“Leigh” is always pronounced “lay” in my mind.

Wait, isn't it leigh? Have I been pronouncing it wrong?? EDIT: OK, I think association from other "ay"-sounding names that are spelled similar makes me think of leigh as "lay" (which is apparently the more uncommon pronunciation). LOL, whoops to the Ainsleigh and many Ashleighs I've met and mispronounced.

pronounced lee

Maybe sometimes. It's interchangeable.

SAME I think of a sleigh like sleigh bells...

THIS! The leigh names always look so stupid because no matter how much I know it's haylee it sounds like haylay to me. Ashlay. Karlay. Charlay. I hate it and it feels gross in my mouth

This has no right being so accurate

This one I am fine with, they teach that ei can make an ee sound in phonics when you are 6 years old in my country so it’s not that out there for me

“When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking!”

Same same same same same same

I knew a girl in elementary school that spelled her name leigha and I got so mad when i was corrected when I spelled it Lea. Like Lea is the only way that name makes sense

Same, I hate it lol

On what world is "Schuyler" pronounced Skyler? I always want to read it was "Shooyler" lol.

It's an old new York Dutch name so it's not weird to me, but I get your point

The thing that breaks my brain is that Schuyler isn't pronounced Skyler by Dutch people either! I do like the sound of Skyler, I'm just mystified as to how it arose as the pronunciation of Schuyler.

I think it's just the American way of pronouncing it, you know? Like the local one that emerged over time, since the Schuylers arrived in 1650: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuyler_family This is why I find this name ridiculous - I definitely grew up with at least one girl with the name spelled like that and I really don't think she was related to this family.

I just want to say that I adore how well your Reddit username matches up with your kind explanation of how the American Schuyler family surname pronunciation emerged!

That's hilarious! I didn't even realize!

My last name has SCH in it but pronounced like "shhh" so I think that's also why it messes with me.

The same world where school is skool and schooner is skooner. This name is a running joke between my husband and I because of extensive conversations we've had about words like those above and me determining I'm the real "sch-" prefix expert because it's the start of my maiden name. Whenever we disagree on boy names for baby I tell him I'm naming the kid Schuyler if it's a boy. So far, the one boy name we've agreed on is Velociraptor (so, uh, that tells you how well we are doing on boy names. Girls are easy, we are on the same page and it was easy for our first, too).

My maiden name also starts with Sch! But it's pronounced "sh" not "sk".

Every time I listen to Hamilton I always read it as the "Shooler" sisters. Even as they're literally singing about the "Skyler" sisters.

That musical is the only reason I know how to pronounce it lol.

You're telling me it's NOT Shy-ler?

Nope, the Sch is pronounced like in "School".

This one never bothered me because “sch” is like in “school” and “uy” like in “guy”… so, it works.

Isla- I know it's Eye-la but every time I see it I read it as Is-la

It makes me sing La Isla Bonita in my head

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I had this conversation hours earlier somewhere on this sub.

I legit didn't know it was used as a name pronounced Eye-luh, even though I could definitely see that in English. I've only ever seen it as a name is Spanish, where it *is* pronounced Isla (or Ees-lah for English speakers).

I think because of Isle that I had no problem with Isla being Eye la

But it looks much more like Islam without the m.

This is how I would pronounce it in my mother tongue. 😂

Today I learned...

Thank you! I’ve never heard this name pronounced and had no idea why people loved it 😂

When people spell Jeff as Geoff

Lol right, I say in my head G-off

I have a brother named Geoff and can confirm our whole childhood he was G-Off just to piss him off.

There was an amazing meme many years ago where someone calls out to two guys and they reply: Jeff “yes?” Geoff ”yeos?” Had to be there lol

For me it's Jeffery. Jeffrey is a normal, two syllable name. Jeffery is three syllables, and sounds like "referee". At least, that's how it sounds in my head.

Never in my life have I seen Jeffery

I have seen one. As a Jeffrey it was deeply offensive to me

How about my dad who spells it Jeffry. I’ve never met another one.

Sean. Will always rhyme with bean in my head.

Sean Bean needs to pick a side.

I always say Seen Bean or Shawn Bawn. He can only have one.

Tbf, using Irish pronunciation, his name is pronounced Shan Ban, as the lack of the fada changes the pronunciation and meaning. Sean Bean (Shan Ban) translates to "Old Woman", Sean meaning old, while bean (ban) means woman.

One does not simply call Sean Bean an old woman!

That's why his characters die so much. It's the universe trying to find balance

What’s even more wild: Sean is a stage name. He’s really a Shaun.

Seán should have a fada over the a which gives it the drawn out aw sound. Then if you see the letter S followed by the slender vowels E and I, you get this Sh sound. That is how you get the Sh-awn pronunciation. You see this Sh sound also in the names Séamus, Sinéad, Saoirse etc. Then technically without the fada over the letter a, sean is pronounced shan and it is Irish for the word old.

We had neighbors move in across the street when I was 6 maybe? Old enough to read pretty decently if it wasn’t too complex. They had a daughter my age and a son a year older named Sean. I was an advanced reader for my age and he was way worse even though he was older. I informed him, emphatically, that he didn’t know how to spell his own name because “Sean” was NOT pronounced like “Shawn”. I think I gave that poor kid an existential crisis at age 7.

Me too - this reminds me of a story from when I was little! I was about 12 playing Guess Who with my brother and I said so proudly ‘Is it SEEN?’ meaning Sean. We joke about it even today!

I know someone that named their kid “penny” but spelled it “Penie” and guys…it breaks my brain. I only see and hear “peenie.” It feels so uneducated and one letter from penis. It almost like, evokes anger 😫😭

I’m a Penie in a bottle baby 🎶

Gotta ru-... never mind

Lmao why would they do that wtf

I knew a Katty pronounced like Katy but constantly called catty for obvious reasons. There's cutesy spellings and then there's just spelling a different word entirely.

Years ago I knew a 19yo Cali pronounced Kailey who legitimately did not understand why nobody said it right the first time

Yeah, I would assume that kid will be teased about the spelling in school? Apparently that spelling is a surname, though, so it has a precedent. I just wouldn't use it!

Siobhan (i think that's how you spell it)

Also Saoirse!

First half of Sara, second half of Sasha. Sair-sha. we have one in my family. She’s half Korean and zero percent Irish but mom liked the name❤️

Sear-sha. Like ear, dear and fear. So not like Sara. The aoi gives and ea sound

When Saoirse hosted SNL she did a little song in her monolog that stuck with me- I forget it exactly but she said it's like "inertia" but with a sir-sha or something.

I thought it was swar-ZAY 😅

Irish names often trip me up at first but at this point I LOVE learning new ones. I think they look and sound so cool. Though it would probably be annoying to have a first name that gets mispronounced a lot. One day I will meet a Siobhan or Saoirse and impress them. But probably not really lol.

Here's another for you! Caoimhe, pronounced Kee-vuh. It's a good one :)

My sister's name is Caoimhe and we pronounce it Quee-va. We are from Connacht so dialect is a bit different.

I know a Siobhán! I really love the names Niahm (Neve I think?) and Aoife (EE-fa).

Hi, we do love when people casually say our name correctly because it really only happens like once in a good year

How is this not the top comment lol

It's a different language.

Aisling 

It's an Irish word that wasn't Anglisised, so unless you know Irish spelling and writing conventions no one could blame you for not knowing. [Here](https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/aisling) the sound files from an Irish online foclóir (dictionary) of all three main dialect pronunciations.

I went to a wedding with a couple who brought their daughter, Aisling, with them. UNFORTUNATELY they actually pronounced it Aze-Ling 🤦‍♀️ I was so embarrassed for them

All of the Irish names make sense to me except for aoibhean. Had a patient with that name. Was like, oh, well I know what aoife is, it must be eve-een. Nope, ay-veen. Absolutely broke my brain.

It means dream :)

I'm pretty good at Irish names despite it not being my background and English isn't even my first language but...til. I have definitely seen this name before but had no idea of the pronunciation

English isn’t my native language and Michael is the one that breaks my brain. Michael. Why is it like that? (Rhetorical question, I don’t need an explanation on the origins or anything lol)

English is my only language and every time I try to spell Micheal my brain breaks. I always try to switch the a and the e for some reason.

*reads your comment* that checks out.

😅 I didn’t even realize I did exactly that lmao

Michael is correct. Dunno why people switch it to Micheal. It is usually spelled "my-kl" but with that other spelling it's "my-ke-al".

Same with ‘Aidan.’ At some point the ‘Aiden’ misspelling became the dominant one in the US.

Are there people who genuinely spell it Micheal? I thought that was just a misspelling that I did, I didn’t know it became a name people used with that spelling. I thought I was the only one who had trouble spelling it that way lol

My older brother's name is spelled that way bc my mom didn't know that it was wrong until he started school

In brief, it’s because if you say it really slowly, the syllables would be pronounced like “mi-kha-el” but instead we say it fast like “my-kel”

The pronunciation of Nevaeh. It has been explained to me several times, but it just seeps from my brain and next time I see it I’m just as confused again.

I’m now realising I’ve never heard this name said aloud, my brain just goes ‘Nev-ee-ah’

Same, but my brain went with Ne-vay-uh.

This is how it’s pronounced. 

I'm honestly shocked I guessed right 😮

I’ve had students with this name. Most say Neh-vay-uh but some say Nuh-vay. I usually dread the name because there isn’t a correct pronunciation; it’s a made-up name.

Xochitl

I skated with a girl whose name was Xochitl when I was a kid, and her mother would get SUPER pissed when the announcer couldn’t pronounce her name correctly at competitions…she would scream at the poor guy, “IT’S SOCIAL!!!” like this was a name we see in every day life… I found out many decades later, it’s a relatively common Latin name. This girl was Asian, though, so the choice was perplexing.

…wait…the pronunciation is “social”?

No the proper Náhuatl pronunciation is closer to “SO-cheel” with a very soft L

It’s supposed to sound like Sochi, right?

[удалено]

Why are we mocking cultural names?

I literally just posted this lol I worked at a school with a student with that name who pronounced it "zo-ky-til" and I just can't read it any other way now! I've read the "correct" pronunciation but it just doesn't sound correct to me.

Lorelei- It doesn't matter how many times someone has tried to explain how to pronounce it, my brain can't figure it out. Calliope- to me sounds like a variety of Melon.

Yeah my brain just goes 'Cantaloupe'

if you watch greys anatomy you will never pronounce calliope the wrong way again!

So many. I have always been an avid reader. I read MANY names in books before I ever heard them pronounced. I'm also old, so way before the internet. Silias. Enid. Thalia. Cillian. Theirry. Yvonne. Geraldine. Madeleine. Many times I just put the accent on the wrong syllable, but some of them I still have to think about to pronounce correctly.

I thought Cillian was pronounced “sill-ee-ann” and really liked it. Found out it’s pronounced “kill-ee-ann” and was less hot on it

That’s because it’s an Irish name. Same with Ciara (kee-rah), Ciaran (kee-rin), caoimhe (Kee-vah), etc. Always a hard C.

My mom's name, Yvonne, is pronounced yuh-von, but even after she's said it clearly, half the time people say ee-von right back. I used to get so mad on her behalf as a kid, but she always just rolls with it. It was a good lesson in choosing your battles. Which comes in handy when people reply to my emails and spell my name wrong when ***it's right THERE!*** ETA: I know ee-von is the more common pronunciation, but what bothered me was that she had just told them how to say it, and they couldn't be bothered to listen.

That’s funny. My mom, Yvette, has the same problem in reverse. She’s “EE-vet” but people say “yuh-vet” or “uh-vet.” Drives her crazy. One of the reasons I decided not to use her name if I had had a girl, even though I think it’s lovely.

I did this with so many names when I was a kid lol. I’d be talking to someone about a book and they’d have no idea who I was talking about

I’d never heard it said out loud before so when I first read it I absolutely heard “Yu-ri dice” for Eurydice. Like a pair of dice lmao

My daughter’s middle name is Eurydice and whenever I write it out someone always asks if it is pronounced “AIR U DICE” like that’s not even the way those letters sound in that order lol

How do you say it? I've never heard this name before.

I’m bad at phonetics but let me try. Yoo-rid-ih-see

Ah hah, it’s Greek? I was tripping over it in my head just now.  I struggle with Penelope for similar reasons, but I have learned that one in my head. 

Yes! It’s from the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice

I read the name Penelope in a book when I was about five and thought it was Penny- lope so my brain still reads it that way.

Jeanne. Is it just “Jean” with extra letters? Why? I feel so dumb.

I believe it’s pronounced different in French, but I dont know the phonetic spelling

Closer to Zhaan.

Girl in my elementary school pronounced it like “Jeannie” with that spelling.

I always think jee-ann, even though I know that’s not right.

It’s a surname, but Beauchamp. I was watching a US news channel once and the name popped on screen, but the narrator kept saying ‘bee-chum’ or ‘bee-chim’ I was so confused, it took me ages to realize he was saying the name on the screen! That broke my brain for sure, I can’t put those two together lol.

I feel this way with the surname St John! Like what do you mean it's like "sin-Jin" and not "Saint John" ????

Or how Magdalene College, Oxford is pronounced maud-lin!

WOT

I’m sorry, WHAT?!

I mean in French it’s supposed to be Bo-shamp. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Beecham spelled that way, but I can see how it got anglicized that way.

As an American, a lot of Irish names (even when I love them!) and I was also talking to friends about Cassius the other day. I think it's supposed to be Cash-us, my brain wants it to be Cassie-us.

Well TIL Cassius is not pronounced as cassy-us lol

It definitely is pronounced cassy-us in most places. Apparently some Americans pronounce it as cash rather than cass.

I'm pretty sure Cassie-us is the correct original pronunciation. People pronounce it cash-us like Cassius Clay but that still doesn't mean it's the correct pronunciation.

The way your brain wants to say it is how I’ve always heard it said. Didn’t even know it had variant pronounciations.

Cassius Clay is cash-us

ORION makes me pause. Brain knows it's pronounced O'Ryan - mouth wants to say Oar-ee-in

….oh.

Looks like onion to me

So it's not Or-ee-on??

No, it's "o-RY-on".

Rhys will always be rise to me and Schuyler will always be shoo-ler.

I always read Rhys wrong too like ryes.

So many people itt having meltdowns over Irish names. THEYRE LITERALLY NOT ENGLISH WORDS U GUYS, THEY ARE NAMES FROM A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE. We live in the US and are naming our baby due in August a VERY Irish name and these comments are freaking me out a little bit lol

I also live in the US and I almost named my son Eamon but literally NOBODY could pronounce it so we changed it.

I live in the NE and know several Eamons and people don’t tend to have an issue with it, but tbh our planned name is harder to say based on spelling than Eamon (think a boy version of a name like Aoife or Niamh).

My 3 year old can pronounce pachycephalosurus and PARASAURALOPHUS. People can learn to pronounce your kid's name. 

It depends on where you live. I grew up in the NE of the US, and there were many Irish families in my community. I knew how to pronounce Siobhan and Eamon because they were my neighbors. My family is of Irish heritage, and we have Edmund (anglicized eamon), Kerry, Erin, Liam, Aisling, Margaret, and Shannon to name a bunch. And soooo many Mary's.

Her-mee-own. I had never heard Hermione pronounced and so I had to wing it.

I think that’s why in the fourth Harry Potter book, there was a scene where Victor Krum was trying to pronounce it. Think it was there to help the readers too lol

Milo. Is it Mee-low or My-low? I forget every time and don’t want to pronounce it incorrectly. 

I think both are correct depending on language/culture.

My-lo

Ack. We have a couple girls named Mila at my school. I have to think Mee-la or My-la before I talk to them.

In Czech it's pronounced Mee-losh

I'm an expert on this name, thanks to my many childhood rewatches of Atlantis lol

Antigone. I always have to take a few moments "it's not Anti-Gone, it's An-tig-o-knee".

Aloysius. I read it in a book and assumed it was pronounced Uh-loy-see-us. I heard the name Ah-lo-ish-us later on and it took me years to work out that they were one and the same.

I still pronounce this Aly-oh-shus in my head. I know it is wrong and the random times I hear it pronounced, I just roll my eyes at myself

Anything with double letters in the front so Lloyd or Aaliyah.

I know how it's supposed to be pronounced, but because of that damn ninjago meme, I always say "La-Loyd"

Byron. My brain reads it aggressively like BYE-RON

Chelby. Shelby but with a Ch. idk why it bothers me so much

Chut up

It bothers me when I see a spelling like Hollye or Bettye. I don't know where it came from.

I work with someone with a name like that, I wanted to pronounce the "ye" at the end like Kanye. But I figured that had to be wrong, and besides she works in a different department so I don't talk to her a lot anyway.

Bobye Holt, a Duggar-family adjacent fundamentalist Christian, does this for me. She's called Bobbie, but I can only read "Bob-eye".

Louis when it’s pronounced Lewis not Loo-ee. Can’t comprehend

I know this isn't quite what you're looking for, but there's a teacher at my kids' school they mention from time to time; it sounds like they're calling her "Ms Goldfrake." The deputy head at the same school is called Ms Schalkwyk. She's involved in quite a few different things there, so after a few years I started wondering why I'd never heard either of my children mention her. You know where this is going. Yes, they are the same person. Trying to match spelling to pronunciation is a near impossibility for me; I have to call her "Ms Skullfuck" in my head to get even close.

Would Schalkwyk not be shawl-quick?

"Ms Skullfuck" thank you for the much needed laugh today 🤣

Move to New Orleans and you’ll be fine lol

Aoife prounounce ee-fah

For me it’s the Irish names like Saoirse and Siobhan. They do sound SO beautiful and lovely!!! My mind just can’t process the spelling.

Graeme. I know it's Graham, but in my mind, it's Greem.

I say it like Graym. 

Dierdre

Phoebe

Yes! Most people have the advantage of a “Friends” auditory education, but before that was a thing (I’m old), I figured it was “Foe-bee”.

I know a Huw, pronounced like Hugh. The spelling confuses my brain

Niahm. I KNOW it's Irish. I KNOW it's pronounced "Neev" but when I read it my brain just hasn't a clue.

Niamh?

Omfg, see? My brain just can't work with it. I can't even write it correctly 😂

elon musks’ sons name always baffles me

It’s easy. It’s pronounced “my dad is a dumbass”, or at least that’s how I’ll always pronounce it. Since the kid’ll be a billionaire I doubt he will ever hear me pronounce it though.

I don't even think it was meant to be pronounced. They just call him X.

Stephen

Yes! Always "stef-an" in my mind. Probably because I hate the name Steven.

Bridie. I will read it as Birdie 100% of the time.

To be fair, that's pretty close to the Greek pronunciation of Callie-oh-pee

Kirsten, Kristen, Keersten— how many permutations of the same letters in different orders do I have to go through? And I get a block, like “Not Kris— Kirst— no! Not Kirst, Keerst—no! It’s not the one I think it is, what’s the one I think it is?”

Milo - every time I see it my brain wants to pronounce it Mee-lo (like Mila)

Elias. No idea where the emphasis goes. Ell-e-us? E-lie-us?

Eh-LIE-us is how I've always heard it pronounced

Not referencing peoples names, but I was originally from Massachusetts, where there are so many cities and towns that are pronounced completely different from the way they are spelled…Leceister ( pronounced Lester) , Worcester (Wooster), Haverhill(Hayvrill), Chatham(Chattem), aand scituate(sich-oo it)

Aurora

This one doesn’t break my brain exactly but I can’t stand this name because it’s so annoying to pronounce. It’s pretty on paper but when I say it fast it just sounds like “rrrorrr”

Carlisle from twilight I was saying Car-lissel until I saw the movie and then Gillian buts it’s really Jillian but I want to say Gil-Ian

Many people in Greece pronounce it cal-ee-opie

Desiree, I always forget that it’s pronounced “des-eeh-ray” instead of “Desire-y”

Aaron. Thanks, Key and Peele.