I regret my daughter's name :-(

[storyofus]

It's Esmé.. (ez-May) she gets es - me all the time.. there's quite a few others.. I just wish I'd called her something else

It's a nice name and I'd pronounce it ez-may I thought that was the normal pronunciation. Anyway when she's older she'll be able to tell people how to pronounce it.

I regret not calling my child Esme!

I have regrets over dd2s name but I still can’t think of anything else we could call her. Fwiw I like Esme. I had a tutor at uni called that and I thought it was a cool name

It's a lovely name. You only have to correct people once and then they usually remember. I say this as someone who has a name that is always mispronounced. I still love my name and wouldn't ever change it.

It's French; é is pronounced "ay" - so Chloé is pronounced "clo - ay" in French.

I don't often see it like that in English, though - most people I've know called Chloe don't use an accent at all and pronounced it "clo - ee".

My daughter's name is Niamh, we get 'Nee-am' all the time. Just correct them.

I thought there was only one way to pronounce it. Ez May. Not Ez Mee. It is confusing if some folk pronounce it differently. Just correct them.

It’s a lovely name and the way you written it is the way I pronounce it.

We had a time choosing names for our sons due to DH’s and I being from different countries. I grew up with several pronunciations of many names while DH would veto some because of the way his family would pronounce it and saying it would irritate him having to constantly correct them. I don’t think he gives them enough credit tbh.

I will admit I’m still secretly annoyed by my oldest name because it was a compromise and I wish I hadn’t. It was one extra letter but it completely changed the sound of the name and it is way too common which is what I wanted to avoid tbh.

Really? You’d think it was a boy? I’ve met several (it’s quite a popular name nowadays) and they are all girls. In this country it is used with an overwhelming majority for girls.

If you’re never going to be comfortable with it and keep doubting yourself you could change it to something like

Emma-May
Ellie-May
Esse-May
Etta-May

How are people getting it wrong? You surely tell them her name, using the correct pronunciation? Do they then correct your pronunciation or just say it incorrectly?

If you want to change it, do it now, as she is still young and nursery will play along.

I have this problem the other way round! It doesn’t bother me or my daughter. Lots of names can be mispronounced or shortened to versions which you may not be particularly keen. I wouldn’t let it bother you, I have no regrets.

There’s an Es-May and Es-me in the same class at my DS’s school, it’s just one of those things. As long as it suits her, that all that matters, then people will learn the correct way to say it eventually.

It’s a absolutely beautiful - I can’t understand how people think it’s ok to pronounce it Ez-me

There is only one way to pronounce my name, but as it's unusual (I assume) people still get it wrong. Yes, you have to spend a lot of time correcting people and no, some people will never get it, no matter how many times you correct them.

My daughter goes to school with as Esmay, presumably to stop it being mispronounced.

I thought Esme was pronounced as Ez-May anyway.

Chloé is pronounced Klo-ay (well, sort of, é is more subtle than ay). Outside of France I haven’t actually come across it spelt like that. Traditionally it’s Chloë and the diaeresis shows that you pronounce the E separately, although often now people don’t bother with that as everyone tends to know how to say it.

in terms of French accents, é is more similar to an ay sound, è is a flatter E sound, like in egg

I love the name Esme it's beautiful

Chloe - should be Chlo
Chloë is how you get chlo-ee (the two dots tell you to say the letter, not blend it with the o - like naïve)
Chloé - would indeed be Chlo-ay

And @MischiefTheChicken explained that much better…

Keep correcting people. It’s a lovely name

Loads of names are pronounced differently - regional accents, names that aren’t well known in English, names where the parent wanted a different pronunciation to the norm (Karen as Car-Ron, for example), names where people assume it is another variant, my son has his name lengthened all the time and it’s a completely legitimate name in its own right. So picking another name won’t necessarily avoid this issue.

We are the same - no accent so Esme (es-me).

There are rare plonkers out there who have tried correcting how she pronounces her own name but she deals with it ( it's an issue with our surname as well) but once they get older it's much less an issue.

If it really bother's you just correct them - most people are nice and at least try and remember when it's pointed out.