How would you pronounce Esme?

[copynpaste]

Would you pronounce it Ez-me

Or would you pronounce it Ez-may

The pronunciation is 50/50 for each way based on the ones I’ve met.

Ez-me

Ez-may is my default. Just because the only person I've known with that name says it that way.

If I was actually meeting a person with that name then I'd just ask given there are two valid options.

Ez May

Ez-May. Never heard of it being ez-mee

EZ me, I've never even heard of Ez MAY as an option.

But I've never met one in real life, only terry pratchetts Esmerelda Weatherwax so as a short form Ez Me makes more sense to me and also its how the audio books say it!

Ez-may. I know an 80 year old, a teenager and a 3 year old with the name pronounced like that, though the teenager gets called Ezzy by her friends

Ez-May

I have an Es-mee, but she says lots of the teachers at school call her Es-may so assume that’s the more common pronunciation? At Y11, she has finally got the confidence up to correct them!

Ez may

Es - Mee

I've only ever known Ez-mays

Ez-me. Lovely name either way.

Ez-may

Ez- May like on Sewing Bee

Ez-mee

Ez-may

Those pronouncing it EZ-mee is that the same as you would say Esmi/Esmy? Like with the same last syllable as Chloe? My northern accent struggles with making it sound like a name… and so I would say EZ-may

Ez-May

I'd assume anyone who pronounced it Es-Mee didn't know it was supposed to be pronounced Es-May. Like Ralph pronounced Ralf. But if I wouldn't be rude enough to tell them so and would pronounce it however they liked.

EZ-me

Esmé is traditionally pronounced Ezmay.
Esme without an acute accent is Esmee.
However no matter how you spell it or pronounce it, others will say it the way they prefer, I hadn’t realised how much it would bug me until I had one.

That’s a bit presumptuous @roibustea! I could
equally assume those pronouncing it Ez-May when there isn’t an accent don’t know how it is supposed to be pronounced.

It seems to be around 50-50 on this thread. Quite right too. Whatever the individual Ez-Me’s or E-May’s prefer must surely be the answer - agrEe with that bit!

I've only ever heard it pronounce EZ-may. I'm Australian and we had a character on a soap called this in the 80s/early 90s which most people of my age would have been very familiar with.

Ez-May

Esmay. Never come across the idea it could be anything else until now!