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?

[houghtonk76]

1. I would pronouce this Ann-ace (rightly or wrongly)
   
2. I used to pronouce the perfume Annay Annay (weirdly not Ann-ace, Ann-ace); I suppose cos I was trying to do posh French twazzock on simple GCSE French knowledge
   
3. This girl is in for it two-fold as she will have name spelling & pronunciation hell & then struggle with filling applications in because not all online forms will recognise the "accent", poor lass.

[houghtonk76]

Pretty sure its Sofia Loren (not Sofia Lauren)

[ferrier]

Do they spell it with the umlaut thingy? If not then maybe fair enough to pronounce it Annay. Otherwise the poor girl is in for a lifetime of correcting.

[Booboo66]

They can pronounce the child's name how they like, but written down it will not say annay however much they want it to. I'd probably keep quiet but I'd find it hard

[DasPepe]

i think if there is only one way of pronouncing the name then it should be corrected. All it does is popularise the wrong pronounciation because people think that they should be polite over being correct! When two people have differing "opinions" they can't both be right.

Think of all the other girls (fair enough not that popular name) who would have to correct everyone to the correct pronounciation of their name because Annay had become so popular.

If I got something wrong because I've never heard it say correctly - I would like to know sooner than later.

[troodiedoo]

Poor kid.

[MrsWhatToDo]

If you are very close I would (gently) say something like:

'I think your daughters name is beautiful either way but I feel like I should let you know something... just in case you weren't aware. The diaeresis on the i technically makes the pronunciation An-ay-is... of course it's up to you to say it how you want but I wouldn't like to say nothing and let you and her have trouble later. Just in case you didn't know. That's all'

Basically tell her, but suck up.
I'd be passed if I got something like that wrong and friends didn't tell me. xx

[Srush86]

Sorry it is Sofia Loren. Either way everyone says Ralph Lauren wrong especially us brits

[PandorasXbox]

Ralph Lauren is pronounced like the girls name isn’t it? According to Rachel from Friends anyhow

[PandorasXbox]

even

[gotthemoononastick]

We have a Lucretzia in the family.Not Lucreeshia. And no not Borgia as second name, DS!

[Srush86]

PandoraXbox

Yes it is pronounced like the girls name Lauren. His surname used to be Lipchitz I think not sure about the spelling, but him and his brothers got fed up of not being able to get jobs when they moved to America.
One of his brothers changed his name to Lauren after a girl he knew. So the rest of the brothers followed to have the same surname

[Calatonia]

Maybe someone should discretely suggest to the parents that if they want to pronounce it Annay then they should lose the diaeresis?

I'm an English teacher and this "we pronounce it like this in defiance of all logical rules of spelling and pronunciation" attitude really, really annoys me.

Its on a par with pronouncing Siobhan See-oh-ban rather than She-vorn. Or Seen Connery.
Yes, it's from another language but if you can't cope with the correct pronunciation you should choose a different name.
Also, if you live in an English speaking country, obey the rules of English pronunciation when you make up a name!
Do not call your daughter Lilley pronounced Lie-lee, for instance!

[NinonDeLenclos]

If not then maybe fair enough to pronounce it Annay

It's not though. If you take off the diaresis it's no longer the French name. It's an English word and as such would be pronounced Annace.

Nothing can get away from the fact it's an incorrect pronunciation by someone who doesn't speak French according to a vague idea of what it might be without bothering to check.

[babsthebuilder]

I’m so glad I’m not having any more kids. I don’t know how to pronounce anything any more.

On a not very helpful note, but as someone who has never been thought a word of French I would guess anay. Now I know this is wrong, but without any understanding of the language I would make my best guess with English rules. Could this be the case? If this was the reason, and only if this was the reason I would explain to them. Otherwise leave it.

[SumAndSubstance]

I don’t know how to pronounce anything any more.

But the thing is, you do know how to pronounce lots of names and probably you would choose one of them! The weird thing is when people who have no understanding of how a language works then choose a name from that language.

[Honkyzeke]

Meg Matthews was on Lorraine yesterday she mentioned her daughter a couple of times and called her Annay-iss.

[mathanxiety]

Housemum
Any Irish people around to comment on different pronunciations? I've always pronounced Siobhan as she-vaughan, but last week met a show-ban. Is that another Irish pronunciation or just another pronunciation altogether?

There is just one pronunciation for Siobhán - Shuh-vawn.

Anything else is wrong.

BH is always V verging on W in Irish (a soft V sound made using the lips and front teeth, not the front teeth and lower lip only as in an English V) so pronouncing it as a B is always going to be incorrect.

The O would have to have a fada (ó) to make the first syllable 'Show'.

(There is no letter V in Irish).

[JanKind]

I would say Ann-eye-is

[LinoleumBlownapart]

They pronounce it Lucy-a, not Lewchia. I know its so wrong and perhaps I am a pedant but I would never correct them as however it is spelled or pronounced, that is the name they chose for their child. But it is wrong!

Lucia is only Lewchia in Italian because ci makes a ch sound, like ciao. Ciao is spelt tchao in Portuguese and Spanish as they don't have the ci dipthong . Therefore the name Lucia, which is common in Portuguese and Spanish is pronounced lucy-a. Think all the nations that say Lucia as Lucy-a wrong if you like but as they are not Italians, they won't agree with you.

[LinoleumBlownapart]

I say Anaïs as anay-IS. Using accents in names is never a good idea for English speakers as there are no accents in English and therefore the rules for accentuation are often unknown or ignored. Also for those who don't speak French there is a belief that French words must be sort of left handing in midair and must never, under any circumstances be finished with hard vowel sounds I have to admit as a non French speaker I can see where they are coming from.

As I live abroad I butcher names on a daily basis, but foreigners butcher English names just as much. So it's all tit for tat on a global scale and I'm sure little Annay will be fine.

[DiegoMadonna]

Although let's also remember that it is Loo-SEE-uh, not LOO-see-uh,as the spelling "Lucy-a" implies.

[Srush86]

Couldn’t give a damn anymore. If she wants to change her name when she older that up to her