A. writes:<\/p>\n
Oy. Swistle, please help! We have a beautiful 5-day-old, little brother to Arlo Otis, and I am not yet sold on the name we announced on day three. Our last name is Johnson Ronay, no hyphen.<\/p>\n
The name we announced is Emil Thomas. I love the spelling. I love the name. But I do not think the spelling Emil, phonetically represents our chosen pronunciation of eh-MEEL. If I can not get behind it, how will I comfortable navigate the queries and support my son?<\/p>\n
When Arlo was born, we had a list of five names, shared them with dear friends for feedback and waited until his birth to get a sense of what names fit him. We both came to Arlo easily and shared with family and friends after about two days of making sure it was a good fit. No regrets.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to “Emil”. We had a loose list which included Emil, Lars, Severn, Pavel and the extra-adventurous Utah. Again, as easily as Arlo first came, so did Emil. As soon as he was lifted out of the tub to her chest, she felt he was Emil. Before our midwives left the house, I had almost called him Emil several times. When the house was quiet, we each confessed the name then planned to sit with it for a couple days. My brother Thomas was randomly in town day three and when he met the babe I felt some excitement to share the name, so we just did it. I have regretted it ever since. In my own mind I can hardly remember how to pronounce it… Is it “Ay-mull”, “E-mill”, “em-IL” or “EM-eel”.<\/p>\n
I think we could help secure the pronunciation with going with the spelling Emile, but I do not like the look or potential for confusion with Emily.<\/p>\n
When people ask his name, I am near meltdown. In my unscientific research, I have found that a hefty majority of people who do not have a French connection, or a Grandparent named “Ay-mull” or “E-mill”, go automatically to “eh-MEEL”.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what to do. Can we just go with it? Will this haunt my child forever? A little effort to correct pronunciation or inform spelling seems okay in exchange for a strong name that can be taken around the world, but I do not want to be taking phonetic liberties.<\/p>\n
Bonus is birth certificate is yet to be filed, in the event we scrap it and go with Pavel. Forever drawback is not listening to the “his name is Emil” that we both shared upon meeting him.<\/p>\n
I welcome any and all feedback! Thank you kindly!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
You say that “a hefty majority” of people pronounce the name Emil the way you’d like them to (and the ones who don’t are just more familiar with one of the other possible pronunciations), AND that you are near meltdown about it. I would think it would be the opposite: that you would be increasingly reassured by how many people say it the way you’d like them to. I’d pronounce it eh-MEEL too. (I’d have to look up how to pronounce Pavel. PAH-vull? PAY-vull? puh-VELL?)<\/p>\n
Emile is no improvement: all it does is add EE-myle and eh-MYLE and Emily to the list of potential mispronunciations. Also, Emil is familiar to me as a boy’s name, but I’d be less certain about Emile in the United States. Here’s the 2012 Social Security Administration data:<\/p>\n
Emil, F: –
\nEmil, M: 114
\nEmile, F: 6
\nEmile, M: 40
\nEmilee, F: 548
\nEmilee, M: –<\/p>\nEmil is a standard spelling; eh-MEEL is a standard pronunciation. You love the spelling; you love the pronunciation. What is it you’re still having trouble getting behind?<\/p>\n
You have chosen a name that is uncommon in the United States, so yes, you are going to run into issues with pronunciation and spelling, as will he. This is part of the package deal when you choose an uncommon name, and presumably you are on board with that or else you would have named him Mason or Jason and had no trouble at all as long as he stayed in a country where those names were familiar. (Keeping in mind that a hefty minority of people spell my name Kristin or pronounce it Kristine even though it is Kristen; and I’ll bet right this minute someone is calling a Jason “Jayden” by mistake or spelling it Jayson; and don’t forget the endless hassle of the very popular Madelyn\/Madeline. Pronunciation\/spelling issues are not the exclusive domain of the less-common name.)<\/p>\n
My diagnosis is that you are suffering from a perfectly normal post-naming freak-out. You gave the name a lot of thought, and you chose carefully. You did not say to each other, “We want to choose a name that will haunt our son HIS ENTIRE LIFE and require FULL PARENTAL SUPPORT for him to carry.” No: you chose a name you love, a name that fits him, a name you think will make him feel at-home worldwide.<\/p>\n
It is normal to take a little while to feel comfortable with a new baby’s name, and it is normal to feel a little self-conscious about a name during the announcing phase. You will get used to pronouncing it, and so will everyone else. Leave the birth certificate blank for awhile longer if it makes you feel better, but it sounds to me as if the real naming ceremony has already taken place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A. writes: Oy. Swistle, please help! We have a beautiful 5-day-old, little brother to Arlo Otis, and I am not yet sold on the name we announced on day three. Our last name is Johnson Ronay, no hyphen. The name we announced is Emil Thomas. I love the spelling. I love the name. But I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-25r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8025"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8038,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8025\/revisions\/8038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}