Esme pronunciation

[Buddhabowl]

If you don't mind could you tell me how you would pronounce Esme and whereabouts you live? I like Ezmee but DH has only heard Ezmay.
I like both but just want to use a pronunciation that is least likely to be pronounced incorrectly.
I'm in the South East and until recently had only heard Ezmee but I'm getting the impression up north it is always Ezmay.
If it's too contentious I think we might go with Daphne instead!

In English Esmee is just as valid as Esmay.

Because neither sound like Esmé.

You might as well spell it Esmae or Esmay to make the pronunciation clear.

Esmee here - South East. If it was Esmay I would expect an accent.

Disclaimer - I've never met one. I'd want to pronounce it EZ-mee, I don't like EZ-may. I'm Northern originally but don't live in the UK now.

Esme - ez-mee
Esmé - ez-may

Although in practice I would default to ez-may because that seems to be more common now. But I'll always be thinking ez-mee.

Esme - south east
Es-mae does not sound right to my ear at all

Ez- may. London here.
Have heard both various parts of country. Have never thought it was solely a regional thing ?

Ez May

I've known a couple one in London one in Derby

I much prefer Daphne, lovely name.

Esmay and tbh I personally prefer Daphne!

Ezmay (south west)

DH and I have lived all over England - north midlands south - we thought Ezmee was more common version but had heard Ezamy (I thought it was spelt differently but hadn't checked).

Ezmay is more common here in South Wales but they will use Esmee and definetly do when asked to.

Only West midlands was odd insisting on Ezmay despite saying it was Ezmee for that person.

I've never heard Ezmee, how interesting!

I would say Ezmay, and I'm originally from London and now in NI.

I'd say Ezmay. I'm in the South East.

I'd always say Ez-mee unless it had an accent on it. I'm in South Wales.

South east, Ezmay

I'm in the north wear and my son is at nursery with an Ez-may and an Ez-me

Both spelled the same way.

Ez-me moved up from Essex though

I go back and forth - neither sound like 'the right' one, but they both feel like I should be saying it the other way...

I think it's because I know someone whose daughter is an Esmé (with the accent) but she pronounces it day-to-day or in general conversation as 'ezmy', which kind of fits with our accent. But then if she's e.g. filming herself talking, or like... making a point/showing off a bit (she does a lot of Instagram videos of her with all her daughter's many clothes as she's a child model), she pronounces the accent.*

So it feels like both to me...

Not helpful, I know!

*Not a judgement per se. But explaining that when she's kind of being more deliberate about how she presents herself/her daughter, the accent comes in!

I know three Esmes.

93 year old - Ez mee
Friend in her 40s - Ez mee
14 year old - Ez may

All in the South East. I just assumed it was one of those names that could be pronounced either way, rather than one being right and the other wrong.

Ez mee

The ones I've ever met were all called Ezmee. All elderly ladies. Ireland.

I go back and forth - neither sound like 'the right' one

Neither Esmee or Esmay are the correct (French) pronunciation of Esmé.

Australian in London for the last 16 years, I’ve never heard Esmee in real life, so it sounds very odd to my ears.

But I think most Australians of my age would have the redoubtable Esme Watson (pronounced Esmay) as their main cultural association.

I just googled Esme Watson and I was whooshed back in time! Had forgotten all about A Country Practice. That was not the most exciting soap there has ever been

I'm up north and the one I went to school with in the mid noughties onward was pronounced "ezmee". It then became quite popular for people I went to school with to use it for their daughter in about 2015-2016 and again was pronounced "ezmee" in all but one case where they spelt it "ezmae" in order to get people to pronounce it differently

Apart from the one person who changed the spelling, I had never heard it pronounced another way until people were spelling it out phonetically on MN

@Shmippy

I just googled Esme Watson and I was whooshed back in time! Had forgotten all about A Country Practice. That was not the most exciting soap there has ever been

Ah, the day she thought she was psychic on the horse racing but it was her hearing aids picking up the radio.