No one can pronounce my baby's name!

[Bewilderbeastie]

Had my baby this year - decided upon a name which is definitely not common but (we thought) really not difficult. It's very short, two syllables, no special characters, nothing odd about how you pronounce it (it's very say what you see).

We both saw it, loved it, didn't consider people would she trouble with it... But they do! I've heard every wrong iteration of it. Even when we say what the correct pronunciation is, people continue to struggle?! We've been witnessing this with growing horror and worried now we've saddled our child with a name that will haunt them for life. Every time I hear someone say it wrong, I cringe inside. I can only imagine what it's going to be like for my LO.

It can be shortened even further, so that's an option. But it's not the name we fell in love with.

Any tips on dealing with this? Both my husband and I have very trad names so never had this ourselves. It gets a bit awkward to keep correcting people... Help!

I gave my daughter an unusual name and even my Dh really struggled with it. He added a cutsey ending and just introduced her as that. We didn't work out a 'rhymes with' for a few years but that made it infinitely easier to help people say it. She gets called all variants but her now dh likes her full name and we have all started to use it again which is quite frankly lovely

Diverging rather, but have noticed some great Welsh names on the list.I think Dilys needs a revival as a Welsh girly name. Cadi is also cute. There are some great ones. Buddud ( short for Boudicca). Alwen is pretty.

I just think of Fireman Sam with Dilys

@peanacat, Rhian is pronounced Ree-ann.

It isn't.
It is pronounced RH-EE-ann.

There is no R in it.

@Diverseopinions, not keen on Dilys. It's a dated virtue name and will be misspelled.

Buddug is nice but Buddud is a typo.

Not keen on Anwen but do like Alwen

Is it really meant to be Ma'am to rhyme with ham?

Yes.

@Fallada, Alpha, Charlie, Mike, Oscar, Romeo and Victor are nice.

My son has one of the most common boys names from 2018 and people still pronounce it wrong 🙄 even his own grandma

Hopefully. it's not Ellw.

I have a Rowan, row-your-boat NOT have-a-row(argument).

I have gently corrected people over the years. 6 years old now, we’ve passed the mantle to him, “Sometimes people pronounce your name wrong...if it bothers you it’s ok to politely correct them”. He’s not bothered. And hearing it both ways doesn’t bother me at all anymore.

Op do you pronounce it clearly when you say it? I can understand people pronouncing a name wrong when they see it written down but pronouncing it wrong straight after you have pronounced it must be annoying. Are there sounds in it which are difficult for native speakers? If so then I suppose that is understandable.
I've come across the 'same' name pronounced in different ways by parents and Evelyn is a good example. I know parents who say Eve-Lyn, Ever-lyn,
Ev-Lyn that's 3 pronounciations. There is also Everline. I actually like this name years ago but dismissed it for to not being sure about the pronounciation.

I also know an Aron , Aaron and and Aren. All pronounced the same.

I thought OP's DD might have the same name as me but mine doesn't have a natural shortening.

OP - if it helps I have a Welsh name which is commonly mispronounced and it hasn't bothered me. My Mam did insist that everyone in my Dad's family learn to pronounce it though.

Is it Manon? This is our favourite nam but not one we are sure we could use.

I always try and pronounce someone's name properly but I really struggle with some it's like I can't visualise how to say them. In fairness I do have dyslexia particularly auditory processing so it also doesn't help at times if someone pronounces it.

I'm sure most people don't intend to cause offence just are mistaken. I do need to know what the name is though.

my dad has a Welsh name that is always mispronounced. It's Alwyn - said exactly as written. Since moving to England as a child it has been constantly mangled as Alan, Olwyn, Owen, Alvin... he has cursed his own dad who registered him, he was meant to be called John but my granddad went alone and called him a family name

QueenPaws - so how do you pronounce Danielle? because the way I find most obvious is the one you pulled a huge face over

I'm guessing it's Ffion and if it is I'm very jealous. My DH is Welsh and if we had a girl we were going to call her Ffion Seren.

I assumed people may say it wrong but I didn't care.

If you love it, that's all that matters. The poeple who are closest to your Daughter will pronounce it correctly and that's the main thing.

@HerondaleDucks

My name is Lorna and I've been called Laura or Lauren all my life. It's just one of those things. The people that know and love your child will get their name right and that's all that matters.

Same except I get Lorna or Laura instead of Lauren. I've also had Blossom and Florence and Claire. I mean come on how the fuck do those 3 sound like lauren!!

If it helps my name was the number one baby name for a number of years yet people still misspell mispronounce and its actually mispronounced by almost everyone without them actually knowing, so I wouldnt worry, stick with your name, the conversation with every new person is fairly quick "here's my child " done

I'd also like to know why Dan e elle is wrong

And how do you pronounce Fifi I on.

I have a name which was always mispronounced. People pronounced it the way it looks, but that is not how my parents pronounced it. After a few years at work, with people still mispronouncing it (and it didn't matter how many times I told them they always went back to their way) I shortened it legally to the way it is supposed to be said. I now cringe if I run into someone from my schooldays and they once again mispronounce it. I'm much happier with my current spelling (even if people do think I'm male if they've only seen it in print!)

People pronounce and spell my name wrong - it’s not a hard name as in the sounds all exist in many other words, it’s just very uncommon.

It’s frustrating tbh, because what happens is people change it to a more common similar name... and call me that, I correct them, they carry on calling me the other name. It’s not out of rudeness or laziness, it just somehow doesn’t stick in their head at all.

And the thing is, there’s only so many times you can correct someone without feeling awkward - precisely because they’re not doing it on purpose. When they’re just mistaken they are really apologetic and obviously feel bad that they can’t remember your name, but then they’ll get it wrong the next time too.

Now I just make a joke about it and answer to anything similar - but as a child and teenager, honestly, it was pretty horrible.

@InfiniteSheldon

And how do you pronounce Fifi I on.

Pronounced Fee - on

I think its fairly obvious personally however I'm not sure if that's because when DH suggested it he said it to me rather than me reading it if that makes any sense at all

I may be wrong potentially but it has only two syllables and has the potential to be pronouned incorrectly