Everyone is getting my baby's name wrong

[Laura3091]

So my baby girls name is Emila - It is pronounced as Em-ee-la.

Everyone keeps calling her Amelia and can’t get their head around Emila. Don’t think it’s that hard to grasp tbh but I know she is going to have trouble as she grows up with people mispronouncing her name.

Do we just shorten it to Mila? (Mee-La) to make it easier for everyone?

Did you even read what that poster said?

Just correct people OP, people pronounce my son's non English family name wrong sometimes.

It did bother me (I didn't expect anyone to pronounce it correctly intuitively but when I've kept deliberately saying it correctly and they're still saying it wrong, it is irritating) but it's absolutely beautiful - it helped me going to baby groups and seeing how many new people were able to pronounce it correctly no problem!

Yes, I did, @Digdongdoo - she said it is a known shortening, which makes it a known name in my book. It’s like Elinor and Ellie - Ellie is a known shortening of Elinor, but can also be used as a name in its own right.

@trainboundfornowhere said ”I looked into it and it has come back as a feminine form of Emil used in Poland and a Kashubian (region in Poland) form of Emilia.” - sounds logical to me.

What’s ‘made up’? My name is Emilia and I was called Emila for most of my childhood, but I don’t know a single person whose actual name was Emila - the full name has always been Emilia. It might be an actual name in other countries, but I’ve seen someone saying it’s a full name in Polish - it’s not.

Every name must have been made up at some point, of course, and names will become more or less popular over time. I don’t condemn a name because it is new, and less common, which is what I feel @Digdongdoo is doing - hence my comments to her.

I did not intend to offend her - if I have, then I apologise - and hopefully we can agree to disagree.

You give your child an unusual name that the majority of people have never heard of, and you're then surprised that people can't pronounce it? Are you also surprised when day turns to night?

Spoke to a Polish work colleague who confirmed Emila is a very old name from where the west coast of Poland meets Belarus and Ukraine. It is not often used now and you are more likely to find Emilia than Emila.

I also read it as ‘Emilia’, but I absolutely love ‘Emila’.

I would just keep correcting people. They’ll get it eventually.