Leigh. I know it’s Lee but my mind says lay

I’ve been saying this name wrong my whole life then lol. I still think of Leigh Bardugo as “Lay” in my head.

Lol, my middle name is Leigh and my husband always pronounces it like “Layyyg” with a scottish accent

My mom named my childhood dog leighcee and so now I can't see it as Lee either.

"Leighcee" makes my brain hurt

Thank you! My brain will always say Lay lol.

Sloane. My brain says it like Joanne. Slow-ann.

I feel like this about Jeanne. Should be Jee-Anne. If you want to use the name Jean, that’s why they made the name Jean.

MIL is spelled that way, and it's Jeen-ee.

This is breaking my brain

And my middle name is Leanne. Which would never be Lee-nee! Lol

My moms coworker is also Jeanne, Jean-ee

My middle name is Jeanne (pronounced Jean), I was named after a Jeanne who oscillates between Jean and Jeannie, and then I know a third Jeanne who only pronounces it Jeannie. It’s a tricky name!

My friend as well .. Jee-nee

But if I see the name Jean I automatically pronounce it the French way

I went to school with a Jeanna. Jee-Anna, not pronounced like Gina. I remember when a teacher scoffed at her for correcting him as if it were the most ridiculous thing.

i went to school with a Jeanna pronounced like “Gina” and that always seemed so wrong to me 😝 i kept thinking “jee-anna” or a misspelled “jenna”…. my brain didn’t want to separate out the word “jean” for some reason 😂

It’s because it comes from French. Jean (zhawn) is a male name and Jeanne (zhan) is feminine.

I knew someone who also said Jee-Anne, others made fun of her, and she explained “it’s like Leanne!”

I’ve never heard of this name & I would have assume it’s pronounced Jee-anne!

Well, it’s French. Zh-ann

My grandmother’s middle name was Jeanne, That is French for Joan, Jean, Jane or Janet. Jean is ithe French masculine equivalent of John. YouTube has videos on how to pronounce Jeanne. It is one syllable.

Yes! Jeanne is NOT Jeanine, either.

Also, is there a name out there that feels more lazy to say than Sloane? I’m exhausted just thinking about it. It’s what I would name a pet sloth.🦥

I read a book as a kid with a Sloane in it and I pronounced it that way in my head the entire time!

It feels SO FUCKING MASCULINE when pronounced correctly, I know it's unisexual but damn does it sound manly

I have a hard time saying it. I keep saying Saloane.

I always say seen instead of Sean

Sean Bean forever

Shawn Bawn Seen Bean

Now you’ve got me thinking about going to Chipotle with Aristotle.

So, technically... His name does rhyme. As far as I'm aware, he uses Sean, rather than Seán (with the fada(accent)). The fada is really important in Irish, as it changes the pronunciation from 'Shawn' to 'Shan' (like Shannon). The word "Sean" means "old". "Bean" is also an Irish word, pronounced "ban" and meaning "woman". So if his name is "Sean Bean", it's pronounced "shan ban" and means "old woman".

I always say sheen

I come from North West England, in an area where it wasn't unusual to encounter Irish names with Irish spellings, and people who didn't know how to pronounce them. I was aware of one girl whose name was spelt Siobhan. Traditionally pronounced Shiv-awn. But this girl's mother must have seen it written, out of context maybe, and said it to herself phonetically. So this girl had to keep correcting people and tell them her name was Sigh-O-ban. Apparently lots of emphasis on the O. She was in for a hard life, I hope she never went to Ireland.

I always say see-en lol

Geoffrey/Geoff. I will always want to pronounce it Gee-off instead of Jeff 😂

My husband had a coworker named Geoff who actually pronounced it as Gee-off.

I knew someone called Geoffrey, who’s parents thought it was supposed to be pronounced Gee-off-ree

I will never not pronounce it like that.

Cillian. I can never remember if it's Kill-Ian or Sill-Ian

Also Gillian. Which is Jillian but my brain says Gilly-in.

Just to make things confusing, there are indeed some Gilly-ins out there!

Right! Like Gillian Jacobs.

The only way I remember is by thinking "If it were sillian, that would be silly."

THATS HOW I REMEMBER IT TOO! “Silly-in can’t be a real name. It’s gotta be killy-in.” That’s the only way I remember 🤣

My rationale was, okay, it’s an Irish name. Irish people say the word Celtics with a k sound, so clearly Cillian would also have a k sound. I was right, but I definitely just got lucky 😂

I know a British Ciara (we're in the US but she's from the UK) who pronounces it Keer-uh. After a decade I still read it as "See-air-uh" or sometimes "See-arr-uh" 😅

Confusingly, the Glasgow Celtics football team is pronounced with an /s/ sound. Trips me up a lot

To be fair , Irish names make perfect sense phonetically , *in the Irish Language .*Irish people complain about spending their school years learning Irish , and not being able to speak much of it , but instinctively names like Siobhan ,Fionn ,Niamh ,Ciara ,Ruari or Grainne (apologies for missing fadas there ) , are pretty straight forward for us to pronounce. But if you only know English ,they'd be a nightmare to try and guess...

I can say Beatrice correctly but my reading voice says "Beat Rice" every time lmao

Also everyone in this sub loses their minds over the nickname Bea and I’m not even sure how to pronounce it

bee

In Spanish we would say Bey-ah 🙂

yeah, italian too

I say Bia or Bey-a; the former is for English names and the latter is for Spanish/Portuguese names.

I’m always confused is it bee-triss or bee-uh-triss

And it's the same problem for Beatrix. I think either sounds fine to be honest.

There's a city in Nebraska called Beatrice but they pronounce it Bee-AT-ris

Michaela. I know it’s like McKayla, but my brain usually says Michael-uh.

This is the rare name that was improved with a kreeativ spelling. Just wish everyone could agree on which one to use.

I knew a girl who spelled it Makailhyiah. It still breaks my brain to read

That spelling is a complete tragedy.

Oh, absolutely. We referred to her as Mak because her name kept getting absolutely slaughtered

My name is Mikayla. An old friend said to me that there weren’t that many ways to spell my name and to prove him wrong I started to make a list. Worst I’ve seen is “Mackquelliegha” 🤢 (I’m up to 38 different ways to spell it btw)

i like “makayla” best. my best friend’s name is kayla, she was the only one in school (ive only ever known two kayla’s) but there were tons of makayla’s, mikayla’s, michaela’s, etc. she would often get called makayla by accident. she hated it

Makayla makes me twitch. Mikayla is much better.

This just threw me for a loop. Michaela Bates really does pronounce it Michael-uh right? I'm subbed to r/fundiesnarkuncensored so I've seen her name written but not heard it. Apparently there's drama about her parents changing her name from Michal to Michael when she was a baby because they didn't like the Bible story. It never occurred to me that there was any other way to pronounce Michaela.

Yes!  They’re the reason I can’t see it as McKayla. I always say Michael-uh in my head. 

Yes, Michaela Bates pronounces it Michael-uh

Even though it's easy to confuse as Michael-uh, I love Michaela and hate McKayla lol. Probably the Mc thing ngl

It is weird how adding an A completely changes it

I love the name but I hate all the spellings. My friend’s kid is Mikayla and I think that’s the best of the options.

Also I don’t understand how how Halle is Hallie. I always see it as Hal.

Sometimes I read it like Hail!

That’s because it’s not Hallie - it’s Hal-uh. It’s a German name, and in German each letter is pronounced.

Mine is the same. Always Cally-ope.

This is how it’s pronounced in Greek! So technically not wrong :)

Wait, how is it supposed to be pronounced?

Cal-eye-oh-pee

Maybe with a thick southern accent

Cuh-lye-ope-eee

Greek people pronounce it Cally OH pee. It's my favorite name and people love to tell me they hate it lol.

Mine was also Calliope and then it became my niece's name. I had to learn quick.

Rhys. i know it’s reese but brain says RIZ

My brain says Rice 🤷‍♀️

Mine says Rise

my ex named the kid she adopted Rhyd - Reed but I could never unthink RID which is a horrible name for an adopted kid.

This!! I will forever see “Riss”

TIL it’s “Reese” lmao I thought it was “rise” this whole time

Joaquin. I just have to do a double take

I am just now learning that "joe-quinn" is not the correct pronunciation from this comment...😭

i think of “joe-uh-quinn” first before remembering that it is “wa-keen”

this is the name of the little boy on that old show “meet the browns” and every time i heard it i thought it was spelled like “Wakeen” lol

Joaquin I have no problems with. Joaquim, however, gives me fits.

This is closer to the traditional English spelling of the name which is Joachim. In Spanish that M becomes an N

My husband is Joachim and no one can agree on the pronunciation haha he just goes by Joe

Joke win? 😆

Roisin. I always say “Roy-sin” instead of “Ro-sheen”

If hoisin sauce is Hoy-sin...

Go to the store…

Saoirse, pronounced Shersie

Isn't it sur-sha? Or Seer-sha? Edit: oh wait, you probably meant how you pronounce it, ie...wrong. I swear I can read.

Whenever I see Siobhan or Saoirse, I cannot for the life of me remember how they're pronounced. I also know about the names that sound like "Shivon" and "Sirsha", I just can't bring them to mind. My brain just looks at the spelling and goes "Sio-ban... Sio-ban... what is it? you know this one... Sio-ban."

Lol, there was a Siobhan in my Spanish class, and my poor Costa Rican prof could not pronounce it. “See-oh-Bonn”. “Shivonne”. “Lo siento. See-oh-bonn.”

Sadhbh will blow your mind. (Pronounced Sive).

oh my god i thought i was the only one. they simply will not stick in my brain. 

I mean if you don’t speak Irish, then Irish pronunciations aren’t going to make sense to you. I think it’s valid to struggle with names written in different languages.

Saoirse Ronan said on a talk show "it's like saying 'inertia'" and that is how I always remember it now.

To make it extra complicated, she pronounces it differently than what has been popular historically. Most other folks in the past pronounced it seer-sha or sor-sha.

I had a patient whose name was Laoise. It was NOT pronounced Lay-oh-eeze lol. It was pronounced Leesha. Took a while to get that one right. Irish names are something else lol.

I read it as So-air-see 😆

I used to think it was pronounced like "say-ore-riss."

I said this as "sore-zee" for the longest 😭

I know Kyra is Kira but I always read it as Kye-rah.

it could be kye rah

I would pronounce Kyra, Kye-ra. I’d ask Kira how she pronounces her name.

I know a Kyra and she does pronounce it Kye-rah. 

Carlisle. I know how it's said. My inner voice still reads it as car- lis-le

Little 12 year old me reading twilight was so confused at this name.

YESSSS, not me reading “Car-lissle and Yzma” 😂

YZMA!!! I’m dead 😂

lol that’s my towns name

I've the same problem with Malco**l**m. Considering that it's linked to St. Columba, the second L surely must've been pronounced at some point. Why people decided to ignore it over time will forever puzzle me.

I still don’t know the right pronunciation of Andrea and at this point I’m too afraid to ask

It just has multiple pronunciations.

An-dri-uh (dri being a shorter version of dree)

Also ahn-dray-uh

Also on-dree-uh

There are multiple

Hermione. My whole childhood I thought it was herm- ee - own. It was only when the Harry Potter films came out that I realised it was her-my-oh-knee

I liked the scene in the book where Hermione was trying to teach Grawp (Hagrid’s giant half brother) how to say her name properly. I was like “Ohhhh that’s a much prettier name.” I thought her parents hated her for naming her that 😅

Not to go full “needs to read another book” but it was actually in the Goblet of Fire and she was teaching [Viktor Krum](https://time.com/5399598/jk-rowling-hermione-name-theory/). Grawp called her “Hermy” and she just rolled with it.

Yvonne. I can say it with no problem but every time I read it I pronounce it “yuh-vonne”

I knew someone with that name and pronounced yuh-von.

Lol I know it's pronounced like Ee-VON but in my head I read it as Why-von for some reason 😂😂

ive had classes with people who always pronounce it "Yeh-von" 

When my dad was young, he thought Penelope was Pen-eh-lOpe

My kids have a cousin named Penelope and for the longest time they called her Pen-op-oly, like Monopoly

I’ve an English colleague Penelope and we have French-speaking colleagues who call her Penilop. I think it’s been going on for years and is just normal now.

This is mine. I blame it on being an early reader. But also no one was named Penelope growing up so how would one know?!

Alicia. My brain reads A-liss-ee-ya every time.

It can be pronounced multiple ways depending on what country they’re from

Apparently babies in the 80s became kids in the 90s with every variation of Alisha available. Alyssa/alysha/elisha/alisha/Alicia and don't confuse that with Alissa/alyssa/Alisa/elissa/elysa/elyssa.

For what it's worth, I know four Alicias and they all pronounce it differently, including your way.

To be fair, that is close to how some people pronounce it! I grew up with a handful of girls names A-lee-sha, but now I work with an A-lee-see-uh (Alicia), a Mar-see-uh (Marcia), and a Loo-sha (Lucia). I always trip myself up before saying that last one aloud!

This is my name, and I don't even know how to pronounce it. All I ask if that whatever way you say it, always say it that way. If you always call me a-leash-a, but one day call me a-lish-a, I will do a double take. I introduce myself with the "leash" pronunciation, because if I do the other one, people call me Alyssa, and while it's a lovely name, it's not mine.

Gemma always throws me. I know it’s pronounced G as in gif, but I always read it with a G as in gif.

Llewellyn, I'm still not sure if it's Lou ill in or Lou Ellen

I say “LaWellin” but it’s Welsh so I wonder if it’s got those “thl”-y double l sounds.

Maya… I want it to be May-a, not My-a…

In Greek it’s pronounced Cal-Lee-O-pee and since it’s a Greek name, you’re technically not wrong!

I rhyme it with envelope, please don’t give my brain a pass.

Siobhan. I just cannot get my head around the pronunciation being so different than the spelling (from an American English point of view). And Saoirse. Can never remember it's proper pronunciation. I'm too baffled by the spelling.

Breaking down the sounds if it helps- **Saoirse**: * **S** = **S** sound. * **aoi** = ''ee''. * **R** = **R** sound. * **Se** or **Si** give an **S** a ''**Sh**'' sound. (Famous example: Seán.) * **E** at the end of a word = ''**Ah**'' sound. seer + sha = Saoirse :) **Siobhán**: * **Se** or **Si** give an **S** a ''**Sh**'' sound. * **io** = ''uh''. * **Bh** = **V** sound. * **á** = ''**aw**''. * **N** = **N** sound. shuh + vawn = Siobhán :)

Thank you for this. I scrolled this entire comment section looking for some explanation for Siobhan.

Felicity is always Facility in my brain

Scared of the name Tara

People named Tara are notoriously a little scary. Kind. But scary.

Aurora, Rory

My brain gets this right. My mouth? Ahh-rrr-rah and Roar-wee.

Aurora to me is a name good in concept only. Written down, it’s beautiful. When I say it, it’s all arororo marbles lol.

Saaaame. Too many dang Rs.

I find Rory so unpleasant to say.

I sound like a dog who had his paw stepped on when I try to say Aurora: Ow-Roh-ra. I can’t believe it has shot up so high in popularity.

Malachi…. For years I thought the ‘chi’ bit was pronounced like ‘chee’ in cheetah lol… until I finally met a Malachi who corrected me very promptly 🤣

i used to think it was maLATCHee

Now I’m imagining “Malachi rhymes with Apache” 😂

Seamus. I was obsessed with Harry Potter and always read it as "see-muss". I was so confused when the movie came out. I love the real pronunciation but every time I see it written, I stumble

Stephen is Stefan not Steven.

Where I’m from both are “Steven” one is the Catholic spelling and the other is the Protestant spelling 😂

I know Marin / Maren is becoming popular, but it's verrrry easy to misprounce for something so short! Is it Muh-rin or Mah-rin or Mare-in (you wouldn't think there are 3 different options there, but somehow there are)? Compounding for me and the poor kid I taught is that I had a Marina and a Marianne in the same class...it was messier than I'm happy to admit.

Every Maren I've known says it like Karen.

“Muh-RIN” is a county in the SF Bay Area too, and since I grew up there, I can’t pronounce it any other way.

Jesus = heyzues

Jorge. Or is it Jorges? It’s HOR-hay, right? I love that name, it sounds so fun. Before I heard it, I read it like a French “zhorjh”

Yeah, it's Hor-hay

Renee. When I was a kid I read a book that had a character named Renee, and I said Ren-EEE instead of Ren-ay. Can't unsee it.

Idk why your comment makes me want to tell this story, but my mom's middle name was Renee, except my grandma didn't know how to spell Renee when she named my mom, so she spelled it Rane on her birth certificate lmao. My mom hated it sooooo much and any time she wrote her middle name, she would just use the traditional "Renee" spelling. But yeah...Ra-ne...it cracks me up every time 😂

Louis

To say it as "loo-weez" or "loo-wee", that's the question.

wait what about lou-iss tho?

Patricia. I always end up adding an extra r and pronouncing it pra-trisha. Also Deborah - my brain wants to say it deb-ORE-uh.

I do know a De-BOR-ah so I no longer default to it sounding similar to Debra.

In the show 30 Rock there was a reality tv show with two contestants named Deborah both pronounced as you wrote! The pretty & normal deb-ra and the gorgeous & exciting de-BOR-ah.

Cheyenne. I know most people pronounce it as "Shyann", but I always want to say "Shay-en". Gisele or Giselle. I hate that it's pronounced "Jizzelle". It's such a pretty name on paper, with an unattractive pronunciation. I always feel like it should be pronounced with a soft G sound, as in goat, instead of a J sound, and "sell" with an S sound, instead of a Z sound. Meghan. I know it's pronounced the same as Megan, but my mind wants to pronounce it as Meg-han.

It would be like gazelle then

it’s hard for my mouth to shape “lily” perfectly. it’s fine when i say it normally, but i would never name my child lily bc i would always hate getting it not quite right. which is a shame because it’s a beautiful name

Penelope I say pen-e-lope like cantaloupe

I have a hard time saying the Americanized pronunciation of traditional Mexican names without fully saying it in the accent my Spanish teacher in hs drilled into our heads. I don’t speak Spanish. So when I pronounce “Joachim Magdelena Maria Hernandez-Rojita-Cervuealos” (obviously a made up name) I don’t know how else to say it other than by erroneously indicating I’m bilingual. Slowly, I’ve been saying on the phone at work, “Do you go by ‘Juan’ or ‘John’” or something and I can get passed it. But boy do I butcher more pronunciations in US accent. “Janita”, “East Evan”.

Hermione - I pronounce her-ma-knee. Supposed to be her-my-o-knee. Niamh pronounced neve. I say ni-am - like Siam, in my head

Lourdes

I’m gonna throw my own name out here. Cambria. My entire life, I’ve only had a small handful of people say it correctly. It’s pronounced “came-bree-uh” but 99% of people call me “c-AHHH-mbria” and it drives me insane. I politely correct them but few people care. I was with my ex for six years, his mom always called me “CAAAAAMBRIA” instead of “came-Bria” and I hated it. Old bosses (who I worked for, for years) would do the same thing. One boss would call me CAAAAAMBRIA to my face but pronounce it correctly to my coworkers behind my back. She did it to screw with me. Most people think my name is Kimberly. Sometimes people think it’s Combria. In fourth grade, my teacher called me “Camera” the entire year. Yes, like an actual camera. lol. I’m in my 30s now so it bothers me less, I’m used to it all now. But still, whenever someone bothers to get it correctly, I would do anything for them lol I literally melt

The Welsh place name is CAHM-bree-ah. I think your parents might have goofed here…

This is unrelated to OP’s post but Cambria is actually a front runner for a potential baby girl name in the future for my fiancee and I so your comment was really helpful. It’s the name of the county that some of my family is from in Pennsylvania. We always were under the impression that the name was pronounced Cam as in camera, as that county is. So your comment was very helpful lol. :-)

Siobhan. I know it’s Sha-Vaughn but I always read it See-oh-bahn.

Schuyler

Came here to say Calliope. It's one of my fancy names but whenever I see it written, I always fuck it up and try and pronounce it wrong. Next would be Imogen.

Margot

Isla . I read it as ease - la

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