From what I understand and have read, the [name]German[/name] pronunciation of [name]Anneliese[/name] is pronounced Ahn-uh-lee-zuh. My husband adores this pronunciation/name and I really like it too. We are just not sure how useable it is in U.S.
Looking at [name]Anneliese[/name], I’m pretty sure no one would get Ahn-uh-lee-zuh.
We could use Anneliesa but I think she would get [name]Ann[/name]-uh-[name]LISA[/name], just like the plain name [name]Lisa[/name].
If someone told me their name was Ahn-uh-lee-zuh and told me this spelling(Anneliesa, I would get it.) But would others? [name]Elisabeth[/name], [name]Louisa[/name], etc… have s’s with the ‘Z’ sound but are much more familiar names.
I think she would mainly run into problems when older with dr./ dentist app., job interviews, etc… (Our children will most likely be attending our church’s smaller, christian school and would personally know all of the teachers so I don’t think school would be an issue, everyone would be very familiar with her name by then.)
Does anyone have a name like this, where strangers pronounce it differently? [name]Do[/name] you just answer to it or correct them? Does it bother you? My sister has encountered this somewhat throughout her life, and she just answers to the other pronunciation at dr visits, interviews, etc… It hasn’t been a problem for her really, but I was looking for more opinions.
Any other spelling options suggested to get [name]German[/name] pronunciation without getting to unoriginal and creative? I was thinking Aneliesa, Anneliesa, or [name]Anelisa[/name]?
Any input would SO greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
For the pronunciation of Ahn-uh-lee-zuh, I would spell it [name]Anelisa[/name]. That way it is clearly “ahn” since it has the one “n” and -elisa just doesn’t scream “uh-lisa” to me. It’s more vague, and if you were to correct someone that said it wrong they would feel more okay with it, rather than be snarky and say something like, “It doesn’t look like Ahn-uh-lee-zuh.”
My name is easy to pronounce, but a few of my children have names that aren’t always pronounced correctly. My oldest daughter’s name is [name]Cambry[/name] (prn. [name]CAM[/name]-bree) and is often called [name]Cam[/name]-BRY (as in [name]Bryan[/name].) I always correct them because [name]Cam[/name]-BRY just sounds stupid. I don’t even know why so many people say it that way, but they do. It bugs me. My other daughter, [name]Teagan[/name] (prn. TEE-gan) gets called [name]TAY[/name]-gan a lot, too. I usually let that one slide (only at doctor’s appts and things like that, not anywhere where they need to know her name) because people tend to say, “Oh. Well, [name]Reagan[/name] is pronounced like [name]RAY[/name]-gan so I just assumed [name]Teagan[/name] was too.” Which is annoying. Sometimes she corrects people, but I don’t always bother. My son, [name]Asa[/name] (prn. [name]ACE[/name]-uh) occasionally gets “ah-SAH” which I always correct. It really only takes a second to correct them, and a lot of the time they say “I’m bad with names, I’m sorry!” or something like that. I’ve noticed that the kids themselves really don’t care though.
I’ve considered [name]Anneliese[/name] as a name for a future daughter and have run into the same problem. I too prefer the [name]German[/name] pronunciation but also very much prefer the spelling [name]Anneliese[/name]. I just decided not to use it to avoid all the trouble it would cause. However if I did chose to use it I would keep the spelling and just correct people. My middle name gives into mispronunciation all the time and I just correct people. I dont think people would mind being corrected. Im sure they’d want to say it correctly. But its less difficult to correct a middle name than a first name since it’s rarely used. So I guess it’s a matter of if you’ll mind that she will be spelling out her name for people most of the time and correcting people. I wouldn’t like to have to answer to a name that is not what it should be, that’s why I feel like accepting mispronunciations without correcting would just be more annoying. With the -lisa ending I think more people would use the “s” sound instead of “z” like [name]Lisa[/name].
Why not the Italian homonym, [name]Annalisa[/name]? It’s literally the same name but in Italian. Plus, [name]Anneliese[/name] is technically a smoosh name, so smooshing [name]Anna[/name] and [name]Lisa[/name] is the same exact thing. There’s no reason to keep it in [name]German[/name] when you have a perfectly phonetic, legitimate alternate form.
Someone else suggested [name]Analisa[/name] to me but the first four letters spell out a not so pleasant word that I can’t help but seeing when I look it it. I do think it would be the most clear though. Does anyone think this is a problem? (a n a l)
It’s two ns- [name]ANNALisa[/name], so it’s close, but the actual word isn’t there. But the teasing potential is there even if you spell it [name]Anneliese[/name], it’s just one of the drawbacks of the name.
