Just call her by her name?!

[FF7RGEEK]

I have 4 DD, my youngest is 1 next month.
My MIL won't use her name, just calls her baby she says it is impossible to pronounce (it isn't) in the beginning she would try to say her name and call her something not even remotely similar to her name.
She now has other family members doing the same and they won't use her name either, even though they did to begin with.
DH, tells her all the time that she is being silly and to just use her name, she will then just fall out with us.
I know her name is unusual but it is beautiful (in our opinion) am I being unreasonable to tell her she has to use her name?

@FF7RGEEK

It is pronounced air ith

its a lovely lovely name and i dont even need you to break it down for me id know how to pronouce it straight away , now that i see what it is they are being really silly and wilful to not use it , the child does have to know the sound of her own name and its unusual and different , but hardly unpronouceable

It is a beautiful name, and she's just being difficult pretending she can't pronounce it.

Does she usually fall out with people when they set a boundary with her?

Correct her (and everyone else) every single time:

When she says "the baby" ask her what baby, whose baby, which baby is she talking about? Then when she says "your baby" reply with "You mean Aerith? Use her name then."

What does she mean too difficult to pronounce? If she loves Aerith she will learn how to say her name.

I feel quite strongly about this, my name is four letters long and some people still can't bloody spell it. Worse, until we went no contact with them, my PILs refused to spell two of our three children's names properly, one name also just four letters long. It is worse because we lost both of those children and I feel they don't have much that is theirs so getting their names right is the least family can do. They are not unusual names.

If your MIL actually cares about and loves your daughter, she would learn to say her name. I'd be tempted to say that to her.

@Ellpellwood

Going by your username, is it Aerith?

Wow how did you guess @Ellpellwood

Ignore her. She'll soon realise she's achieving nothing other than making herself look pretty stupid. What is she proposing to do if she wants to talk to your DD when she's older, call her "You"?

It's an easy name to pronounce 

What's the mispronunciation she's trying foist on you @FF7RGEEK ?

What did she try calling her that wasn't remotely similar?

My husband gave his cat a Swedish name. He had that cat for over 20 years. MIL never mastered the pronunciation. She's an idiot in general, though.

Start calling her “twat” every time she uses “baby”? Get other family members to join in? (Sorry, am tired and hormonal. But it would be almost worth it to see her face.)

It's a bit rude, & irritating for you OP, because I get the feeling you suspect some kind of power-play going on behind this inability to learn how a name is pronounced.

I'm not gonna to tell you to rise above it, because clearly if that were possible you wouldn't be venting frustration here! - but if a simple conversation & friendly request for her to learn aren't working, you could play her at her own game.

Just start calling her MotherInLaw, in full, every time you interact with her. Use it to the point of ridiculousness, so she can't fail but ask you why. Then explain that you can't remember how to pronounce her name.

But "not to worry, because everybody gets these mental blocks now & then, & perhaps we can help remind each other how to pronounce family names. What's yours again? Oh of course! - & my 4th child's name is ? - that's it! Aren't we brilliant."

Its totally taking the piss but if you can pull it off lightheartedly ...

@FF7RGEEK

I don't feel it is unreasonable so thanks for those that agree. I think those that said to make it awkward I think that's what I'll do from now on.

Her name is Aerith.
Which comes from the word earth in Japanese, but is also a name of a character in a video game (mine and DH's all time favourite game)

How is it pronounced? Because she might be choking over calling a child Erith (as in Kent).

From one Final fantasy geek to another, it’s an beautiful name!

Funny as aerith translated is aeris neither are a good choice for a child just because you love final fantasy hopefully she won't get bullied as she grows up

My grandmother had a way of deliberately mispronouncing anything she didn't approve of. For instance, DS has dyslexia which she didn't believe in, so she used to insist on sounding as if it was a real struggle to say, usually saying something like "Dys-dys-dys- clecksia or whatever you call it". It was really mean of me, but when she had a mild condition that affected her speech so that she genuinely had trouble pronouncing things, I felt there was a degree of poetic justice.

I'm Irish but don't speak the language and haven't lived there since I was a child. My DSis lives there with BIL who comes from an Irish speaking town. Naturally they chose obscure Irish names for their DCs, way more difficult than Aerith! You know what I did? I googled how to pronounce their names. I might also have stalked her Facebook page for the birth announcements to spell their names for the first few birthdays

It is a lovely name op. Sod her she’ll look like an idiot when “baby” is 26.

Going against most posters on here....I think its a ridiculous name.

Lovely name. I also pronounced it correctly before you explained it.

Oh it's not so bad, id have got used to that after FOUR YEARS

Lovely name! Your MIL is being very rude and disrespectful.

Oh she is one. Where did i get four from?
Apologies

Very pretty name. And not difficult to pronounce at all.

Names I find difficult to pronounce which I've come across recently include Aurora, Rory (these end up Awawa, Warwy...), Ruari, Anais, Saoirse, Aleid, Cillian and Yves.

I'm not sure Aerith would even make the top 10 difficult to pronounce. Even if I found it tricky, I'd still make an effort.

The only person that would be U would be Elon Musk or Grimes

@Dddccc

Funny as aerith translated is aeris neither are a good choice for a child just because you love final fantasy hopefully she won't get bullied as she grows up

Why would DD get bullied for having a beautiful name?

@Dddccc

Funny as aerith translated is aeris neither are a good choice for a child just because you love final fantasy hopefully she won't get bullied as she grows up

Why would she be bullied? Why is the name not appropriate?

Start calling her the wrong name.

So rude.

PS I love the name!