Irene

[khhoo]

Love this name but with pronunciation eye-ree-nee

Most ppl will automatically say it eye-reen though, won't they? 😖

Why not go for Eirini, pronouced ee-ree-nee...it's a very common and popular Greek name.

I know someone called Eirene - she had to tell us it was pronounced eye-ree-nee but we pronounced it correctly after that. It's not the end of the world if you have to correct people - I'll always have to spell my name for people though pronunciation is usually okay!

Are you all in the US? Irene spelt like this is such a popular name in the UK (only for old people, we do have old fashioned names but not this)

Pronounced eye-reen. And I've never seen another spelling of it.

Think we're largely making up spellings to aid ppronunciation

I was going to say "Yes, as long as you pronounce it Iren-ee"

Lovely name, lovely meaning.

Not in the US, no. I think there’s just better understanding now of how this Greek name should be pronounced.

There are multiple spellings because there are several ways of transliterating Ειρήνη to the Latin alphabet.

Rena.

It'd be eye-reen here, and everyone would automatically think of Irene from Home and Away.

I agree that it's in the same category as Brenda and Diane i.e. outdated and not ready for revival

I know an Irene, but it is pronounced Ir-en-ay and she is spanish. You might get away with Irené or Irenie.

If you go with the Irene spelling you are in serious danger of a Bucket/Bouquet situation I think...

I like it. It was the name of the first Mrs Forsyte in the Forsyte saga and I liked the character, and think the name is pretty.

Is Irene-ee the correct pronunciation? I've never heard it pronounced like that, and it sounds awful.

Yes. It's Greek. A lot of people pronounce Nike to rhyme with 'spike' but that is wrong too.

Eye-reen and EE-ren are both rather intuitive / obvious pronunciations.

But eye-ree-nie?

I have met an ee-ree-nee (she's Greek, but eye-ree-nee just doesn't make sense to me personally).

Renee with a flick thingy on!!

You mean an accent?

I think of the old song "Goodnight Irene " (pronounced Eye-reen) and in Bristol is known as a song sung by fans of Bristol Rovers at their matches.

Irene Handel was a great comedy actress. She pronounced it Eye-reen-ee.

Eirene is pretty.

It was my aunts name and she was dear to me hence wanting to use it! She went by 'Renie' but not a fan as that as first name as too informal. Would def use it as a nn though

I like it too but eliminated as knew everyone would pronounce it wrong. It's unfortunate as other Greek names with the ne ending aren't so troublesome - Daphne, Evadne etc.

You could correct everyone you know but she'd get a lifetime of EYE-reen as that's the norm here.

Irene is beautiful and different.Though as someone said how about Irenie? We have had Maud, Matilda and Edith come back, why not Irene, which in my opinion is better than Maud. Also she will be fairly unique at school.

khhoo

The problem isn't how people will pronounce it but rather that you want to give your child a life sentence of a stupid, weird name, that she'll be correcting the spelling and/or pronunciation of on a daily basis.

I grew up with a very unusual name and I'd never do the same to my child.

Irene isn't stupid, weird or unusual. Different yes, as its not heard often. Better than been one of 20 Olivias for example. I grew up with a popular name and hated it. Wished for something a little different.

24 girls born and named Irene last year. Been over 20 Irenes born every year since 2009 and over 10 Irenes born every year between 1996 and 2009. So not unusual. Also if it means something to you,use it.

You want a stupid, weird and unusual name not another emma, try stormi the newest Kardashian baby. Or Dream, Reign, Chicago, Saint or North. Pilot Inspektor anyone or Dandelion?

Nowadays I'm not sure that people other than those of a certain age would automatically pronounce it in what was once considered the more usual way if they saw it written down. They might if it was one of the more common names at the moment that you wanted to be pronounced differently but Irene doesn't fall into that category, and anyway does it really matter if people say it wrong - it doesn't take much to correct them. When she starts nursery/school those in charge will know how it should be pronounced because you will have told them, and her friends will neither know or care how it was more usually said in days gone by.
FWIW I think Irene said Ireenee is really pretty. I love a name that is not common but not 'off the wall' either and I certainly wouldn't be adding an extra e's to the spelling.

I know an Irene pronounced the way you want (she is Cypriot), she really struggled due to it being recognisable as the Ireen pronunciation and as an adult she always spells it Irenie and eventually has changed it by deed poll to this spelling. It's a lovely name.