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?

[Wardrobespierre]

Just to be clear by the accent coming later I meant later than the split of the feminine pronunciation. Originally, it was Esmé but for a boy. For a girl, it was Esme for years and the accent seemed to resurface in an effort to ensure correct pronunciation.

[PooDogMillionaire]

Just asked some French speakers and they all say Ez-may (I like the name too!).

My cousin is an Ez-mee though...

[BackforGood]

I've only ever heard it said Ez-mee.

[miniHovis]

Dd2 is Esme pronounced as ezmay, not had anybody call her ezmee apart from my mum when she was first born

[PennyHasNoSurname]

I know one who is called Ez mee but a friends wants Es may if she has a girl so I will have to make a conscious effort to pronounce it her way with the baby.

Either way is right imo.

[AlmaMartyr]

I've only ever heard it pronounced Ez-mee, and all the Esmes I've known were quite grown up so not recent pronunciation. I think both pronunciations are pretty.

[IoraRua]

Esmay.
I think it's much nicer imo.

[HairySubject]

I thought it was Esmay, I haven't come across an Esmee yet.

[Sometimesithinkimbonkers]

Es-mee for me too X

[OvO]

Ezmay.

I've only come across the Ezmee pronunciation on MN.

[PuppyMonkey]

The French thing is a bit of a red herring as the name Esme actually has a big Scottish tradition too. There was a big explanation on one of the 50 billion other threads about it, maybe six or seven years ago.

[babyblabber]

My niece's name Ez-may. Maybe it's coz we're in Ireland but had never heard of ez-mee til I joined mumsnet. Doesn't sound like a name to me at all!

[Copperkettle]

Ezmee. Never known Ezmay

[musicinspring1]

I have an Esme and pronounce it Ez-mee. Seems the most common way here (s london) unless it has an accent.

[Muddywellyboots]

I wonder if it's a regional thing! We're in the South West so they love a long eee sound here! I'm starting to wonder if we just call her Esmee as everyone else does regardless of what we say!!

[Claraoswald36]

Ours is called ez-may.

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

[needmorespace]

Esm-ee
definitely

[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!

[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).

[TrinityForce]

Esmay.

Beautiful name!

[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.

[AlmaMartyr]

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

[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.

[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

[Stephieee]

Ez-may