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?

I read it as Emilia - brain just put the extra i in there.
Em ee la I find hard to say.

Where does the name come from, OP?
I confess that when parents complain about people getting their child's unique name wrong that I tend to suspect them of doing it to feel special and different, and when it's a variation of a common name I suspect them even more.

The added problem here would be regional accents and the Emily, Amelia group of names is particularly prone to this. Where I am from Emily for example would be pronounce Em-lee not Em-i-lee so Emila would probably be pronounced Em-la. I feel for you, its not easy

I'd personally just keep correcting until it sunk in. You chose DDs name presumably with care because you love it. You don't need to make things easier for other people who, in a society where people are called all sorts of unusual and unfamiliar names, should get used to listening properly and saying a name correctly. If your DD wants to she can change when she's older.

Fwiw I really like the name and agree it is pretty.

It isn’t lazy readers. It is the way people read. You don’t sound out every letter unless you are at the beginning of primary school, so people will automatically read it as Emilia. It is fine to keep the name but pointless to get resentful when people get it wrong as it is a situation you created.

I'd read that as Eh-mill-ah, rather than Eh-meel-ah.

I don't think it would be a recognised name in the UK and it's very similar in spelling to Emilia so unfortunately I think it will always be an issue.

Honestly, it's a lovely name. Just correct them. If they're not getting it, that's up to them. It's really not that hard to read or listen!

You just keep correcting them. And if you are the person saying the name first you say something like "Emila- it's from X language" or "Emila - spelt like Emily but ends in A instead of Y" to flag that they haven't misheard you saying "Emilia".

I have a foreign name, and it's hard to pronoune in English. People will eventually get it! No one I know gets my name wrong (anymore) - yes sure I have to sometimes spell it, but that's that. It's no big deal.

How would you read it as Eh-Mill-Lah? There's one L?

Known names include Emily, Emilia, Emmeline, Amelie and Amelia. People generally skim read and default to the nearest they know, so this is a problem your daughter will have all her life. She’ll probably end up changing it and not thanking you for it. Why are you so particular about a near-miss name?

To be honest I thought the name was a variation of the spelling for Emelia. It obviously isn't but I think you will spend a lot of time correcting people and as your daughter gets older, she'll be correcting the pronunciation and spelling. It's a pretty name, once I realised how to pronounce it. It's going to be a pain in the arse for your daughter though!!!

Emelia would have been an easier spelling for me to understand how you say it

It's unusual, so you'll all get used to correcting people and demonstrating how you'd like it to be said. I'm not sure using a shortened version would help either, I still wouldn't know which way to go if I saw Mila written (probably with an I as in Milo).

People don't just change their name because other people don't know how to read? Your daughter will be fine!!

if you say em ee La than you should have written it that way

em ill a is how I would read it but clearly ( from my op) the letters are not easy for everyone to decipher

Unless they are people who will know you and your child (these will get used to it) then either ignore it or gently correct people.

This country is full of people whose name i wouldn't get right first time, it's not the end of the world. I have spent a lifetime correcting the spelling and pronunciation of my surname. It's hardly been a lifetime of woe.

It's a pretty name. Congratulations

Just get a few T shirts or vests printed with her name on.
Don't change it because idiots can't pronounce it properly..

Because 'mill' is pronounced the same as 'mil'.

I have spent a lifetime correcting the spelling and pronunciation of my surname. It's hardly been a lifetime of woe.

So have I and have found it extremely annoying, so much so that I've looked into changing my name to one that won't be misspelled (except by people with very poor literacy). We aren't all the same.

OP this is already bothering you and it won't go away. Change her name.

@happithipoy Emílá, looks wrong, and makes no sense. Emíla sort of makes sense, but doesn't solve @Laura3091 's problem.

@Laura3091 , your daughter has a name that's only been used about 20 times in the past 27 years. Amelia, Emily, Emilia and Mila have all been popular during that time, with thousands of them registered.
If I saw the name Emila, I'd think it was pronounced like Emily but with an -a ending instead of -y.

Think this is a case of not thinking fully before naming her. Sorry. I had to look a few times to realise it wasn't Emilia, which is a very common name. Emila just looks like someone forgot the I. I'd call her Mila to at least give people a chance of pronouncing it. But you will get this for life now when she uses her full name and I don't think you can be that surprised by it.

I would pronounce your child’s name as Em eye la, not E me la. I can imagine it pronounced as Emi la as well.

I think you have chosen the wrong name, or wrong spelling if you wanted a certain pronounciation.

Luckily she is only one child, not the twins I expected from your title🙂.

It won't work, I have ended up with a very simple surname. I still have to spell it for people.