Everyone pronounces our daughter's name wrong

[StarShine23]

Hi all, advice needed please.

We named our daughter after someone we know from abroad. Its a pretty simple name but we had never heard it in the UK before. Baby is now 1 and the name has become more popular here, but it has a different pronunciation than we use. The problem we have is we don't like way its pronounced here, but everyone we meet now calls her by the UK version rather than her name, even though we correct them.

Do we:
(a) stick to our original pronunciation, even though it will be a battle for her growing up when other people with the same name all pronounce it the UK way
(b) accept the UK version, even though we dont like it and to us, doesn't suit her
(c) change her name

Has anyone else been through this? What did you do / wish you had done?

We feel awful that we have unwillingly picked something that is going to be tricky for her now all her life, but we love the name.

I'm guessing one you pronounce the S and one you don't.

I’d persevere and correct people. I hate the way some people pronounce my name, it especially grates when Americans pronounce it, I correct them and have no problems doing so. It’s not unusual or phonetically hard it just depends on how people pronounce their vowels.

Two of my DCs have struggles, one is understandable due to the uncommon nature of her name and the fact it’s not English or phonetically pronounced, the other people are just lazy, they also spell her name incorrectly, it’s a name that can be spelt and pronounced different ways internationally but is very common in the uk so it shouldn’t be too hard for people.

Id just keep going and correcting people.

Keep the name, she’ll correct people once she’s older.

My name’s Jana but pronounced Yana. I’ve been called Janna, Janer, Joanna and so much more. Everytime I’ve just corrected people and have politely said, ‘it’s Yana.’ It’s annoying but it just comes apart of life.

My daughter’s name is Miyara, pronounced Meyara. So many people say MIyara and not MEyara. I was so annoyed that I spelt her name in a way that people would pronounce incorrectly but what can I do. I wasn’t going to change the spelling as I hate it spelt Meyara. I have a friend called Katya, pronounced Kat-ya and everyone calls her Katia. It’s just names!

I have a relatively old-fashioned name. When I was a child, quite a few people pronounced it differently to how it should be said. Possibly because the spelling might imply that*
As it is, I don't like the name and have gone by a shortened version for the past 30 or so years.

*It isn't an unusual spelling, just the way letters are (bit like the Sarah/Sara or Esme/Esmee example)

Not exactly the same situation but I'm foreign and people always mispronounce my name. Even when they ask me for the correct pronunciation, they tend to get it wrong. Some also write it wrong.

I've learned to let go, it's really not that important to me and it's not their fault.

I'm not saying the name, because I don't want to offend any one who is or has children called it and use the UK variant.

Do you seriously think a stranger on the internet is going to be offended because they pronounce something slightly differently to you?!

I know 3 Lucia's. One is pronounced Lu-seea with the emphasis on the cia, another is Loo- shia with emphasis on the Lu but the one that is pronounced Luchia is the one who complains that her name is always mispronounced and yet I think its the least obvious unless you are in Italy and she has no Italian connection, her mother always makes a big deal of it and I have to admit I think why didn't you just spell it with a ch if that's the pronunciation that you wanted?

Depends where you’re from. My Spanish friend Xavier pronounces it Ch-av-ee-air. There are many different pronunciations

@Maray1967 , Alissia and Aleesha are both acceptable.
@MrsSlocombesCat , Zayv-yuhr in English
@herewegoagainy , Anna-eece or Un-ey. The Un-ey one is not right.
puts on a tin hat as someone will come along and say how dare I post that Un-ey is not right

I have this with two of my DC.

DD’s name is very easy to pronounce phonetically which is how it should be but people in UK insist on pronouncing it with a nor (don’t like that) at the end rather than a na which is how it’s spelt. In DH’s European country they pronounce the middle bit totally differently and add a letter in the middle that’s not there. Used to drive me batty when she was younger!

In the UK people do pronounce DS’s name phonetically but the end then sounds like ass and first bit is totally different than how it should be! It sounds so weird, I often want to say that’s not how to say his name, why would I have given my kid a name like that!

I love their names though so suck it up.

Thankfully my other two DC’s names are short and sweet and can’t be mispronounced.

I have an Italian friend who moved to uk with her daughter Eva. In Italian it is pronounced with the E as in 'Egg', but in UK she's called Eva with the E as in 'Easy'

Then, to confuse things there is Ava in UK, which is pronounced like the Italian Eva, but in Italian it would be Ava with A as in Alphabet!

I’d say

Ah/nay
or
Ah/nay/is

How are the two said differently out of intrest?

@Apolloneuro , The diaeresis indicated that the a and the i are pronounced separately so the i doesn't change the a, so it is Anna-eess.

Stick with the way you like it.

I know someone called Sharon.
she —thinks she’s quite week to do— insists on everyone calling her Sh-air-on. People get used to it, but yes……she does have to correct everyone when she first meets them.

The writer Anais Nin used to pronounce it as Anna Eeeees.

I've also heard it pronounced as Ann aays.

@RamblingAroundTheInternet , Elena and Tobias?

I met a Soraya yesterday. Relatively common middle eastern name apparently. Every single person in baby group pronounced it Saroya and it was on a name tag. She had to repeat the Raya part every time. That kid is going to find it unbelievably annoying and either go just by Raya or something else entirely. I would either accept the new pronunciation or chose a different nickname.

Don't bother to change it my deed poll etc as that is too complex. I have a lot of foreign clients sometimes with very long names. Quite a few will be known as things like Sam (as Sam is the first part of a long foreign first name) or Jay but for legal purposes they put the full name.

Just do what feels right for you and the family. I remember poor Jeremy Corbyn (and I am certainly not a Corbynite!) being told off for prounouncing Epstein wrongly and yet he was only giving the pronunciation anyone with German Alevel that I have would use. It can be a dangerous business pronouncing difficult foreign names as people get so upset.

If you can stick to John and Mary etc you cannot go far wrong in the UK for an easy life.

Back in the day when boys were called by their surname even in state schools I had Darling in a class and he anything but!

My friend is a Spanish Elena - eh-lEna, she is now used to be called Eleanor, such is life!

Why would people be offended?

We know that we don't all like the same names or all the girls would be called eg Mavis and all the boys eg Derek.

Persephone?

Elodie?

My son has an Arabic name, it’s quite unusual but lovely. However the Greek use the same name and pronounce it slightly differently. We didn’t realise how many people would jump to the Greek pronunciation and quite often need to correct people.

It’s just a quirk of his name. Now he’s older he corrects people himself. It doesn’t seem to annoy him, if anything it makes him feel more individual. I think he likes also being able to explain the differences in the pronunciation and how that links to his heritage.