How would you pronounce “Louis”?

[MrsW32]

We are really feeling the name Louis for our little boy. However we wanted a name that wouldn’t cause any confusion when pronouncing it due to me having a life long issue with my own name being constantly mispronounced and I don’t want to inflict that on him. But we really love Louis and to pronounce it as “Louie” but I really don’t like the spelling Louie.

We have 2 other names in the mix Jude and Leo which we both love and will not have the above issue, but just don’t have the edge that Louis does!

I’ve included a poll too 😅

Any opinions?

I would advise people to.give a name without any doubt- embarrassing for others and must be annoying for the child.

Where do you live? I’m a Londoner I frequently hear a name I’ve never heard before & my dc have school friends with names new to me. It’s a global city…

I've never, ever known anyone in the UK who's pronounced Louis as Lewis. Louis is a well known name in the UK because of all the famous ones named above, also Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Louis and all the Kings of France! I can't imagine anyone deferring to Lewis. They are two separate names. There was a similar post the other day. Has it become some sort of thing to say Lewis instead of Louis?

I would pronounce is Loo is as I am not French if the person said its actually loo ee then I woukd respect that

@Littlemissgobby how do you pronounce Margot?

But surely you've heard of William and Kate's son. Do you insist on calling him Prince Lewis because a member of the royal family hasn't corrected you?

Definitely Loo-eee.

I suspect that, with the birth of Prince Louis, the Loo-eee spelling and pronunciation will become more wide spread.

It also means that you can use “spelt and pronounced the same as Prince Louis” and people will remember it and know exactly what it means.

It's been the English pronunciation for what, about a thousand years by now? You would think people would know.

Quite!

I’ve taught kids who pronounce it both ways. It’s such a confusing name. My default is loo-ee and I really find it hard to remember when a child pronounces it as Lewis. I just have a mental block for some reason.

I remember Margot from the Chalet School and discovering that her name wasn’t “Mar-got”. I had read many many of the books before I did though. 😂

We won’t even mention the fact that I mis-read Hermione as Hermoine for years of Jilly Cooper and Harry Potter before Miss Granger explained to Viktor Krum how to pronounce her name.

I call him louie as that's what the media said it was pronounced as but looking on paper I prob would say Louis until otherwise. Actually had forgotten about him

There is only one way to say Louis?

Louis is always loo-ee
The s is only pronounced if you add an s. Louise
Loo-is is spelled Lewis

My little boy is called Louis and we pronounce it Loo-ee.. weird that one of our other names was Jude 😂 Leo is an extremely popular name so I would avoid that!

All the ones I know pronounce it Loo-ee

Lewis otoh is pronounced like Lewis

Loo eee
This is the usual accepted pronunciation. I have met lots of them all pronounced in this way although I am aware from mn that Lewis is a possible version of. I associate the latter choice with the US because of St. Louis .

There are enough famous Louis’s (prince, theroux, tomlinson etc) that I think most people will know the correct pronunciation.

I like it … more unique and classic than Leo or Jude.

There is a famous story about Lady Asquith telling Jean Harlow that the t in her name, Margot, was silent as in Jean Harlot.

It's a mental block because your brain knows anyone trying to convince you Louis is pronounced Lewis is wrong.

I know a Spanish Lou - eess just to confuse things further. It's definitely a name where half the time people will pronounce it wrongly though.

A question for all those saying 'The French way ie the correct way'. The French pronunciation would put the emphasis on the final syllable, ie lou-IE. Whereas the anglicised version of the French name as far as I always hear it is pronounced LOU-ie with the emphasis on the first syllable. So would you actually pronounce it the French way, or the anglo-french way?

Lou_ ee

I have a Louis, named after Armstrong. In my mind, because of the Armstrong origin, the "Lewis" pronunciation is his proper name and the "Lou-ee" pronunciation is more like a nick name. But I only ever call him "Lou-ee". If anyone asks how to pronounce it, I say either way. Which confuses them.

I was told that, when an Armstrong biographer was asked about the pronunciation, he said "No one called him Lou-ee, except 90% of his fans and 3 of his wives!"

I think I'd have to ask
I have heard it pronounced like Louie and Lewis so could be either

It's my brothers name.

There's no other way to pronounce it aside from 'lou-ee'