Esmé or Amelia?

[allthekingsmens]

Which do you prefer x

Esme although it sounds like a Turkish desert.

Amelia is overused

Amelia, if only because she'll have to spell Esmé out and insist upon the accent on the E as the proper spelling, etc, etc....

I know you've not asked for alternatives but Emily is of the timeless same feel as both Esmé and Amelia, I think.

Es-mee is the most bizarre mispronunciation that only happens in the UK, not in other English speaking countries.

You would never pronounce Renee as ‘Renny’

Amelia is ubiquitous - I’d go with Esme (sorry, I’ve lost the accents on my keyboard).

It's not a mispronunciation though, because it's not French. It's origins are Scottish. The Esmé with an accent came later. I know an Esme and she was around for 35 years before the name came in to fashion with or without an é

Sort of. It's a Old French language name but it was first recorded in Scotland.

Oops didn't finish my thought there. First recorded in Scotland BUT it was the name of a French duke with mixed ancestry. So the name, it would seem, is actually French.

How is Esmé pronounced? I would pronounce it as Eh-smeh

Yes Esmé is pronounced Es-meh with the meh to rhyme with é.

The accents don't appear on most keyboards as such. If you press the 'e' button and hold down continuously, a selection will appear to choose from. Same for 'a', same for 'u', same for any letter which has different options.

So Esmé is not pronounced Esmay? That's a shame as it's a pretty spelling but prefer the may ending.

Yeah, I know that, but I must have done something my settings, as the only option I was getting was ē.

Esme

So Esmé is not pronounced Esmay?

No, there is no ay sound.

Unfortunately most English speakers cannot pronounce it properly

What about the word trés? That aligns more with an 'ay' sound, otherwise it would be pronounced just 'tr', as a word.

What about the word trés? That aligns more with an 'ay' sound,

No, there's no -ay sound either. Only English speakers seem to pronounce é as ay

Why don’t you explain how it is pronounced them?

Does it sound more like the ‘ee’ sound some other posters have suggested (Es-mee 😬)?

Tell us how ‘é’ should be pronounced. And how ‘è’ should be pronounced, for that matter?

Many books and websites will tell you that “é” is pronounced like the English “ay”, as in “say” or “way”.
There's just one problem with this piece of advice: it's wrong. Sure, the “ay” sound is close to the French “é” sound, but it's not quite the same. If you pronounce “é” like an “ay”, it will be a dead giveaway that your native language is English.
To understand how “é” is pronounced, let's examine the English “ay” sound a little closer.
Try saying “say” or “way” very slowly, drawing out the vowel at the end. Notice that as you say “aaaaaay”, your tongue moves.This is because “ay” is secretly not one but two vowels said in quick succession. (Linguists call such double vowels “diphthongs”.)
The French “é” is the first of the two vowel sounds that make up the English “ay” diphthong. To pronounce “é” accurately, position your tongue like you're about to say “ay”, but once you start making noise, don't move your tongue or lips. Keep them steady for the entire duration of the sound.

Interestingly native German speakers can say it correctly as the same sound exists in German (obviously not é but just e)

Love the explanation @Purplemagnolias , are you a linguist?

Omg, you couldn’t have explained it better!

To me “ay” is 100% wrong as it’s not Esmay, it’s Esmé.

I would say that Esmé is pronounced like Es for “escape” and Mé for “melon” .