Are there any names you or your family pronounce differently from the “standard” or popular pronunciation? There are a lot of these in my family actually:
[name_f]Yvonne[/name_f] (aunt’s name, pronounced yuh-vawn/yih-vawn rather than ee-vawn)
[name_m]Ephraim[/name_m] (dad’s middle, pronounced ee-from with a long e)
[name_f]Agatha[/name_f] (ancestor’s name, a-[name_u]GAY[/name_u]-tha)
[name_f]Clarice[/name_f] (gram’s name, pronounced [name_u]CLARE[/name_u]-iss not cla-[name_u]REES[/name_u])
I myself always pronounce (and prefer) [name_f]Helena[/name_f] as [name_f]Helen[/name_f] with an -a on the end and always have to do a double take when I hear people pronounce it differently (i.e. he-[name_m]LAYN[/name_m]-a).
I prefer [name_f]Helen[/name_f]-ah too actually, and pronounce [name_f]Yvonne[/name_f] the same way as you - my friend in elementary school had an older sister with the name who said it like this.
In my family, these are the oddities with pronunciation:
[name_f]Alannah[/name_f] (my mn) - my mum chose the [name_m]Al[/name_m]-on-nah pronunciation which is practically the only way to say it in [name_f]England[/name_f] and [name_f]Scotland[/name_f], (where her family is from) but in [name_f]Ireland[/name_f] and everywhere else, it seems to be [name_m]Alan[/name_m]-ah/[name_m]Al[/name_m]-anne-ah. It’s a lot of constant correcting, because I’m one of those people who uses their middle name frequently.
[name_f]Isla[/name_f] - I dont know why, but my parents, sister and aunts all say EYES-la as opposed to EYE-la. I haven’t got a clue why, because they all say island as EYE-land…my fiance always gets a good giggle out of it.
As for names I mispronounce;
[name_u]Delaney[/name_u] - I can’t bring myself to go with [name_u]Del[/name_u]-ay-nee with this spelling - it’s [name_u]Dell[/name_u]-anne-ee (which I almost prefer). It has been since I was a little kid LOL
[name_f]Olivia[/name_f] - This is practically interchangeable in terms of pronunciation with [name_f]Alivia[/name_f]. I know there’s supposed to be a distinct difference between Oh and Ay, but I pronounce both as [name_m]Ah[/name_m]-liv-ee-ah
Another person who pronounces it [name_f]Helen[/name_f]-a, but I like the other pronunciations as well.
I can also understand the [name_f]Olivia[/name_f]/[name_f]Alivia[/name_f] thing too. I always pronounced it more like Uh-livia, so the first syllable is basically unintelligible when I say it.
I have an ancestor who was a [name_f]Louisa[/name_f], but it was pronounced [name_u]Lou[/name_u]-EYE-za. The church where we have our yearly family reunion has [name_m]Eleazar[/name_m] as a part of its name, and all the old folks pronounce it Ee-lazer; three syllables and the last part rhymes with the word laser. Occasionally Ee-lee-azer gets thrown around too, which is closer to the correct (I think?) Ehl-ee-azer.
These are more just preferences, but I prefer [name_m]Milo[/name_m] pronounced Mee-loh over My-loh, and [name_f]Eva[/name_f] pronounced Eh-vuh over Ee-vuh.
[name_f]Emilia[/name_f]- my family ALWAYS pronouce it [name_m]Ah[/name_m]-mil-ee-ah when I want it [name_f]Em[/name_f]-ee-lee-yah. [name_m]Even[/name_m] when they try, they just can’t.
[name_f]Aveline[/name_f]- I always pronounced this Ay-vuh-lyn, I only recrntly duscovered the -ahv-leen pronounciation which I love even more.
[name_f]Clarisse[/name_f]- family also pronounce it clare-eese
[name_m]Archibald[/name_m]- family pronounce is Ar-kee-bawld which is weird.
[name_f]Eleanor[/name_f]. My cousin pronounces it like [name_f]ELLE[/name_f]-ah-na. This is the standard British pronunciation, but I’ve heard people across the pond pronounce it [name_f]ELLE[/name_f]-ah-nor.
My sister is K y r a h. Pronounced like [name_f]Keira[/name_f].
I am not a native English speaker and know a few languages, so I do get pronunciation confusion every so often. Not sure if you can say I mispronounce it, it’s just I decide how to pronounce a name intuitively and that can be influenced by either any languages I speak or how I heard that name first.
[name_f]Isabelle[/name_f] - Sometimes I pronounce it Is-a-bell too, but more often than not Ee-sa-bell. This is one of my top choices for a girl and I don’t mind if people pronounce it differently than I usually do.
[name_f]Celeste[/name_f] - Ce-less-tay instead of Ce-LEST. I guess this one is wrong though.
[name_f]Eleanor[/name_f] - I pronounce it Eh-le-ah-nor. So more like [name_f]El[/name_f]éanore than [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f].
[name_f]Rosalind[/name_f] - [name_f]Rose[/name_f]- instead of [name_f]ROZ[/name_f]-, but I like both pronunciation anyway.
[name_f]Amelia[/name_f] - A-meh-lee-a, instead of A-MILL-ya. E is pronounced like é in my native tongue, so…
Part of my family is [name_m]German[/name_m], so a lot of names are pronounced differently which is quite funny sometimes
[name_m]Arthur[/name_m] - which is pronounced “Ar-toor” kind of?
[name_m]Tobias[/name_m] - “to-[name_f]BEE[/name_f]-us” instead of “to-bi-us” (I still like te german version more)
[name_f]Rachel[/name_f] - pronounced like [name_f]Rahel[/name_f] (“Raw-hell”) so the c stays silent
[name_m]Benjamin[/name_m] - “[name_m]Ben[/name_m]-ya-meen”
[name_f]Alice[/name_f] - “A-leez”
[name_f]Sophie[/name_f] - normally pronounced “So-[name_u]FEE[/name_u]” but in some part of Germany it’s “Soffee” so they emphasise the “ph” sound
I love noticing these differences between the languages, I don’t know why (:
I don’t know if there is a reason behind this, but there are a few my family pronounces differently.
[name_u]Allie[/name_u]/[name_u]Allison[/name_u]: My dad pronounces these as “[name_f]Ellie[/name_f]” and “[name_u]Ellison[/name_u]”. He can say my name fine, probably because it has a different A sound than these, but still…it’s a bit odd. It explains why my nickname is [name_f]Ellie[/name_f], but my name is [name_f]Alyssa[/name_f] lol.
[name_m]Joseph[/name_m]: My grandfather came to the States from [name_f]Italy[/name_f] several years ago, so my dad and his siblings (1st generation Italian-American) seem to have picked up on some ways of saying things…from grandpa…I’m not overly sure if it has much to do with the language. Anyhow…we all tend to say it as “[name_m]Joe[/name_m]-ZEPP”.
We have a [name_f]Yvonne[/name_f] in the family too - and we pronounce it with a distinct ‘Y’ sound like “Yuh-vonn” and not “Ee-vonn”.
My husband’s family has a [name_m]Bernard[/name_m] and they pronounce it “Ber-nerd” and not "Ber-narrd’, which seems to be how most people pronounce it.
I don’t actually know the “right” way to pronounce this, but [name_f]Johanna[/name_f] has always been pronounced the same as [name_f]Joanna[/name_f] for me. The ‘h’ is not vocalized. But I’ve met a girl who does pronounce it with the ‘h’ - which ended up ruining the name for me.
My name is [name_f]Annabelle[/name_f] which is pretty hard to mess up but my family and I have always pronounced it like a(short a sound)-nuh-bell whereas when most people say my name they call me anne-uh-belle
Not really a whole family thing, but my mum says [name_f]Beatrix[/name_f] like [name_f]Bee[/name_f]-AY-triks, even though every time she does I immediately not-so-subtly say ‘[name_f]Do[/name_f] you mean [name_f]BEE[/name_f]-uh-triks?’. It’s a little bit of the reason why I put [name_f]Beatrix[/name_f] in the middle instead of as a first.
[name_f]Elsa[/name_f]. The traditional way of pronouncing [name_f]Elsa[/name_f] in my language (Portuguese) is with a Z-sound instead of a S-sound, however my paternal family for some reason pronounces [name_f]Elsa[/name_f] with a S-sound (just like in Frozen) - I have a relative with this name.
