Passing on my name horrors to DD!

[GloriaSwanson]

My name is Naomi. Nay-Ah-Mee (all three syllables having equal weight).

My whole life people have variously pronunced it Nay-OH-mee or Nigh-OH-mee which, y'know, should be fine 'cause they are valid pronounciations, but...they aren't the pronounciation I use, and it hacks me right off. And don't even start me on the mad spellings!

I wanted nothing more as a child be be called Alison or Sarah and have people say my name properly and be able to buy personalised mugs and keyrings in shops.

So why in the name of fuckety fuck did I call my own DD Esmé? Tricky to spell, two possible pronounciations, and that pigging acute accent!

She will hate me and I don't blame her.

Can I blame the hormones or am I subconsiously playing out some kind of Freudian revenge?

LOL

But they CAN'T get Sarah right even, I've seen Sarah misspelled as Sara, Sera, Saira, Serrah, and best yet Sahar (not I'm really not kidding). And with Alison you have the whole double or single L thing. No name is free of misspelling and mispronunciation.

Oh, Freudian revenge definitely. Completely understandable.

How would you pronounce it??
My friends dd is Esmé but she calls her Ezz -mee which i dont understand? am i being dim?

thats what I thought lockets.
Surprised to see you on a baby name thread

am OVER excited!!!!!!

You could always inbox me - very discreet

Probably completely out of line picking up someone on how they choose to pronounce their own name, but I must say I can't quite see where the ah sound is coming from in the middle of Naomi. You could maybe make it nah-oh-me, but nay-ah-mi? Na is nah, mi is mi, that just leaves an o on its own - how can it be ah?

Paula - I think Esme can be Ez-Mee (Scots origin?) or Ez-May (French origin?), but the accent in Esmé definitely indicates Ez-May...

MushyPeas - It's more of an UH rather than an AH, I suppose... Hard to write it down. It is really about the syllables having equal weight IYKWIM....

It's not something peculiar to me, honest - it's a very usual pronounciation (of a name which has several)!

Gloria
My friend was desperate to call her dd Naomi - as you say it - is it almost Nay-a-me???

A quicker word than Nay -oh-me?

Naomi is actually pronounced Nay-o-mee

I have the same problem with my Niamh. Ni-am Nee-am Niamph?? She hates it.

Fifi, seriously? I though it was pronounced Neeve.
Naomi was the name of a girl at school with me. East London, mid 70s it was Nomi (No-me). Think yourself lucky.

DD was called Naomi, for a few weeks only.
I got so sick of the mispronounciations and misspellings that we changed it. i wasn't sure why everyone had to say it and spell it their own way rather than copying ours. we did name her after all.
having read your post i am really pleased we did.
she still has it as a middle name though.

Yeah seriously, all the time. Docs and hospital are the worst. I never really thought about it when i chose her name. I thought it was one of the more popular Irish names. Shes nearly 10 now and wishes i had of called her Erin which is the other name i chose.

My daughter is called Esme (without the accent). I (and she) can't bear it when people pronounce it Esmé.

Well I would pronouce Esme as "Esmee".

Like Ez-me, cumbria? If so, you'd be correct, unless there is an accent. Then it's Ez-may.