How do you pronounce Esme?

[Muddywellyboots]

Our 3mo DD is called Esme. We love it and pronounce it Esmay. However everyone calls her Esmee despite us introducing her as Esmay. Just wondered what the consensus was?

[hollyisalovelyname]

Ez May

[MamaMotherMummy]

I know Es-mee and Es-may. Prefer the second.

[squoosh]

I would pronounce it ez-may but know that some pronounce it ez-mee. It's like Evelyn in that it has more than one legitimate pronunciation.

[GingerNutRiskIt]

Ez-may

It wouldn't enter my mind to pronounce it any other way.

[SimonLeBonOnAndOn]

Definitely Ez-may, it's French.
Es-mee doesn't sound right at all.

[TeaT1me]

I grew up with Es -me not may. In the south. When I heard ezmay for the first time I thought they didnt know how it was pronounced or had made it up... I've since seen on musket it's becoming more popular that way and isn't made up at all. It still sounds "wrong" to.me though, esme sounds pretty and ezmay sounds harsh to me. Elsie?

[KoalaDownUnder]

I think Ez-mee sounds awful!

[cece]

I have an Esme and we say Esmee. I'd never heard of the Esmay pronunciation till after we had named her and we get the occasional Esmay even now - she's a teenager.

FWIW I know about 8 girls/women with the name and only two say it the Esmay way the rest are all Esmee.

[BathshebaDarkstone]

Esmay.

[dimdommilpot]

My Esme is 5 and is Esmay. Occasionally she gets called Esmee or Esmi but not frequently.

[PufflesMC]

Ez-may

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Same as you.

I didn't even realise there was an alternative until a friend of a friend introduced "Es-mee". I really struggled not to go because obviously that would have been very rude.

I think Esme is a bit like Clara. Klah-ra was the only pronunciation I'd ever come across until I joined mn and people mentioned pronouncing it Claire-ah. Again another moment and one which had me strike the name from my list of girls names!

[PurplePotatoes]

Ez-may

Never heard of it being pronounced Ezmee before reading this thread but I am in the North of England so maybe it is indeed a regional thing!

[MissAlabamaWhitman]

Ezmee.

Sorry

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

I have only heard of Es-mee.

[Stephieee]

Ez-may

[EskSmith]

Dd is Esmé prone Ez may although most of the time we just call her Es anyway. When she was tiny dd1used to call her may-may which helped get my preferred pronunciation across beautifully

[fieldfare]

Muddywellyboots are you my sil? I have a 3 month old niece called Esme!
Her name is pronounced Ez-may and it really gets on my sil's wick about family members mispronouncing it repeatedly when she's corrected them. V irritating.

[AlmaMartyr]

Muddywellyboots - I'm in the SW as well so maybe it is regional!

[mrsschu]

Ez-may. I don't like the sound of Ez-mee at all. As pp have said, spelling it Esmé might make the pronounciation easier for people? Although personally I have never heard it pronounced Ez-mee.

[TrinityForce]

Esmay.

Beautiful name!

[PooDogMillionaire]

Esmé (masculine) or Esmée (feminine) is a French given name, the participle of French esmer "to esteem" (whence also English aim).[1] Esmé came to be used in Scotland in the 16th century as the name of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox (1542–1583).

[Ham69]

Mine's Esme pronounced Ezmee . I don't mind people pronouncing it Ezmay though the only people that do are from the North of England!

[needmorespace]

Esm-ee
definitely

[Claraoswald36]

Ours is called ez-may.

Sadly it's a name people pronounce how they want. I have such a name