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.

Hey and Hay sound identical how I say them. As do Aye, Eye and I

I say hey and hay the same, and I say eye and I the same.

I never say aye, but if I did, I would pronounce it just the same as eye.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renee_Bradshaw

Yes me too.

I would just say "Hey!" a bit louder if I was trying to get someone's attention. It would still sound exactly the same as the stuff rabbits eat.

@MasterBeth @ZebraPensAreLife , ok, do you say Joy Nin and Join in the same?

LOL re Reenie/Renee. That's a blast from the past. I always imagined it was spelt Reenie and short for "Maureen" or similar.

Reenie is an awful thing to do to a Renée 😂

Yes.

Of course I would (if I ever said Joy Nin).

This is a common feature of spoken English.

It's also how puns are made.

Ih Veee Ay is really hard to say. She may find people simply avoid saying her name at all.

Can't imagine Joy-nin and join being said the same🤔Not doubting pps obvs.
But Hey/hay and Aye/eye/I - can't hear any difference there.

It also sounds like IVA - the process that’s like bankruptcy.

Poor child.

It was Joy Nin and Join In.

All of the Duchess’s examples seem identical to me.

Here's Esme Young being interviewed on This Morning and being referred to as both Es-may and Es-mee.

Sorry, typo on my part.
Joy nin and join in don't sound the same to me is what I meant to say.
They're close-ish...Joy-nin sounds like someone saying join in in a very, very different accent to mine maybe.

I'd say them differently. I don't say Hay Tid and Hated the same - I say them similarly but not identically. The former has a longer vowel sound.

Anyway, the ey sound I was trying to convey is very short, so more like 'Eh?' than 'A'. If you don't get it, you won't.

FWIW, the Joy in Joyce doesn't sound the same as Joy to me.

Trying to find whether Esme Young is an Esmay or Esmee.

Here we go. Es-mee! Her own name. I'm assuming she know show to pronounce her own name!

Yeah, but she’s been doing it wrong all these years. Esme has NEVER been Ez-Mee! We’ve been told.

“Eh” and “A” are the same in my accent as well!

Blimey!

Good shout

Es-mee v Es-may

I think it depends on whether ‘eh’ is being pronounced fully or not. To me it’s the same as ‘A’. But some people will say it like the ai sound in ‘air’. (That may not help since we all pronounce things subtly differently!)

I would say Es-May. But correcting people will be a lifelong battle.

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying , I meant 'Eh?' as in 'WHAT? not eh as in meh.

Eh? Eh? Eh?