Picking a baby’s name is one of the most exciting and crucial times for any expecting parent. Inspiration can come from anywhere; family names, favorite TV shows and movies, literary characters, people we’ve loved who have since passed — the options are endless!
However, what happens when the name you picked isn’t actually pronounced the way you thought? One new mom is struggling with that dilemma right now.
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I think it goes without saying that a baby’s name is super important.
Some people choose to honor their parents with their baby’s name, while other pick names from movies, TV shows or songs they love.
Heck, some people even pick them from a baby book like my parents did!
Normally, once a name is picked, it’s game over. A done deal. That baby has that name for life,
However, one new mom has found herself in a bit of a pickle after realizing the way she’s been pronouncing her daughter’s name is not how anyone else would pronounce it.
Posting to online forum Mumsnet, one woman recently revealed she had named her daughter “Elise.”
Beginning the post, the new mom explained that her baby was only 10 days old.
“Before she was born we had a shortlist of three for a girl, when she arrived DH admitted one of them (my favourite) he just couldn’t get on board with as a first name. That has become the middle name (Cecilia),” the women wrote, as reported by The Sun .
“Of the other two options we were totally undecided but eventually went for Elise, a name we’ve always really liked.”
She continued: “We’ve now discovered that lots of people pronounce it Eh – leess (with the second part as ‘lease’ like in leasehold). We had always thought it was Eh- leez, and we much prefer that.”
Needless to say, this mix-up has caused a lot of stress.
“We’ve found that almost everyone so far has pronounced it Eh – lease with a soft s. Are we wrong to pronounce it eh-leez? Should we change it if we’re finding the different pronunciation a bit annoying?”
“Please be gentle,” she added.
“I’m feeling pretty rotten physically after the birth and have found picking her name really stressful from the off”.
Thankfully, many moms were quick to jump in and say there’s nothing wrong with changing the spelling of the name to “Elize” if she doesn’t want to change the name altogether!
“You could just change the spelling to a Z rather than S,” suggested one mom.
“Change it or it will drive you mad,” said another.
“You could change the spelling as [people] have suggested, to Elize. However, Celia /Cecil/ Cecily are all pretty names and less of a mouthful than Cecilia.”
Others were quick to point out that it’s easy to just correct the way people say their daughter’s name.
“It’s a lovely name. Surely people who matter will pronounce it the way you say it?” said one user.
“Most people will pronounce it with the s sound and while you can correct people and most will change their pronunciation, it will probably get annoying,” pointed out a different user.
“She might decide later that she can’t be bothered to correct people and adopt the softer pronunciation,” they added.
“If you like the ‘Z’ sound, could change it to Eliza? Still very pretty and most people would pronounce it correctly?” suggested a different mom.
“It doesn’t matter what you call them, they all end up with nicknames any way,” joked another.
Thankfully, it still seems like there’s time for this new mom to decide what she wants to do with her baby’s name!