Pronouncing baby's name wrong

[MrsLeighHalfpenny]

Friend has had a baby girl - Anaïs.

Lovely name, but they pronounce it Annay, and not An-eye-ees.

I saw it written down before I heard them say it, and said “I love the name Anaïs” to the grandmother (also my friend). She told me that that’s not how it should be pronounced.

Should I explain what a diaeresis is for?

I speak French and Elodie rhymes with melody so I was confused by that too. Unless melody is not being pronounced Mel o dee.

They are in for a lifetime of putting people 'right' . That is up to them.

No, they are in for a few years of it while the child is small. Then it's over to her for the rest of her life. It's the child's name, not the parents'.

Lol
We used to pronounce nougat as nugget

My DDs got a friend who called her little boy Louis....Oh that's gorgeous, I said, I love "loo-eee", she looked at me in horror and said "it's pronounced Lewis". I despair. Why saddle a child with a name that everyone is going to say wrong for its entire life hmm

He could move to New Orleans - Louis Armstrong seemed to manage with everyone else calling him 'Loo-Eee' when he and others from the area pronounce it 'Lewis'.

On Élodie/ Melody - they rhyme if you pronounce the ‘o’ sound distinctly. Melody is quite widely pronounced more like ‘melluh-dee’, however.

see pronouncenames.com. Amelie pronounced the French way is so much prettier

Elodie is a bit like Ay-Lo-DEE.

Deirdre is an Irish name, pronounced Derdreh. It is one of many foreign names, mispronounced in English.

Louis as in Saint Louis in America is indeed pronounced in the same way as Lewis.

There were many French brands pronounced as they would be in English during the 1970's and 1980's (when we didn't have the internet to check the correct pronounciation. The classic is of course, Nestles Milky bar (prounounced Nestels), Not Nestlé, nestleh.

The other one that amuses me was when the car company Hyundai, attempted to correct the pronouciation from Hi Un Die to hiun dai (no idea how to show the change in pronounciation) and then reverted to Hi Un Die.

I might have been a hick back in the day and of course know how to properly pronounce all French words now but in my teens, the perfume was called Annay Annay and when you asked at the perfume counter, everyone knew what you meant!

If someone named their child Jean (to sound like the name for demins) would you insist on calling them the French name for John??

I wouldn't insist, but if I first saw the name written down I'd pronounce it like the French Jean, have to be corrected, wonder silently why they hadn't gone for Gene...

E acute in French is not really ay although British with bad French accents might render it thus.

Ecouter is not pronounced ay cootay nor Etaples ay taple.

Nor is it DEE. In French you put stress on each syllable equally.

So TrafAALgar in English is Tra fal gah

Both my Nannas are called Jean, pronounced Jeen. Gene is a masculine name isn't it?

I'll be honest, I too thought Anais was pronounced Annay but I blame the perfume.

I much prefer Elodie said a bit more like "Elluh-dee" than "E-LO-dee", which means I would never use the name because obviously that's not the right pronunciation. Was gutted when I found out as I thought it was such a pretty name.

I suppose the upside of my parents calling me something really unusual is that nobody has any idea of the pronunciation before I tell them. Not saying having an unusual name isn't a pain though.

I think of it as in Nin and I pronounce it An NAY ees. So...

I used to love this nam until someone looked at it and thought the i was an l. Ruined forever. ffs. (Sorry).

Keep quiet for now, if you value their friendship. She'll learn quickly enough & decide on which pronunciation to use. A friend taught a Siobhan in Year 3 but her parents pronounced it Cee-O-Barn. She would answer to both & remind teachers of her parents "choice" before they had meetings with them.

I always thought it was Ann-ay-is. That's what it sounds like to me on the ad linked above too.

Both my Nannas are called Jean, pronounced Jeen. Gene is a masculine name isn't it?

Yes, usually (short for Eugene) although there was a female US film star in the 40s who was called Gene (Tierney). A great beauty, says Wikipedia, and they're not wrong.

I know someone called Sian who pronounces it Sigh an. This isn't right, is it?

Surely it's up to her parents how her name is pronounced?

Totally - my DD is Stephanie, pronounced Sally. I don't get why people seem to have an issue with it..

If they want to call their child Anay, why not call her Anay, instead of Anay but we decided to spell it Anais instead.

Crossed with you Carouselfish
I think first of Anaïs Nin too

Facepalm @ Cee-O-Barn and Sighan.

I have never heard it pronounced Aneyeess until I watched the amazing world of gumball with my kids!

Same here Rayneigh before then I'd only heard Annay or An-ace.

An-ace!?!

Even more gobsmacked than by Annay!

Some people should know their baby-naming limits...

Many years ago I worked at local council, interviewing young mum, filling in forms with family names, making small talk. "Oh is this Nike then?" Referring to small child, pronounced nikey. She looked at me gone out and said "Are you thick? It's pronounced Nike" magic e and all. I apologised and inwardly eye rolled.

I'd call her Annie.

I think first of Anaïs Nin too

Yup. Me as well.