People keep pronouncing DDs name wrong

[Bakersman]

How should I correct them without embarassing myself or them? I keep speaking to her by name and referring to her by name to DS but people continually pronounce it wrong. She is 2 now so it has been going on too long to say 'oh by the way you pronounce it....'
I'm now kicking myself for choosing an unusual name
Thanks for any advice!

Even my dh can't pronounce my name.

Thanks for your replies - guess I will have to live with it as I'm not really brave enough to correct people after all this time. It looks like it hasn't killed those of you with unusual/ difficult to pronounce names and we do sometimes shorten her name to one everyone knows! Oh and if we have any more dc they will have to have more common names, lol!
BTW Geepers, no its not an attention seeking thread - I actually don't want to post her name on here for my own reasons anyway. This is my first week posting on MN and I was a bit at your reply - I guess that's what happens when people haven't yet got to know you.....
PS. I love the name Elana-Rose too, v pretty!

Gosh, Geepers - got out of the wrong side of bed this morning?!

My DD has unusual name and everybody gets it wrong. It doesn't really bother me except when my own blinkin' family can't spell or pronounce it, despite having been told how to say it. I agree that if it's been said for 2 years it's tricky, but the first time or two I say "it's xxx actually, but I know it's dificult to say!"

I have a bit of a problem like this with DH's name - it is actually a bit of a girl's name but sounds rather like an uncommon male name so people tend to think it is the latter, rather than the former. I do correct them because otherwise they will even get the initial wrong, let alone everything else. I find that most people get it after the first explanation though.

Some people just can't help themselves in these situations - my name continually has an extra letter added to the end of it, even when I point it out and write back and they can see my email address - even family get it wrong! But, being the true pedant that I am I never give up...

If she is 2 you may not have long to wait until SHE corrects them - both my children have slightly unusual names and by 3 were pointing out to various people what their names really were

oh that's true - I have a friend whose daughter is called Madeleine, Maddy for short - at nursery if she was doing something bad they didn't like, they used to say "MADDISON! don't..." and she would say, very properly, "my name isn't Maddison, it's Madeleine".

So yes, just wait a bit and no doubt she will either refuse to answer or correct them herself.

One of my dds has a welsh name,a very easy to pronounce welsh name,and yet my mother constantly mispronounces it.It drives me mad! I have corrected her but she just says "that's what I said"in an annoyed voice.
My other dd has an english name,not very much used but very easy to say and people constantly call her by another similar and I gguess more well known name.AAArghh.It isn't a wacky name,I had no idea how many people had never heard it until after we had named her.I sympathise.

One of my dds has a welsh name,a very easy to pronounce welsh name,and yet my mother constantly mispronounces it.It drives me mad! I have corrected her but she just says "that's what I said"in an annoyed voice.
My other dd has an english name,not very much used but very easy to say and people constantly call her by another similar and I gguess more well known name.AAArghh.It isn't a wacky name,I had no idea how many people had never heard it until after we had named her.I sympathise.

Another way to cope with peopele who just will not get it right is to start mispronouncing their names. e.g. yes it is a lovely day /amoonda/Jonit/Koot/Pooter/Philop etc. etc. it's a great game I use it all the time and now my kids do it too. Thank you mr. Smoth/Janes/Auntie Nan/Uncle Ribot

heh heh, mamas12 - I do that with the spelling on emails! I add the same letter to the end of their name - 90% of them "get it" and don't do it again, but about 10% of them are diehards.

Also DS has a very common name but the shortened version - and EVERYBODY thinks it's the long version and that we're just using the short one as a nickname, despite having been told otherwise.

My name is fairly unuausal and has too differnt ways of pronouncing it - and pretty much everyone new I meet pronounces it the wrong way.

As a child this drove me mad and I would correct everyone, now life seems too short, however it is still really irritating, especialy when you introduce yourself as X and they say hello Y. I just think you dumb bint, you obviously are not listening to me so I don;t pay any atention to what they say.

My dd is Isla and I'm amazed at how often people mispronounce it, it isn't too difficult, I can understand people with EAL, but everyone knows how to say island, and its the same principle?? Doesn't upset me though, if it is someone we are going to see regularly I correct them, if it is someone who we won't see much of I let it go..

Well Wonderstuff, I have to say that I have never heard anyone say the name Isla in rl (because I live outside UK and it only seems to have become popular there in the last 5 years or so). So I really wasn't sure whether it was Is-la or I-la. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

I guess I just imagined it was more common than I thought!

I get people spelling my name wrong when they reply to my emails. Even though the correct version is there right in front of them!

It's not that hard, only four letters. And yes, I know the other spelling is more common but mine is 'correct' - the other spelling is actually a boys' name although it seems to have crossed over and is used for girls now.

Shows just show few people read or remember classic children's literature as there are two really good children's books with heroes with this name. One of which is still quite popular.

I knew how to pronounce Isla before your post, Wonderstuff. But only because I'm old enough to remember Isla St Clair!

My name is unusual (not weird), and is routinely mispronounced.

My DD's name is similarly unusual, and is routinely mis-spelt. I am too much of a chicken to correct anyone on either front!

I feel your pain edam, my name is unusual, easy to pronounce, but someone at work constantly misspells it and its in my email address, if I'm not sure of a name I look it up.
I found that when I had a job where I was on the phone a lot people would routinely substitute it for a different name entirely! It is nice always being the only person with my name, I worked in one office where there were 4 Catherines. It difficult to get the balance when naming kids, common enough so they don't spend there life correcting people and explaining how to pronounce it, not so common that there are 4 of them in their class.

One odd upside - I can spot a crappy rip-off baby names book by someone who hasn't bothered to do any research. Just look my name up and see if they claim it is a variant of a much more common name (nickname for common name is similar). Wrong!

Before I married DH, I used to wonder why he always used to spell out his surname (fairly ordinary one) on the phone. Now I know why! I too now pre-empt the misunderstandings by saying Mrs Clam C-L-A-M (not my surname, by the way!) Irritating, but necessary, I'm afraid. And it's becoming more necessary with Christian names as more and more people opt for unusual spellings.

Just repeat the correct pronunciation. Boring but necessary if it botehrs you. Eventually people who know you will get the idea. I am often called by the wrong (soundalike) name altogether which is even more annoying.

People get my DS's name wrong too. In fact even the child benifit forms came back with the name changed to what they thought it should be rather than what I actually wrote!

I usually just try to say his name as much as possible or I tell them the background to the name so they focus in on how it is said.

My DCs have foreign names and people cannot pronounce them correctly (they have an "r" that is pronounced the italian way IYSWIM.)

I do not correct people because I know it is hard for them to pronounce it the right way but it does not bother me one bit when the DCs actually say to people (very seldomly thought "I am sorry but you know my name is... not ..." As long as they are polite!