We’ve kind of decided... give me your brutally honest thoughts

[mammiahailee]

Elyse Rae for baby girl due 9th Sept.
We adore it but are open to your honest thoughts.

Thanks!

Elise is lovely as a name by itself. I'm sorry, I agree with the others that the spelling with y will cause her problems, and it is easy to misread as Elsie.

It's very pretty, and a lovely tribute to your brother.

Rae on its own would be nice in my opinion!

I prefer Elise but got the pronunciation right and guessed what you meant by Elyse and I like the nod to your brother. I think unconventional spellings paired with Mae and Rae can be tacky. IMO it’s not tacky if you drop the Rae. So my vote is yes to Elyse, no to Rae

Sorry for your loss, OP - how did your brother pronounce his name? I would normally say ee-lee for Ely, but ee-lie for Eli (that may make things more confusing!).

I like it.

I think it sounds nice OP. It’s certainly not a horrible name (imo).

Elise is nice (not Elyse). Elyssa? Elisa?

Rae is not. Plus it doesn't scan with Elise. It would need to be (eg) Elyssa Rae (and even then, the Rae bit remains bad).

I'd have Ely as your daughter's third middle name, if I were you. It would be nice to have it in there somewhere, but 'properly'.

I read it as Elsie, ( which fwiw is a pretty cool name)
As pp said Elise yes, Elyse no.

Rae no no no . So chavvy. Almost as bad as Ellie Mae

I do prefer the more standard spelling of Elsie, Rae seems harmless.

I had no idea how to say it. I do like Rae.

I think are other Eli- names that lend themselves better to having the I swapped for a y (in terms of obvious pronunciation). Maybe Elyanna?

That said there are a LOT of alternative spellings out there currently and I don't think anyone of her generation would bat an eyelid as they grow up. And although I much prefer 'proper' spellings as a rule, the tribute to your brother is a nice exception.

If it’s going to sound like Elise ( nice) then I’d be inclined to spell it that way . Sadly the lovely tribute to your brother will get lost. Or you could go fir a different first name and give her Ely as a middle name? That’s quite cool.

Elyse is my DSIL's name. It's not made up at all

I will warn you though most people don't know that's her name she is only known as Ellie.

I don't like the Rae sorry. They look like a bit of a tongue twister together.

Elise is lovely but your spelling and combining it with Rae sounds like something from Kath and Kim

Honestly I don’t like it.

I’d have no idea how to pronounce that - I was thinking Elsie originally until I saw the other comments. I wouldn’t want to go through my whole life with no one knowing how first pronounce my name and spelling it out for people on the phone.

Is there another name you could use in tribute? Even just having Ely as it is as a middle name?

Is her first name Elyse Rae? Or is Elyse the first name and Rae the middle name?
If the latter I think it's fine as you'll rarely see the middle name.
If it's the former, I agree there's something about the spelling that looks odd. Since you want to honour your brother with the spelling Elyse I'd reconsider Rae.

Awful

Rae will date horribly, and I'm sorry but wasn't that nice in the first place. Elyse is a confusing spelling, but a nice name. I'd go for Elise or go for something completely different and like PP's suggestion to have Ely as a middle name

I like both. But prefer the more traditional spelling. I have a Freya but she is always called ray and I wish we had chosen that as her actual name, but we obviously didn't think we would shorten freya to ray.

It says Els-ay to me

I quite like your spelling with the y, and it honours her uncle. I also knew a really lovely woman who shortened her name (Rachel) to Rae so again, I like it.

My only doubt would be how the initials work with her intended surname, as currently I'm seeing her as an E.R. ( Emergency Room) which is not so great.

I like Elyse, it's very pretty. It's an uncommon but perfectly acceptable version of Elise. I'm not too fond of Rae, though.

The name sounds like you’re trying a bit too hard, sorry.

It's ok, but I prefer Elsie May.