Friends' baby name, told by text, don't know how to pronouce

[theotherfossilsister]

I Googled it - with audio and got La-la-Gae or La-La-zhay or La-Lag

The name is Lalage.

Am I going to have to be that dickhead who says 'interesting name, how do you say it?

Just ask, I had to do this with my friends DD. She said lots of others did too but once we knew how to pronounce it that was that!

Isn’t everyone going to have to ask?

You’ll be amongst the first of a long line of people to ask. I think they’ll have to get used to it tbh, I wouldn’t have the first clue about how to go about that one.

I predict they’ll go from getting annoyed at being asked to annoyed at not being asked when people invariably butcher it.

I just thought maybe other people would know, and we would somehow be the dickhead friends. DP says ask. I might get him to.

I would ask, OP. As Mn baby name threads demonstrate time and again, it's not unheard of for parents to adopt a non-standard pronunciation for their baby's name, whether in error or by design.

I don't think it's dickhead-ish at all.

I know someone called this - pronounced LAL-a-dgee. But there may be other pronunciations, I don’t know.

Thank you. It feels like we should know, but just spent ages googling and listening to audio and are no closer. Apparently it's latin so maybe latin speakers will know?

Thank you @daisypond

PS, I've only ever encountered Lalage in novels -- the child who's born at the end of John Fowle's French Lieutenant's Woman is called Lalage and the narrator comments that it's a dactyl (ie one stressed syllable followed by two short ones), which suggests something like 'LAL-a-guh' or 'LAL-a-gay'...?

I wasn't even thinking of the 'g' being soft, @daisypond -- another possibility!

Come and tell us when you've asked, OP.

It's Greek in origin, rather than Latin, and from a verb meaning 'to babble or chatter', though.

I knew a Lalage when I was a child - pronounced the same way as daisypond says.

Thank you @NiceWork. I think we're going to have to ask, as there are so many variations on it, or it seems there are. Was hoping someone on Mumsnet might have a Lalage.

My baby has a very unusual name and I don't mind at all if people ask how to pronounce it, nor do I mind if they attempt it and get it wrong. I just correct them politely and move on.

I think if you've chosen an unusual name for your child you expect this. It would be silly for the parents to be precious about it, so just ask them! I'm sure they won't mind.

I've heard it as la-la-gay

Lala ji

Or rather

Lalla ji

It's fine to ask - it's not like you're asking how to pronounce "Tim". The parents will surely realise it's a name most people won't have heard even if they don't know there are multiple pronunciations.

I used to have a job which involved interviewing strangers in depth and if their name was unfamiliar I would double check how I pronounced it. I don't think it was ever anything other than appreciated.

It's a nice name imo but does confuse people

Ask which pronunciation they're going with, rather than how to pronounce it

Poor kid!!

Can’t you just wait until you see them in person and hope they say it when you arrive?! That’s what I’d do, until you see them it doesn’t matter how they say it dies it?!

I don’t understand parents that inflict such impossible names on their children.

I’ll girguve them if they’re Greek & I tend going back to Greece to live, but not if they intend to bring the poor bairn up here!

There’s a shop named after a woman with this name, pronounced ‘lah-lah-ghee’ (so, a hard ‘g’, not soft).

It was a popular name in the uk in the 40s.

It's Lalla-ji

means something like "very chatty"

I knew a Lalage - she pronounced it as bedunkalilt says

OK. We'll ask when we speak to them on the phone. She was born this morning and they sent a quick text, so it might be a while. Was hoping they might put it on Facebook with an explanation soon, or someone else would ask, and then we'd know.