[confuddledDOTcom]

Dozer, it wasn't unusual in her country of birth and even if people do mispronounce it it's still rude to tell someone they don't know how to say their own name!

[heliumballoons]

â !! á ah thats the one I need its alt 0225 thanks.

the degree is alt 0176

[MintyMoo]

The first person to get my name right first time happened to be a Welsh substitute teacher. I was so thrilled. Shame the teachers who called me the wrong name for 7 long years didn't listen to her!

[Dozer]

Um, yes, of course that's rude, never said it wasn't.

[tulipgrower]

I agree with Dozer. yes, it's rude to tell someone they don't know how to pronounce their own name, but you can't expect people to pronounce a foreign name as it would in its country of origin.

My parents burdened me with a 'foreign' name which is always being wildly misspelt and mispronounced. I don't bother correcting, I just wonder what my parents were thinking!

Additionally, I'm useless at pronouncing any 'foreign' names. (And yes, I really do try!) The Irish are still laughing at my futile attempts to pronounce their names several years after I lived there. Heaven forbid I attempt any kind of Spanish accent.

And here in Germany I know a Luisa, pronounced the same as Louisa, and a Sarah pronounced like Zara.

Gave my kids simple, fairly international names. (like Samuel, David, Thomas, ...). I pronounce them with my accent, my DH pronounces them with his, sounds different, but it's the same thing.

[TandB]

I'm confused, OP. You say that Louisa is usually pronounced with a soft S. Every Louisa I have known has been pronounced Lou-eez-a with a hard S.

I would probably pronounce Luisa with a soft S if I saw it written.

Is the problem perhaps that you are making a distinction that doesn't need to be made?

[Bunbaker]

"There is no other way to pronounce your daughter's name with that spelling than LuiSa. Its bloody obvious."

Erm, no it isn't. I consider myself well educated and always take the trouble to pronounce and spell people's names correctly - it is good manners to do so. But I don't speak Spanish and would have assumed it was pronounced Looeeza, as in Louisa. I now know from reading this thread that if I ever come across a Luisa I hope I will remember to pronounce it correctly.

[springbokscantjump]

Well I said it the way it should be rather than (apparently) the english way first. I think is not the issue is not that she minds explaining how to pronounce it but that someone argued with her when she explained the correct way.

I can massively sympathise my name is almost an irish name but different spelling and pronunciation (my mom liked the original but decided to tweek it ). Which means I am forever correcting people's pronunciation (I even have a stock phrase to explain it), I certainly would harumph if someone told me I was wrong.

for some reason, I haven't corrected my CM and she says my name wrong - now it's too late to correct her

[TickettyBoo]

No YANBU but that doesn't mean people will get it right, I suspect your dd will probably call herself "Lou" when she's older to avoid the headache! lol.

[pointydog]

You carry on using your correct pronunciation but you can't influence what people say when you;r e not there.

[cece]

No my neighbours speak fluent Spanish. One of them is half Argentinian and the other one speaks lots of langauages.

I don't speak any Spanish!

They call her Luisa but it sounds like how I would say Louisa so not sure how it is said TBH. But it is the first time I have heard it said differently (in your OP) iyswim. I just thought they were the same name but spelt differently.

[brighthair]

I think you have to correct it. One of my names is Susann, which people always pronounce Susan, but it's pronounced Suzanne. I am so used to spelling it and correcting it now!

[TruthSweet]

DD3 is Callia (pron. Cah-LEE-ah) and on the phone to Drs receptionist I was asked to spell her name (this is after my saying I wanted a repeat prescription for Callia) I spelled it and got 'Oh KAAAY-le-uh' 'No Cah-LEE-ah as I said before'.

Argh.

Don't even get me started on the mis-spellings of DD1's name and DD2's pronunciation.....

Still it's the price for pretentious twattery nice sounding and uncommon names so I don't grumble too much.

[xstitch]

I am bad for not correcting people and answer to most things as long as its polite. It gets me in hot water sometimes though as someone will call out to me in a crowd and I won't answer not realising they are talking to me (because the name they have used is no relation to mine). I end up having to apologise and try ton convince them I wasn't being rude as I didn't know they were speaking to me and yes I am sure that's not my name.

One lady always calls me Susan and another calls me Joanne. So without giving away my RL name I am sure it is clear that at least one of them is way out (a clue is both are way out)

[bonkers20]

Gosh, the difference is really small and I really think you're going to have trouble getting people to pronounce it as you want.

As she goes through life I imagine she will get called Louisa and then simply have to correct the spelling (and mention the pronounciation), explaining it's Spanish. Incidentally, how do spanish speakers pronounce Louisa? Maybe they say it the same as Luisa, which would indicate it's a simple language difference if you know what I mean.

It's a very pretty name.

I have an unusual maiden name which I always have to spell and pronounce. It's easy to say phonetically, but that's not how it's pronounced. Someone once said "Oh you mean [phonetic pronounciation]". "Ummm, no, I mean [proper pronunciation]". Twonk.

[Lonnie]

YANBU op.. My dd no 2 is Eloisa NOT Elouise NOT Eloise NOT Elouisa Eloisa and it is a name in its own right.. SO many people call her Eloise/Elouise I am the mother standing there going AH AH -- ELOI SA... and no not with an "u" no "u"

I am aided by the fact dd loves her name and will correct people. She has been heard to say as a 6 year old My name is not Eloise its ELOISA! I encourage her.


I correct dh's aunt when she comes and insists on pronoucning my name Larnie (because thats how it is said in America she claims ) I repeat well tough its not my name and I wont answer to it..

I had to chuckle when I read the poster commenting on nice Danish names and not pronounced nicely in England. It was one of dh's and my criteria (I am Danish by birth) they had to be pronounced the same in English and Danish So Christian and Frederick was out sadly.. (I MUCH prefeer the Danish pronounciation to the English) we did consider Helena because it is so much wider accepted as a different pronounciation but ended up not using it.

OP just continue to repeat how to say it and I really like the suggestion to ask " "are you suggesting I do not know how to pronounce and spell my daughters name? confrontational but I bet they will stop I am certainly going to try it.

[belgo]

I'm a surprised that so many posters are stroppy about names - Lonnie, I would think that your American relative is trying to say Lonnie, it simply comes out Larnie due to her accent. If it's a very unusual name, people need to hear it a few times before remembering how it is pronounced. I have a friend with a dd Uxue, it took me ages to remember how to pronounce and spell it, and even now my pronunication is probably a bit rubbish.

People have accents and people have speech problems meaning that there will be variations in the way a name is pronounced.

Thankfully dh and I are flexible in the way people pronounce my children's names, depending on which nationality they are.

I have a name that is spelt differently by Americans then it is here. I very rarely correct people.

[Bucharest]

YANBU to be cross that people imply you don't know how you want Luisa to be pronounced.
YABU to expect the rest of the world to know it.
(FWIW Dd has a very English name, and is invariably mispronounced by everyone here. It's never crossed my mind to be arsey about it. I actually find the mispron. quite cute)

[Bucharest]

PS Dp informs me Luisa would be exactly the same as Louisa here, so there's another 60 million people you'd be cross with.

[Gowkstorm]

Long time lurker, first post! :)

I am a British Louisa, who spend many years in Spain as a child. I have no recollection of any Spaniard EVER pronouncing my name as anything other than "Luisa". Why? Because that is how Spanish speakers pronounce the name Louisa! (just as English speakers would pronounce Luisa as Louisa.)

Louisa/Luisa ARE the same name, it's just that one is pronounced with a Spanish accent/pronunciation and the other with a British. It would be no more reasonable for me to have insisted that Spaniards start using a British accent to say my name, using a phonic sound unfamiliar in their language, than it is to say Brits start pronouncing Louisa with a Spanish accent (which is what "Luisa" is).

I can easily render Louisa as Luisa, but that is because I spoke Spanish, and its nigh impossible for me to see how you can pronounce Luisa properly WITHOUT using a Spanish accent (it's not just a difference in the "s" sound - the "ou"/"u" sounds different too).

[ElfOnTheTopShelf]

elah11 Sun 08-May-11 20:23:17

ElfOnTheTopShelf Sun 08-May-11 19:58:06
DD is call Evelyn, pronounced like "Ever Lynne" not "Eve Lynne".

Surely its Ev-eh-lynne, there is no 'r' in Evelyn? Lovely name btw smile

You are right - Ev-eh-lynne would be a better way of it being typed!

[ElfOnTheTopShelf]

In relation to names that are pronounced differently in different countries, what is the correct way of pronouncing? We used to have a girl working for us who came from Spain, her name was spelt Virginia, but she pronounced it "Ver hin nee ah". I used to pronounce it the same way, but everybody else in the office would prounce it as you would do in England.