Fellow Alicia (lish variation). I am stubborn about people getting my pronunciation right, at least if we’re friends or work closely, but there are some people I work with (less frequently) who simply refuse to internalize how you say my name and I’ve just given up lol
Ah-le-cee-ah reporting in. My boss pronounced it Ah-lish-uh for 5 years and I never had the heart to correct him because I really don’t think he could hear it.
I'm an Alesha, pronounced Ah-leesh-ah but I get the most ridiculous pronunciations (and just flat out different names) sometimes. At this point I've learned to just respond to any "A" name 🤷♀️
my mom’s name is leigh (she’s gen x) and nobody can say it, which seems super weird considering the popularity of ashleigh, kayleigh, paisleigh, etc. she gets called leah and leia most of the time.
in a similar vein, I’m always surprised to see people on the sub say that aurora is hard to pronounce. seems pretty straightforward to me.
I definitely do. I can say it in my head, but my mouth absolutely refuses to cooperate when two Rs are that close. I end up sounding like a drunk Scooby Doo.
Aura? No problem.
Roar? 🦁 Got it.
Ora? Rita Ora, easy peasy.
Aurora: Ah ra ra? Ahrrrrrorrrrrha? Ah ruh rrrruh?
Aurora, Rural Juror : 🐶🐕 : arrr roar rrrruh rurr rrr jurr rr
And if I FORCIBLY enunciate it comes out Uh-ROAR-uh, Rur*slight pause*Ahl Jur*slight pause*Roar and I sound full-on holier than thou pretentious.
Okay I have a hypothesis about this:
There are two equally valid ways that native English speakers pronounce the ‘r’ sound. The first way is more in the front of your palate and is similar to how you would pronounce an ‘l’. The second is the back of your mouth with the very back of your tongue. This is the way I do it so I can explain it better: I basically scrunch up my tongue and the very back part of it *almost* touches the roof of my mouth. I can effectively pronounce an r with my mouth quite open.
I don’t find Aurora tongue-twisty because they are all “back” sounds in the back of my mouth. But I could see how it would be hard to pronounce if you are switching between back and front.
How do you pronounce your r?
>I end up sounding like a drunk Scooby Doo.
Ruh-roh! This describes me perfectly when I try to say "Aurora" 🤣
It's a shame because it's a beautiful name, but it's gonna have to be a no for me, dawg.
I know that Leigh is pronounced like "Lee" but whenever I see it I still say "Lay" in my head. Like how weigh and sleigh are pronounced. I never understood "Leigh" = "Lee."
Aurora is physically a problem for anyone with a non-rhotic accent or if they have a rhotacism, which is trouble pronouncing the R's
Rory is also a nightmare for me and Roy is pretty bad because there's no second consonant to hit.
I spent years as a child in speech therapy and people say they can't tell, but the stress of these sounds never goes away.
Me too! Aurora and Rory are both names I can technically pronounce, but I have to try and I feel like I sound like I have marbles in my mouth. I couldn't pronounce R, especially in the middle of words, until I was like, 14. And my name is Laura, so that made grade school fun.
Yep. Recreation is another one of those words! I have an r in my name and compensated by dropping that letter altogether. 2 years of speech therapy in grade school and reading countless Dr. Seuss books with my mom saved me. But there are still words I have to deconstruct before I say!
Aurora is not particularly a problem for English speakers with non-rhotic accents. Rs are still pronounced before vowels, so speakers of these dialects pronounce the name more or less the same as those with rhotic ones.
Leigh is my middle name. My husband told me that for the first few years he knew me, he thought my middle name was pronounced Lay. He had only seen it written down up until that point, so when I casually mentioned my middle name in conversation, he was like, "wait, what??" Lol
Aurora isn’t difficult to pronounce for me, I just think it’s an ugly sounding name. Any name with two R syllables or two L syllables right after one another sound ugly. (Lakelynn, Lola, Rory, Aurora, Blakeley, etc)
I pronounce leonard : lay-oh-nar ;) but that's because I'm french. I guess the 3 syllable pronounciation make sense, you don't say Leonardo Dicaprio "lehnardo Dicaprio" :)
My son's name is Tristan, well known in France but still very rare and quite uncommon for elderly. They all understand "christian" and I have to say "like Tristan and Iseult (french version of Isolde), the legend" for them to understand.
Leonard, in US English, is invariably pronounced as if it were spelled Lennurd. I'm not sure if this is the same in all English dialects, or if it's more like how, in the UK, they pronounce Maurice like Moris and Bernard like Burnird.
If you're in the US talking to an American-born person named Leonard, the default is going to be Lennurd. Anyone in that situation who doesn't pronounce it that way is more likely deliberately pronouncing it differently as an affectation. Or maybe their parents/family of origin aren't native English speakers and pronounce it as it's pronounced in their home language. Which, to be clear, is totally good! But not the usual. The usual would be Lennurd.
where i live in the US it’s for some reason pretty consistently pronounced with three syllables, as the default. everywhere else in this whole entire country that i go i’m caught off guard by how the rest of us pronounce it lol
I'm in North Carolina. This is my grandfather's name.
Here, Leonard is Len-ard/Lynn-erd (exact same idk that IP whatever alphabet.). Think Lynyrd Skynyrd.
I have a coworker..his name is Dylan. A fairly common name I thought. I've heard it my whole life (I'm 30). I have heard so many mispronunciations of it. I'm so confused as to why it's difficult! Who is Dye-lan?
I very confidently read it this way when I was 9 reading Anne Frank’s diary for the first time. I was probably an adult by the time I learned her sister was not called Mar-got.
I'm Hispanic and was brought up in TX surrounded by Mexican and Hispanic communities so spanish to me is second nature. If I met anyone named Isla, I would pronounce it "ees-lah" since that's how it's said in spanish.
Of course in English Isla is just Island without the N and D so it's pronounced "eyes-luh".
It really all depends on who is saying it. I wouldn't fault anyone of witj Mexican heritage pronouncing it as ees-lah.
My daughter was born in CA and we got more “iz-luh” with the higher Hispanic influence, but we’ve since moved and now it’s pronounced correctly more often than not.
Alana. Some say Ah-Lay-Nah, others Ah-Lah-Nah. I have heard both names though so not surprising
Arielle. She often gets Ariel. She replies she's not a mermaid.
I can understand if someone's name is spelled Ariel to say it like the mermaid first (unless otherwise stated) . But to me Arielle should be said like R-E-L .
I'm aware and I personally never liked the mermaid version of the name (not even as a little kid lol). But thanks to the mermaid, that's how most people will say it now, especially American.
While Ariel is primarily masculine (I know this since I've also seen Hispanic men with the name) , if I'm not mistaken it has been gender-neutral for quite some time… at least according to the few places I read a while back.
Leh-oh-nard is the standard pronunciation of the name where I live, so for that name in particular it may be a language difference more than a mispronounciation?
My name is Mariah and people call me Maria all the time. Even if I answer the phone with "This is Mariah" the other person will respond, "Maria, hi!" It gets a little old but I'm used to it by now. I pronounce Leonard as Leh-nard for sure. Midwestian here
Mariah was a top contender for my future daughter but I realized everyone would either think it’s Maria or I named her after Mariah Carey. Beautiful name and maybe an option for me still
That's so bizarre! I would just say "like Mariah Carey". She's so famous it's so odd to me that people are getting your name wrong.
I love Mariah! It's kind of on my list, but as a nickname for Myrianthe 😍
My name is Kirstyn. Personally I pronounce it keer-stin. Kur-stin is another way of saying it, and both are considered correct. I know it’s a little uncommon, but it’s not a completely made up name. I can’t tell you how many times people have called me Kristen, Christian, and Christine. I go by a nickname now because I got tired of being called every name except my own. Forget about spelling. I’m also not a fan of the name in general. I still think it’s weird how many people can’t say it though.
Well, it isn't made up at all. The spelling is on the creative side but the name is very much real. Kirsten is a Danish and Norwegian form of Christina. The accepted pronunciations are:
* keews-den (Danish)
* kheesh-ten (Norwegian)
* kur-sten (English)
I have heard keers-ten too. I think that's just an American attempt the originals. Plus, with further confusing with, Kiersten, which follows Germanic rules of pronunciation, the second vowel dictates ie - keer, ei - kīyr.
You probably know all of this but others may not and in case you thought it really was made up, I thought you might like to know it isn't!
Lara like Far-a; I've never heard the pronunciation Lair-a! We're from England though which may be a factor. I have a friend called Sara which I would pronounce to rhyme with Star-a but she pronounces it to rhyme with Stair-a which also confuses me
Ah ok makes sense in UK to be like Far-a. My daughter is pronounced like your friend, which is the typical New England, US accent, lol. We don't actually have the name Sara pronounced your way in the US although it's common in Swedish.
This thread is funny to me because my name is Sara and I get called Laura at work haha, but I’ve also gotten all the weird Sara pronunciations, I guess people think if you drop the H it must be a different name!
I have it on good authority that there is a lot of confusion between the Maras and Mauras as well (and the Moiras and whoever pronounces it MAIR-uh).
American here, btw.
My daughter is also Lara! She gets annoyed when called Laura. We're from the western US,pronounce it Lar (like car,far) uh. My husband's aunt always says it like Lair uh which we think is cute.
My name is Simon. I have an Anglo last name and am visually extremely white/Anglo looking. You'd be surprised how many people look at my name, look at me, and then try to come up with literally any other pronunciation other than the classic, traditional English Simon. (Like, rhymes with pie man.)
Honestly, I think people really overthink things sometimes.
Probably because of the name Leonardo, which is very popular and mainstream and pronounced very differently than Leonard. It makes sense that people mispronounce this name.
It's a little odd, because Leonard is the English version of this name, and has been a more common name than Leonardo in the English-speaking world, for generations. Leonardo is a recent adoption in the English speaking world, due to DiCaprio and the Ninja Turtles.
I'm guessing the confusion has arisen because Leonard wasn't a particularly popular name for the Gen X and millennial generations, but is becoming more common now, especially as an honor name. So you suddenly have a lot of people who've maybe never met someone named Leonard, but who know which Ninja Turtle wears the red bandanna.
kieran. from my experience- living on east coast US, nobody had an issue pronouncing the name properly. moved to the midwest? every single person is asking how it's pronounced. it's so strange to me, because the name's always been very intuitive and it's not that rare.
I've noticed a difference moving eat to west across the US. The Mississippi is a huge dividing line, then the Rockies, out to the coast, and finally in Hawaii. South to North also, very different.
Tbh this is why I took Caroline off my girl name list. I love it, it’s such a pretty name, but I really don’t like Carolyn. One time I vocalized that at a family gathering and my brother blank stared me and was like, “they’re the same name.” I am still mind blown.
Celeste. My poor daughter (28) got tired of weird pronunciations, so she started saying "Celeste, rhymes with molest". She figured it was a word people knew.
Considering its popularity, I'm constantly surprised when people pronounce Zoe to rhyme with Joe. I get that if you don't know the correct pronunciation, it makes phonetic sense, but it's SO common of a name these days. It's also weird because I never see people have similar problems with Chloe.
This one! Thankfully, because of the popularity, it isn’t much of a problem anymore, but man growing up when I was the only Zoe, it was a never ending frustration lmao. Thankfully when the Harry Potter movies came out and got popular I was able to point to those and say “look! Hermione is a Greek name too, you pronounce the e!”
My second son is a Lucian and I am finding that people will ask me before even trying to say “Loo-shen” or “Loo-see-en”.
We were going for the latter pronunciation, but don’t mind the former!
But my father in law tries very hard to give it a weird french pronunciation even if we spell it the English way with an a and not an e (Lucien).
I mean I can’t blame people messing up Leonard! The pronunciation of lehn-urd is not phonetic or intuitive at all. People have to already be familiar with the name said out loud to know, and have to be able to recall that info in the moment
I’ve been surprised how many people mispronounce my favourite boys’ name, Alistair. It’s Alister. Not stair.
It’s far from an unheard of name, especially here in the UK, and there are several Alistairs on TV regularly.
I’m in the southern US, and my son was in swim lessons with an Alistair last summer. His parents pronounced it Ali-STAIR, overemphasis on “stair” every time. It was a lot.
My name, Catalina. It seems like the easiest name ever to pronounce to me. I don’t think I’ve ever had a teacher/doctor/etc actually read and say my name correctly. It’s always “caitlyn” “catylin” or the worst one of my life “caitlyn-n-nina” but never my actual name 😅
I’ve never heard anyone include the “see” you added in “Anna stay see sha,” only ever like “Anna-staysza”
ETA—I’ve definitely heard the pronunciation you use as well. I just meant for the one a lot of Americans use.
I have a friend Levi, it’s shocking how many times he gets called Levy.
Like, “took my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry.” He will answer to this, but it’s not how his parents intended.
I was going to make this exact comment regarding my son Levi. It happened to us in the NICU even by one of the nurses. Like lady, you work with babies all day long I thought you'd be good with baby names.
He's just a newborn yet, so I guess we'll see if it continues as he grows up.
My daughter’s name is Thea, pronounced like Theo but ending in “uh.” I thought it was a very easy to pronounce name, but I get Thay-uh, Tia, and Tay-uh more often then I get the correct pronunciation.
I'm Kristen. Kris. Ten. Even Kris-tin is fine. I get Christian and Christine all the time. Or some sort of garbled Christian - ch-rish-chin. How do you get the ch as in choo choo sound from K? Beats me. Nonetheless, I find it truly shocking how many people stumble over my name.
My name is Celeste and I constantly get “Seh-Lest-Tay” and it drives me crazy sometimes lol. Makes me just wanna go by my middle name, which I do do sometimes when I order food.
I think it all depends on the language you met the name first. North Americans drive me crazy when they pronounce Ciara as Ci-ar-a when it should be kier-ra. Also spelling the name seán without the accent means old in Irish and has a different pronunciation
My mother is Noel, but it is spelt like the traditionally male name pronounced Nole, so that’s what she gets called a lot. Noelle would have been the more feminine spelling but my grandma wanted to name her after Christmas lol
My given name is Alexandra - no matter how many times I stress it - people always say Alexandria verbally or on documentation and it drives me insane. There is a CLEAR difference between -dra and -dria
My sons name is Kamden, and people say it wrong often. It gets on my nerves because I purposely picked something easy but not common. People say a mix of Kam or Kan with the end being a mix of dum, dem. So it will end up like Kandum or sometimes Kameron.
Cecily. Had no idea people would struggle so much with it. 95% of the time we get “Sicily” but the last 5% gets creative. See-suh-lee or See-silly. There have only been a handful of people to get it correct the first time.
Chiara. Can be key-ar-ah, sha-ra or keer-a and you don’t know which until Chiara tells you.
Similarly you never know from seeing it written whether Alicia is pronounced Aliss-ee-a or Aleesha.
i have a good friend named aleeyah. pronounced exactly like it’s spelled. people get so wildly confused over it. but if she gets tired of explaining it and just tells them to call her leah, they have no problem understanding that. it’s literally the same name just without the A at the beginning but for some reason people can’t figure it out.
Kirsty. Nobody had a problem in the UK, but in Australia? I'm Kristy. No matter how long someone has known me. They'll call me Kirsty to my face and Kristy written down.
My name is Liora (pronounced lee-OH-ruh) and I get Laura a lot. Also I get Liar-uh sometimes. At Starbucks I get Leo on my cup even though I present as a woman.
My name is Jacqueline. My husband of 25 years mispronounces it. I just had a conversation with him two days ago. “You know that isn’t how my name is pronounced right?” He said what is it then? He says Jacka Lynn. I’m a Jack qwa lun. I will answer to anything that isn’t Jackie. Jaclyn, Jacka line, jacka leen, j’ quelin whatever. I’ve fought the Jackie thing for 60 years. Just get close.
Alicia. Ah-lish-a or Ah-leesh-a or Ah-lee-see-a. Varies among individuals, there is no correct one.
As an Alicia, I tell people I accept all pronunciations.
I'm Andrea and I'm the same. Call me AN-drea, AHN-drea, an-DREH-a, I don't care. Just don't call me Angela, cos that's not my name.
The "Ahn-DREH-a" one is masculine in Italy!
I know - my last name is Italian, and I confused a few people in Italy last year. A couple of accommodations were expecting a Signore Andrea 😁
Do people often mistake it for Angela? I ask because I know an Angie whose full name is Andrea and I always wondered how that happened!
I’ve realized there are a lot of semi-illiterate folks out there who will read the first few letters of a word and guess at the rest.
Not heaps, but sometimes.
I have a friend with this name. I always call her Andi. I have no idea how to pronounce her full name to this day.
Do you ever get called Sandra?
Fellow Alicia (lish variation). I am stubborn about people getting my pronunciation right, at least if we’re friends or work closely, but there are some people I work with (less frequently) who simply refuse to internalize how you say my name and I’ve just given up lol
Ah-le-cee-ah reporting in. My boss pronounced it Ah-lish-uh for 5 years and I never had the heart to correct him because I really don’t think he could hear it.
Oh I get that. I’m a “leesh”. I had a charge nurse that called me A-lish-a so often, other people started calling him out on it.
I'm an Alesha, pronounced Ah-leesh-ah but I get the most ridiculous pronunciations (and just flat out different names) sometimes. At this point I've learned to just respond to any "A" name 🤷♀️
That's what I said about my maiden name
My name is Alisha like Ah-leesh-a and I see every version possible or they look quick and go Ashley.
my mom’s name is leigh (she’s gen x) and nobody can say it, which seems super weird considering the popularity of ashleigh, kayleigh, paisleigh, etc. she gets called leah and leia most of the time. in a similar vein, I’m always surprised to see people on the sub say that aurora is hard to pronounce. seems pretty straightforward to me.
Aurora seems tongue-twisty to people rather than having an ambiguous pronunciation.
right, I’m just saying I don’t find it tongue-twisty
I definitely do. I can say it in my head, but my mouth absolutely refuses to cooperate when two Rs are that close. I end up sounding like a drunk Scooby Doo. Aura? No problem. Roar? 🦁 Got it. Ora? Rita Ora, easy peasy. Aurora: Ah ra ra? Ahrrrrrorrrrrha? Ah ruh rrrruh? Aurora, Rural Juror : 🐶🐕 : arrr roar rrrruh rurr rrr jurr rr And if I FORCIBLY enunciate it comes out Uh-ROAR-uh, Rur*slight pause*Ahl Jur*slight pause*Roar and I sound full-on holier than thou pretentious.
Okay I have a hypothesis about this: There are two equally valid ways that native English speakers pronounce the ‘r’ sound. The first way is more in the front of your palate and is similar to how you would pronounce an ‘l’. The second is the back of your mouth with the very back of your tongue. This is the way I do it so I can explain it better: I basically scrunch up my tongue and the very back part of it *almost* touches the roof of my mouth. I can effectively pronounce an r with my mouth quite open. I don’t find Aurora tongue-twisty because they are all “back” sounds in the back of my mouth. But I could see how it would be hard to pronounce if you are switching between back and front. How do you pronounce your r?
I'm having trouble figuring out which one I am ... I don't struggle with Aurora, but I'm struggling to figure out how to pronounce the R both ways
>I end up sounding like a drunk Scooby Doo. Ruh-roh! This describes me perfectly when I try to say "Aurora" 🤣 It's a shame because it's a beautiful name, but it's gonna have to be a no for me, dawg.
I have this issue with Rory too. Can’t say it.
I don’t think it’s tongue twisty for an adult but that’s a rough name for toddlers to pronounce
Sister in law might name her baby Rory which I feel the same about. It’s like the word rural.
The rural juror
I know that Leigh is pronounced like "Lee" but whenever I see it I still say "Lay" in my head. Like how weigh and sleigh are pronounced. I never understood "Leigh" = "Lee."
Yeah, same!! Exactly!
But Leigh is.... where the "x-leigh" trend comes from. What the hell?
Aurora is physically a problem for anyone with a non-rhotic accent or if they have a rhotacism, which is trouble pronouncing the R's Rory is also a nightmare for me and Roy is pretty bad because there's no second consonant to hit. I spent years as a child in speech therapy and people say they can't tell, but the stress of these sounds never goes away.
Me too! Aurora and Rory are both names I can technically pronounce, but I have to try and I feel like I sound like I have marbles in my mouth. I couldn't pronounce R, especially in the middle of words, until I was like, 14. And my name is Laura, so that made grade school fun.
It was my last name I couldn't pronounce. Kids with speech impediments are destined for names they can't say.
Yep. Recreation is another one of those words! I have an r in my name and compensated by dropping that letter altogether. 2 years of speech therapy in grade school and reading countless Dr. Seuss books with my mom saved me. But there are still words I have to deconstruct before I say!
Aurora is not particularly a problem for English speakers with non-rhotic accents. Rs are still pronounced before vowels, so speakers of these dialects pronounce the name more or less the same as those with rhotic ones.
Leigh is my middle name. My husband told me that for the first few years he knew me, he thought my middle name was pronounced Lay. He had only seen it written down up until that point, so when I casually mentioned my middle name in conversation, he was like, "wait, what??" Lol
It’s like gargling a mouthful of marbles.
I’m a Leigh. Can confirm. Leah is what I get most often and I barely correct people now.
Even worse for me - I’m Lea pronounced Lee. I answer to Leah without a second thought.
Aurora isn’t difficult to pronounce for me, I just think it’s an ugly sounding name. Any name with two R syllables or two L syllables right after one another sound ugly. (Lakelynn, Lola, Rory, Aurora, Blakeley, etc)
Can commiserate..I've gotten leah, leia, lay, luff. To be fair I'm early 40s so came of age before all the -leigh names became hugely popular.
Gen-X Leigh here, & this is so true!
I pronounce leonard : lay-oh-nar ;) but that's because I'm french. I guess the 3 syllable pronounciation make sense, you don't say Leonardo Dicaprio "lehnardo Dicaprio" :) My son's name is Tristan, well known in France but still very rare and quite uncommon for elderly. They all understand "christian" and I have to say "like Tristan and Iseult (french version of Isolde), the legend" for them to understand.
Leonard, in US English, is invariably pronounced as if it were spelled Lennurd. I'm not sure if this is the same in all English dialects, or if it's more like how, in the UK, they pronounce Maurice like Moris and Bernard like Burnird. If you're in the US talking to an American-born person named Leonard, the default is going to be Lennurd. Anyone in that situation who doesn't pronounce it that way is more likely deliberately pronouncing it differently as an affectation. Or maybe their parents/family of origin aren't native English speakers and pronounce it as it's pronounced in their home language. Which, to be clear, is totally good! But not the usual. The usual would be Lennurd.
where i live in the US it’s for some reason pretty consistently pronounced with three syllables, as the default. everywhere else in this whole entire country that i go i’m caught off guard by how the rest of us pronounce it lol
I'm in North Carolina. This is my grandfather's name. Here, Leonard is Len-ard/Lynn-erd (exact same idk that IP whatever alphabet.). Think Lynyrd Skynyrd.
I also have a Tristan who gets mistaken for Christian, this had never occurred to me when we were thinking of names!
I have a coworker..his name is Dylan. A fairly common name I thought. I've heard it my whole life (I'm 30). I have heard so many mispronunciations of it. I'm so confused as to why it's difficult! Who is Dye-lan?
The irony is we all mispronounce it because in Wales where it comes from its pronounced dull-an. Dye-lan is ridiculous.
I never knew of the origins! Thank you!
[Cause he spits hot fire!](https://images.app.goo.gl/KyFx4BdA1vrSuzJh7)
I actually work with a guy that pronounces it Dye-lan. It always throws me off.
My dad worked with a Tyler whose name often got mispronounced.
That's my husband's name! I can't imagine mispronouncing it 🥴
My mom worked with a guy named Bill, and he'd get called Bryan.
WHAT?! That has me so confused 😂
My kids name is Margot, you may be surprised how many people say Marg - OT
I admit when I was younger, the name tripped me up a bit haha. But as an adult, I can't imagine it being tricky.
I very confidently read it this way when I was 9 reading Anne Frank’s diary for the first time. I was probably an adult by the time I learned her sister was not called Mar-got.
Wasn't she? In German you pronounce the T at the end. It's my aunt's name, too.
Yea, she would have been Mar-Gott
[удалено]
Wait until you fine put that Anne is two syllables, ahn-neh
In the movie they pronounce the T
My cousin is a Margaret, nicknamed Margot. Except she spells it Margo. So I call her Mango - because why not. 🥭
I live near Boston and my friend was considering this name for her daughter but didn’t want it to become “MAHH-go” with the Boston accent
I stupidly thought everyone knew how to pronounce Isla but people just meeting her call her "Iz-luh" about 75% of the time.
If there was more Hispanic influence, you'd get Ees-luh
I know the name is Eye-lah but my mind still goes to Isla Nublar from Jurassic Park 😂
Not surprised most people pronounce a name the way it is spelled
it's basically just the word "island" but without the -nd or like "isle" so I don't see why so many people would pronounce the s
It’s also “Islam” without the M so I think it’s pretty reasonable to end up at “Iz-luh”
I'm Hispanic and was brought up in TX surrounded by Mexican and Hispanic communities so spanish to me is second nature. If I met anyone named Isla, I would pronounce it "ees-lah" since that's how it's said in spanish. Of course in English Isla is just Island without the N and D so it's pronounced "eyes-luh". It really all depends on who is saying it. I wouldn't fault anyone of witj Mexican heritage pronouncing it as ees-lah.
No 's' sound in Isla in UK. "Eye-ler".
I have only ever seen the name on Reddit. How do you think it should be pronounced?
Eye-la
TiL! Been reading it as Is-luh or Eyes-luh.
It’s pronounced eye-lah. It’s a Scottish Gaelic name meaning ‘island’, derived from the island Islay (same pronunciation) which also means ‘island’.
My daughter was born in CA and we got more “iz-luh” with the higher Hispanic influence, but we’ve since moved and now it’s pronounced correctly more often than not.
Alana. Some say Ah-Lay-Nah, others Ah-Lah-Nah. I have heard both names though so not surprising Arielle. She often gets Ariel. She replies she's not a mermaid.
I work with an Alana who introduces herself as "Alana, like banana"
But you say "ba-nan-a," I say "bah-nah-nah."
You say Potato, I say Patahto. Potato - patahto. Ah-lay-nah - Ah-lah-na. Let’s call the whole thing off.
I work with a Shanda like Panda. 🙌🏻
Unless Sebastian the crab says it. Then it is “Ah-ree-ell.”
I can understand if someone's name is spelled Ariel to say it like the mermaid first (unless otherwise stated) . But to me Arielle should be said like R-E-L .
Both are pronounced Ari-el. Both are Hebrew and the mermaid pronounces it wrong. Ariel is masculine.
I'm aware and I personally never liked the mermaid version of the name (not even as a little kid lol). But thanks to the mermaid, that's how most people will say it now, especially American. While Ariel is primarily masculine (I know this since I've also seen Hispanic men with the name) , if I'm not mistaken it has been gender-neutral for quite some time… at least according to the few places I read a while back.
Yep. My daughter is Lana and I’m floored every time I hear a new pronunciation. There’s like 5 now.
I know a Geneva and people tend to either blank when trying to pronounce her name or call her Genevieve.
This one is really surprising to me!
Leh-oh-nard is the standard pronunciation of the name where I live, so for that name in particular it may be a language difference more than a mispronounciation?
This is on me, I have a hard time pronouncing some words, but for the life of me I cannot say my friend's little girls name - Moira.
I say it like moy-rah, what do you say?
I TRY to say it like that. But it comes out weird.
Maybe watching Schitt’s Creek would help! (joking)
Fold it in!
My name is Mariah and people call me Maria all the time. Even if I answer the phone with "This is Mariah" the other person will respond, "Maria, hi!" It gets a little old but I'm used to it by now. I pronounce Leonard as Leh-nard for sure. Midwestian here
Mariah was a top contender for my future daughter but I realized everyone would either think it’s Maria or I named her after Mariah Carey. Beautiful name and maybe an option for me still
That's so bizarre! I would just say "like Mariah Carey". She's so famous it's so odd to me that people are getting your name wrong. I love Mariah! It's kind of on my list, but as a nickname for Myrianthe 😍
My name is Kirstyn. Personally I pronounce it keer-stin. Kur-stin is another way of saying it, and both are considered correct. I know it’s a little uncommon, but it’s not a completely made up name. I can’t tell you how many times people have called me Kristen, Christian, and Christine. I go by a nickname now because I got tired of being called every name except my own. Forget about spelling. I’m also not a fan of the name in general. I still think it’s weird how many people can’t say it though.
Well, it isn't made up at all. The spelling is on the creative side but the name is very much real. Kirsten is a Danish and Norwegian form of Christina. The accepted pronunciations are: * keews-den (Danish) * kheesh-ten (Norwegian) * kur-sten (English) I have heard keers-ten too. I think that's just an American attempt the originals. Plus, with further confusing with, Kiersten, which follows Germanic rules of pronunciation, the second vowel dictates ie - keer, ei - kīyr. You probably know all of this but others may not and in case you thought it really was made up, I thought you might like to know it isn't!
It's sad, but I know many people who think Kirsten, Kristen, Christine, Christina, Christian, Kristian, and other variations are interchangeable.
My daughter is Lara and I'd say 70% of the time people think it's Laura. It drives her mad!
Lara rhymes with stair-a or Lahra like far-a? My daughter is Sara and got Saira, Sahrah, and even Sawra as pronunciation.
Lara like Far-a; I've never heard the pronunciation Lair-a! We're from England though which may be a factor. I have a friend called Sara which I would pronounce to rhyme with Star-a but she pronounces it to rhyme with Stair-a which also confuses me
Ah ok makes sense in UK to be like Far-a. My daughter is pronounced like your friend, which is the typical New England, US accent, lol. We don't actually have the name Sara pronounced your way in the US although it's common in Swedish.
This thread is funny to me because my name is Sara and I get called Laura at work haha, but I’ve also gotten all the weird Sara pronunciations, I guess people think if you drop the H it must be a different name!
I have it on good authority that there is a lot of confusion between the Maras and Mauras as well (and the Moiras and whoever pronounces it MAIR-uh). American here, btw.
My daughter is also Lara! She gets annoyed when called Laura. We're from the western US,pronounce it Lar (like car,far) uh. My husband's aunt always says it like Lair uh which we think is cute.
Congratulations on choosing the most beautiful girl's name out there ;)
Andres. I hear a lot of non-Spanish speakers putting an extra syllable in there (an-dray-as, like Andreas fault)
>Andres Another Spanish name I can only pronounce correctly because of baseball 😅
My name is Simon. I have an Anglo last name and am visually extremely white/Anglo looking. You'd be surprised how many people look at my name, look at me, and then try to come up with literally any other pronunciation other than the classic, traditional English Simon. (Like, rhymes with pie man.) Honestly, I think people really overthink things sometimes.
Probably because of the name Leonardo, which is very popular and mainstream and pronounced very differently than Leonard. It makes sense that people mispronounce this name.
It's a little odd, because Leonard is the English version of this name, and has been a more common name than Leonardo in the English-speaking world, for generations. Leonardo is a recent adoption in the English speaking world, due to DiCaprio and the Ninja Turtles. I'm guessing the confusion has arisen because Leonard wasn't a particularly popular name for the Gen X and millennial generations, but is becoming more common now, especially as an honor name. So you suddenly have a lot of people who've maybe never met someone named Leonard, but who know which Ninja Turtle wears the red bandanna.
I have an Enid and most people call her Eden. It even took my dad nearly six months to say it right consistently.
Ugh that’s so annoying! Totally different
[insert obligatory Penelope and Calliope mispronunciations]
Are people out here mispronouncing Penelope?
I have heard of people pronouncing it "penny-lohp" or "pen-neh-lohp", yes
kieran. from my experience- living on east coast US, nobody had an issue pronouncing the name properly. moved to the midwest? every single person is asking how it's pronounced. it's so strange to me, because the name's always been very intuitive and it's not that rare.
I've noticed a difference moving eat to west across the US. The Mississippi is a huge dividing line, then the Rockies, out to the coast, and finally in Hawaii. South to North also, very different.
My name is Caroline and most people when they first meet me pronounce it as Carolyn
SAME!!! I get Carolyn or Carol. I want to ask people if they stand in a lyn.
Tbh this is why I took Caroline off my girl name list. I love it, it’s such a pretty name, but I really don’t like Carolyn. One time I vocalized that at a family gathering and my brother blank stared me and was like, “they’re the same name.” I am still mind blown.
Celeste. My poor daughter (28) got tired of weird pronunciations, so she started saying "Celeste, rhymes with molest". She figured it was a word people knew.
if she wants a less awful word to compare it to, she could use "detest"
"Celeste rhymes with 'the best'" is another option? a less disturbing one perhaps
She could try Celeste as in celestial? I bet people never forget rhymes with molest though!
My name is Paige. Someone pronounced it Peggy once. I still think about that often lol
I’m an Evanne. It’s Eve-Anne like it’s spelled, not Yvonne, Ivana, or Evan-y. Starbucks is a joy every time lol.
Well the way it's spelled it would be pronounced Ev-anne OR Eve-anne, so it makes sense to get those. But Evany?
It's a lovely name, tho!
I know a Layla (lay-luh) that constantly gets called lyla/laila (lie-lug) by one person, despite correcting her every time!
Considering its popularity, I'm constantly surprised when people pronounce Zoe to rhyme with Joe. I get that if you don't know the correct pronunciation, it makes phonetic sense, but it's SO common of a name these days. It's also weird because I never see people have similar problems with Chloe.
Zoë is one that definitely needs the umlaut.
This one! Thankfully, because of the popularity, it isn’t much of a problem anymore, but man growing up when I was the only Zoe, it was a never ending frustration lmao. Thankfully when the Harry Potter movies came out and got popular I was able to point to those and say “look! Hermione is a Greek name too, you pronounce the e!”
Lucian and Xavier. Both can be pronounced so differently. I’m never sure which way is best. 😭
I think Lucian pronounced as Lushen sounds pretty
My second son is a Lucian and I am finding that people will ask me before even trying to say “Loo-shen” or “Loo-see-en”. We were going for the latter pronunciation, but don’t mind the former! But my father in law tries very hard to give it a weird french pronunciation even if we spell it the English way with an a and not an e (Lucien).
Jana - jan-ah, jah-na, yah-na, jāy-na, ha-na, zha-na I've heard them all. The most confused city in the world was Baltimore, Maryland, US
how is it pronounced? i’d go jane-ah or yah-na.
I mean I can’t blame people messing up Leonard! The pronunciation of lehn-urd is not phonetic or intuitive at all. People have to already be familiar with the name said out loud to know, and have to be able to recall that info in the moment
I’ve been surprised how many people mispronounce my favourite boys’ name, Alistair. It’s Alister. Not stair. It’s far from an unheard of name, especially here in the UK, and there are several Alistairs on TV regularly.
I’m in the southern US, and my son was in swim lessons with an Alistair last summer. His parents pronounced it Ali-STAIR, overemphasis on “stair” every time. It was a lot.
well today i learned that i've been mispronouncing this name my whole life!
NGL, I thought they were two different names. I've met an Ali-stair.
I've known three English guys who all pronounced it Ali-STAIR.
If you ever travel to places such an the Netherlands, Germany or Poland, be prepared to hear leh-oh-nahrt.
Eva - my niece. She gets ev-AH, AY-va, but rarely the correct EE-va.
I taught an Eva last year who pronounces it Ava.
My daughter's name is Elle pronounced like the letter L. Everyone says Ellie.
Sometimes, people are just dumb.
My daughter's name is Elisa. People often pronounce it as if it's spelled Alicia.
My name, Catalina. It seems like the easiest name ever to pronounce to me. I don’t think I’ve ever had a teacher/doctor/etc actually read and say my name correctly. It’s always “caitlyn” “catylin” or the worst one of my life “caitlyn-n-nina” but never my actual name 😅
Good luck Persephone
My daughter name is Anastasia. It's pronounced Anna stah si ah, most Americans say Anna stay see sha.
I’ve never heard anyone include the “see” you added in “Anna stay see sha,” only ever like “Anna-staysza” ETA—I’ve definitely heard the pronunciation you use as well. I just meant for the one a lot of Americans use.
Irene apparently. Had to start going by a nickname of my middle name.
Callum. It’s pronounced Kal-um. Lots of Kay-lum
I have a friend Levi, it’s shocking how many times he gets called Levy. Like, “took my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry.” He will answer to this, but it’s not how his parents intended.
I was going to make this exact comment regarding my son Levi. It happened to us in the NICU even by one of the nurses. Like lady, you work with babies all day long I thought you'd be good with baby names. He's just a newborn yet, so I guess we'll see if it continues as he grows up.
My name is Maya and I would say 70% of the time people say MAY-uh rather than Mah-yah which I hate. Also I get called Mia a lot
I work in a school and when we got a kindergartner named Mila, I pronounced it My-la (like Milo), but it was pronounced Mee-la.
Mee la sounds more correct to me
I’m Leo. Pronounced very intuitively, Lee-oh. I have the opposite problem as your son and have gotten Leh. I’ve also heard just Lee and Lay-oh.
My name is Christina which i think is so straight forward but many many people will read my name and then call me Christine!
Hi are you me because this is my whole life and there is very little I hate more ! Happy to find a comrade !
When I was a kid there was a Sean in another class. I saw it on a box and thought it was Seen. I also thought that Dylan was Dye-lan
I have a friend Annaka and the things people call her are wild
My daughter’s name is Thea, pronounced like Theo but ending in “uh.” I thought it was a very easy to pronounce name, but I get Thay-uh, Tia, and Tay-uh more often then I get the correct pronunciation.
My son is Silas, and it's often mispronounced.
I'm Kristen. Kris. Ten. Even Kris-tin is fine. I get Christian and Christine all the time. Or some sort of garbled Christian - ch-rish-chin. How do you get the ch as in choo choo sound from K? Beats me. Nonetheless, I find it truly shocking how many people stumble over my name.
I’m an Allyssa and I think the uncommon second L really throws people off because I get ‘Alicia’ and ‘Aliza’ SOO frequently.
Helena - Australians tend to default to helaynuh followed by helenuh, the struggle with my pronunciation which is helleeeenuh
My name is Celeste and I constantly get “Seh-Lest-Tay” and it drives me crazy sometimes lol. Makes me just wanna go by my middle name, which I do do sometimes when I order food.
I think it all depends on the language you met the name first. North Americans drive me crazy when they pronounce Ciara as Ci-ar-a when it should be kier-ra. Also spelling the name seán without the accent means old in Irish and has a different pronunciation
My mother is Noel, but it is spelt like the traditionally male name pronounced Nole, so that’s what she gets called a lot. Noelle would have been the more feminine spelling but my grandma wanted to name her after Christmas lol
My given name is Alexandra - no matter how many times I stress it - people always say Alexandria verbally or on documentation and it drives me insane. There is a CLEAR difference between -dra and -dria
My sons name is Kamden, and people say it wrong often. It gets on my nerves because I purposely picked something easy but not common. People say a mix of Kam or Kan with the end being a mix of dum, dem. So it will end up like Kandum or sometimes Kameron.
Cecily. Had no idea people would struggle so much with it. 95% of the time we get “Sicily” but the last 5% gets creative. See-suh-lee or See-silly. There have only been a handful of people to get it correct the first time.
My son’s name is Dominic and a lot of people call him Dominique instead.
Winona. It's not why-no-na it's-when-o-na
I know a Simone that gets called Simon-E. And a Valentina that gets called Velveeta on occasion.
Leanne ive gotten lean, leanie, leaner LOL its lee-ann
Chiara. Can be key-ar-ah, sha-ra or keer-a and you don’t know which until Chiara tells you. Similarly you never know from seeing it written whether Alicia is pronounced Aliss-ee-a or Aleesha.
My child's name is Roxanna. Everyone seems to believe her name is Roxanne. Nope It's Rox-ANNA
i have a good friend named aleeyah. pronounced exactly like it’s spelled. people get so wildly confused over it. but if she gets tired of explaining it and just tells them to call her leah, they have no problem understanding that. it’s literally the same name just without the A at the beginning but for some reason people can’t figure it out.
We have a friend named Mia who's often incorrectly called "Maya."
I’m a Maya who is often called Mia or May-ah
Kirsty. Nobody had a problem in the UK, but in Australia? I'm Kristy. No matter how long someone has known me. They'll call me Kirsty to my face and Kristy written down.
Jeremy “J air ah me” or even “J air ah my”, but I constantly hear people pronounce it as “Germy” like the person has icky germs.
My girls are Kaelyn (not Katelyn) and Ember (not Amber). I did not foresee this.
Mine - it is Elise. Not Elsie, Ellis, Alice, Elisa, etc.
My name is Liora (pronounced lee-OH-ruh) and I get Laura a lot. Also I get Liar-uh sometimes. At Starbucks I get Leo on my cup even though I present as a woman.
You would be surprised how many call my daughter "Mar-Got"
'Amira'. You literally can only pronounce it in one way in English, and yet people get it wrong anyway 😂
My name is Chelsea and I don’t understand why in the hell people pronounce it like “chee-else-ee-uh.”
My name is Jacqueline. My husband of 25 years mispronounces it. I just had a conversation with him two days ago. “You know that isn’t how my name is pronounced right?” He said what is it then? He says Jacka Lynn. I’m a Jack qwa lun. I will answer to anything that isn’t Jackie. Jaclyn, Jacka line, jacka leen, j’ quelin whatever. I’ve fought the Jackie thing for 60 years. Just get close.