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?

Loo-ee.

It's so popular at the moment.

I'm not even sure why, as it's so toilety.

One thing you can guarantee is that if there are two ways to pronounce something people will choose the wrong one. The other thing you can guarantee is that any control over what your child is called will be fleeting...as soon as they can, they will choose for themselves.

Lou-ee in the UK.

Lou-iss in the USA.

Anywhere in a UK setting I'd automatically assume 'Louis' was pronounced 'lou-ee' and would only use the US pronunciation if corrected.

It's a French name so its traditional pronunciation is with an -ee ending.

Loo-i (lewi).

The only time I'd say it any differently would be if it were spelt Lewis - when I'd pronounce it Loo-ISS (lewISS)

Louis or Louie I would say it with the ISS sound on the end.

Probably pronounces ballet as "balette" and café as "caiffe" as they aren't French.

😆

We have a Louis and when people read it out they almost always say loo-ee as intended. But when they hear loo-ee they very often write down Louie so it’s not entirely simple.

I pronounce Louis and louie as Loo-ee. Eg Prince Louis is Loo-ee not loo-is.

Loo-is (Lewis) is a different name altogether.

The Spanish and Porguese name is spelt Luis though and, indeed, the "s" is pronounced because that is the norm for those languages. Louis however is a French name where the "s" is not pronounced. I've honestly never known anyone in my entire 67 years pronounce Louis as Lewis unless they're talking about the city in Missouri.

Or grand prix as graaand pricks because, you know, not French.

It's a popular name here in Germany - always pronounced Lewis

I can't speak for everyone but when I say "the French way" I mean without pronouncing the s.

Of course it's pronounced Louee.

Loo-wee 😬🚽

The one we know is pronounced Lou-ee by everyone.

Loo- E so Loo rhymes with shoe E rhymes with Sea.

I think that Lewis is the spelling for the other pronunciation?

Not always, I think it's a class thing. Posh ones are pronounced the French way, common ones the American. You can sometimes take a guess on which is which by based on appearance, but it's rude

I would pronounce it as Lewis. I work with someone with this spelling of Louie and he always gets called Lewis by mistake

Louis was my third boy name, but we had a girl. Love it. We live in Spain and to confuse matters further they spell it Luis and it’s pronounced like a cross between Louis (ie) and Lewis! Loo-ees … we know two Dutch Louis’ here and they are both Lou-ee .. that is 100% the correct pronunciation of that spelling. It is a name where this matter is going to come up a lot though, if that bothers you. When I told my mum it was our choice for number 3, she said “lovely, but will you use Lou-ee or Lou-is”. Louis Tomlinson was a Lou-is growing up .. he changed the sound to Lou-ee for showbiz .. in a documentary I saw about him his friends and family from back home all called him Lou-is in the talking heads.

I always think Americans say Loo-is but Europeans say Loo-ee.

No, outside of France, Louis is generally pronounced as it's written, Lou-is.

Louis Smith pronounces it Lou-is too I think?

In Germany it's always pronounced Lou-is.

Hasn't Louie become the MORE popular spelling in the UK?

That spelling makes the pronunciation unambiguous for English speakers!

I'd say Loo-ee bit have also heard it pronounced Lewis

Louis is pronounced Lewie. I wouldn't pronounce or spell it any other way. I think the S may be pronounced in the USA but in the UK that name is spelled Lewis.

Generally in the French way, Louis (Louie/Lou-ee). However, I have known two fully adult Louis’s where it is pronounced Lewis. Both are British.