My husband and I both really love the name [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] for our third girl, to join sisters [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] and [name_f]Genevieve[/name_f], I always try to keep families opinions out of our naming process because my Russian family is very adamant that I give all my children very Russian names.
While me and my husband and our oldest daughter were all gushing over the name and trying to place a middle name with it, my mother overheard and told us there would be too many pronunciation issues with the name. Now we are genuinely wondering if people actually think there would be issues or if my mom is just upset about the choice.
We all pronounce [name_f]EsmerALda[/name_f] different then [name_f]EsmerELda[/name_f]… do you think that will cause an issue? What would you do?
I think you would frequently get [name_f]EsmerELda[/name_f], just on the basis of people glancing at the name or mishearing it. I certainly saw “[name_f]EsmerELda[/name_f]” at first. It all depends on how much this bothers you, and how annoyed you’ll get correcting people. I think if the name is truly “the one,” mispronunciations now and then shouldn’t matter. You can never really predict how strangers from different backgrounds, etc, will say a certain name. Maybe you should ask more of your Russian family members to see how they would pronounce it?
I think [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] fits in perfectly with [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] and [name_f]Genevieve[/name_f]!
I think you are right it will depend on where we are how people pronounce it, it bothers me how people pronounce my older two daughters names when we are in some places but ultimately I love the names and so does my husband so its okay. I think we would feel the same way in this situation.
I could only imagine asking my other family members… " hey how would you pronounce [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f]" … “[name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f], that doesn’t sound Russian… you aren’t thinking about naming her [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] are you?”
I say [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] and [name_f]Esmerelda[/name_f] like you do. And I agree that [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] fits really well with your daughters’ names. I didn’t actually know [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] was the original until I looked it up (I don’t know why), but I assumed it would be AHLda, and not [name_f]ELda[/name_f]. There probably will be some pronunciation issues, but I don’t think they’d be difficult to correct. Out loud the difference is pretty obvious. Anyway, [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] is a wonderful name!
I first saw it as [name_f]Esmerelda[/name_f] too, because it’s the more familiar one. But if you really love use it. With many long names people tend to have trouble pronouncing them anyway. Like with my name [name_f]Marisa[/name_f]- I was always called [name_f]Melissa[/name_f], [name_f]Marsha[/name_f], [name_f]Maria[/name_f] and [name_f]Miranda[/name_f]. But I just corrected them and went on.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen [name_f]Esmerelda[/name_f]. It looks misspelled, especially since I know the name come from emerald.
I’m in S. FL so I live around a lot of Spanish & [name_m]French[/name_m] speakers. I’m accustomed to hearing ‘esmer[name_f]ALda[/name_f]’. It’s a lovely name with lot of nn options if the family has trouble pronouncing [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f]
I think ultimately it will depend on where we are, we split our time between [name_f]France[/name_f] Australia and [name_f]Ireland[/name_f]. There are pronunciation issues for my girls in certain places but my oldest just gives people nickname options if they can’t pronounce her name properly, she doesn’t mind at all.
I can’t think of other Nn’s besides [name_f]Esme[/name_f], what are some others that you know ?!
I don’t think [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] would be mispronounced as [name_f]Esmerelda[/name_f] since As and Es are not pronounced the same. It would be more likely that someone would confuse one for the other. Personally, whenever I see the name, I check the vowel first before saying it since I do say them slightly differently and I know that people use both spellings. I also prefer [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] over [name_f]Esmerelda[/name_f] since it just looks better. I would say [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] with the A pronounced as it is in “all” or “fall”. [name_f]Esmerelda[/name_f], I would pronounce the E as in “well” or “fell”.
I don’t think it would as big a deal as you might think. It’s also a gorgeous name that sounds simply stunning with your older daughters!
[name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] is exquisite, especially with your other Daughters’ Names! Personally I would use the Nickname [name_f]Meera[/name_f]/[name_f]Mira[/name_f] which works well in almost any language! Beautiful choice - your Daughter is a real Nameberry!
I think it goes wonderfully with your other daughters’ names and I wouldn’t worry about people getting confused with [name_f]Esmerelda[/name_f]. (FWIW, when I typed [name_f]Esmerelda[/name_f] my spell-checker wanted to correct it to [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] so it seems people are right about [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] being the ‘correct’ version.)
As for nicknames, I could see [name_f]Esme[/name_f], [name_f]Emmy[/name_f] or [name_f]Meera[/name_f] working well.
