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 had exactly this issue. I picked a very common Italian name for may daughter - very simple, say what you see. People constantly got it wrong and some even 'corrected' me when I gave her name "oh, you mean xxxx" - er no, I know my own child's name!

What n she was younger it was a bit of an issue - especially when n teachers/carers continually mispronounced. She often asked me 'do I have a different name at nursery and which one should my friends call me'.

I think we Brits can be lazy and rude when it comes to foreign words making zero effort. The ally bugs me.

By the time she hit 6/7 she loved her unique (common in Italy) name and then a singer who the same name emerging years ago and now a footballer so everyone knows it and, suddenly, nobody has put iblema pronouncing it...

She adores her name as I'm sure your DC will too.

I think we Brits can be lazy and rude when it comes to foreign words making zero effort. The ally bugs me.

Ha. Allow me to introduce you to the entire nation of France.

I am reminded of the old Mary Tyler Moore show where three characters in the office were Mary, Murray and Marie. Quite clever of the writers.

OP, just keep pronouncing your child's name the way you do, and correct close friends and her teachers, but then leave it up to her once she reaches the age of 7 or 8.

I have a nephew (now an adult) called Stefan. At first I pronounced it Stef-ahn, but was corrected to pronounce as Stef-an. I still here people mispronounce it on occasion (we live in the same town), but I figure it's up to him if he wants to correct people.

So how IS it pronounced?

My guess is they think that Nee-av is a 'country' (ie bogger) version.
What it actually is is Irish. Most places kept the Irish language for a lot longer than Dublin and its surrounds.
So not common at all, but correct, but try telling that to the Dubs😁

Anais Anais or Chloe or Daisy or any other name used by perfumiers?

IMO if you choose to name your child a unusual name or foreign name you should expect that people may pronounce it differently or incorrectly. You can't expect everyone will know how to. You may have to correct them.

My first name has always been mispronounced but one gets used to it. What pokes is when people start to shorten the mispronunciation into something totally divorced from my name. Example: Xenya (not my name) pronounce Zen-ya, mispronounced Zeeny-a, then shortened to Zee.
I guess your daughter will make the choices herself when she's older, but you call her by the name you chose.

I work with an Yvonne. The first thing I asked was is her name pronounced Eevon or Ivonn (i pronounced as in "it"). It's the second.

When I was pregnant with my 3rd daughter I loved the name Eira, and spent 8 months of my pregnancy sure I was going to call her that.

I was pronouncing it Eye-Ra.
But my dad said A-Ra.
Others were saying Ear-a.
And I thought people prounoucing it wrong is going to irritate me, she'll have to spend her life correcting people and spelling it out for people so I decided not to use it.

I called her Aurelia instead, which I thought was a pretty straight forward pronunciation Or-E-Leah.
But some people still say Ah-Ree-Leah or even Or-Ray-Leah 🤦🏼‍♀️😂 so I still have to correct people. But I still think she'd have had more problems with Eira though I still love the name so much.

My son is also called Taigh which we pronounce Tay-G. But the Irish pronunciation is T-Eye-G (like tiger without the ER) and a lot of people chicken out of trying to prounoucing it altogether such as nurses, health visitors who just kind of very slowly say taaayyy..... and then I jump in and say Taigh and they're like sigh of relief "yes" 😂

I just teach them both how their name is said so they are confident enough to just correct people without getting stroppy about it. Though my daughter is a bit of a diva so she'll often be like eye roll it's OR-E-Leah NOT Ah-Ree-Leah, a bit like Hermione from HP saying Leviosa 😂 but I love her confidence with it 😁

lol

Same here!

Angela is pronounced Ann Jella, though, isn’t it? Or at least that’s how all the Angelas I have known have pronounced it.

My son is Leon (now an adult) and everyone says Lee-on which is what we wanted. My cousin said Lay-on once but picked up on our pronunciation straight away. Strictly speaking, the French pronunciation would have an accent: Léon. He’s a striking lad and his name has made him stand out - once met, never forgotten!

Ditto!

OK. What do you expect me to do with that information? Because I have.

I have a Scottish first name. It is never pronounced properly or spelt correctly in England.
My married surname is Germanic again spelt incorrectly. I often have to correct it on official forms. People add an 's'.
I have learnt to accept it over the years. I do correct people when first introduced.
My name Christan name is fairly common in Scotland.
My BIL always gets it wrong but I realise he is dyslexic.

Thankfully not quite that obscure, more of an "nne" at the end Frenchy type spelling!

Trying to avoid outing my name as I imagine with my post history someone could quite possibly work out who I am from just that if someone I know happens t be a fellow MNer lol

My friend is northern Irish (Belfast) and her child is called Saoirse. She pronounces it Sor-sha. Ive since heard other people say Seer-sha. There is definitely more than one way to pronounce it

No, there's one right way and millions of wrong ways.

You can tell when the long E is being pronounced regardless of accent. Sorsha isn't it.

Sorsha isn't how the name Sorcha is pronounced either, though there are people who think it's a perfectly acceptable variant.

My daughter has a name that is used all over Europe, but we find the way it is pronounced here not very appealing, nor does she . We pronounce it the Italian way , her friends / people that know her all use the right pronunciation, from a very young age she would correct people on how the name is pronounced and generally people call her with the right pronunciation. I think she does finds it annoying , at times , when people use the wrong pronunciation, but generally she’s quite philosophical. For reference , if she had a problem with it and wanted to change it , we would be ok with it , but she loves her name . Also , the name with the Italian pronunciation is a family name .

Absoloutely stick to original name. To be honest it seems like it's more of a you problem (without offending). It seems like you are uncomfortable to keep reminding people of the correct way to say it. My first name is Turkish and middle name is Jennifer ( we live in the UK). Growing up throughout school and university people would always call out my first name despite me going by middle name in England. I would have to speak up and correct them which really shaped me and my confidence. So when I had my daughter (she's 3 now) we decided to call her Miya (said like Mia) but spelt it different as it had a meaning and would be easier for my Turkish family to say the name due to the spelling. Now I find myself having to regularly tell people when they try saying 'Maya' I have to correct them immediately and often more than once. When she started pre school it took a good month for them to get the message. I have accepted that this will be how it is for life for her but that's OK as it did strengthen my abilities to speak up in social situations. As long as she sees you confidently correcting people, she'll happily do the same.

Guy is always pronounced ghee in France and French-speaking countries, so that's not so surprising.

I knew a Guy with all-British family and his name was pronounced gooey because his mum had never heard it, she read it in a book and presumed it was pronounced that way.

I also worked with a Polish guy called Maciek ('matcheck') and everyone thought his name was Magic. He once thanked me because I was the only person who asked him and called by his real name.

@mypafology Ez-mee has always been the standard anglicised form of the name (hence why it doesn't have an accent). I'm not surprised previous poster said it wasn't a problem when her daughter was young because Esmay sky-rocketed in awareness and popularity thanks to Twilight, esp when the films came out.

I definitely remember Saoirse Ronan being on something with Eamon Holmes and them both pronouncing it differently, I know she says it’s ‘Saoirse like inertia’, where as he said something else but I don’t reminder what. They did say it was dialectical. So is that just accent difference? I say it to rhyme with inertia and if I’m wrong it’s Saoirse Rohan’s fault. 😂

@SheilaFentiman that's because Catriona is a Gaelic name, pronounced Ka-tree-na in Scotland and Ireland. So it's more that other people pronounce it ka-tree-oh-na.

The first vowel in Eira is more like ay to rhyme with hay when pronounced correctly. Though there are lots of Welsh people who pronounce it eye-ra.

The Aurelia I know Is Aw-RYE-Lee-uh. So that’s different again.

names are hard. 😂