On two names

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

*note my boyfriend and I are not pregnant and are not going to be any time soon so this is for speculative purposes*


My boy and I were visiting his grandmother in Montreal for the last couple of days. While we were there she took out this old box of papers, a wedding certificate written on the fly before escaping Poland, passports etc. So she was reminiscing and she mentioned that when she was pregnant with Ben's Uncle she had wanted a girl and was going to name him Leah after her mother (instead she named Arje, Polish for Aryeh I think. But everyone calls him Libi which I guess is where the similarity to Leah comes in, since she pronounced Leah like "LIE-AH").
The point of bringing that up is that my boyfriend and I agree on very few girls names but Leah (pronounced Lay-uh) is one that we had decided we both liked previous to knowing about his great grandmother. Also we are big on the idea of naming our future children in honour of people who died in the Holocaust. So it may be our new top girls name.


Another person I want to honour is my grandmother. She is 87 now and quite frail and as much as it upsets me to think about it, I doubt she will still be living when I have children.
My grandmother's name is Elfriede (though she goes by Frieda now).
I think it is a really pretty name to look at but not a pretty name to say so I'm torn on whether or not to use it for a middle name (not necessarily with Leah).
So what do you think of the name Elfriede (pronounced el-FREE-deh or el-FREE-dah)?
Is it too old ladyish/German/strange/whatever to give a little girl?

Comments

[ladyartemisa.livejournal.com]

i love the name leah... it was my one of my faves before I got married but my husband's exwife's name is leah.. so it was out of the question.

bummer.

about the other name.. my #1 name right now I frieda so i am more partial to that name than to the Elfriede name, I do find Elfriede a little oldish.. but Frieda is oldish as well and I love it.

[ladyartemisa.livejournal.com]

*my #1 name right now is frieda
my typing skills suck right now.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

Maybe Friede would be better because that what she actually goes by. Also Frieda means "joy" and that is sweet. Like I said Elfriede looks romantic but sounds old ladyish.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

durr I meant Frieda not Friede

[ladyartemisa.livejournal.com]

i thought it meant peace?

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

well it means peace and joy according to babynames.com

[springtide-hfa.livejournal.com]

babynames.com isn't reliable.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

it's what I had on hand

[ladyartemisa.livejournal.com]

neither of those names are hideous.. and they are beautiful and meaningful to you... so either would work.

[mommybug.livejournal.com]

First, be prepared for EVERYONE to misprounce your version of Leah. That would typically be prounounced "Lee-uh" or "Lee." Your pronounciation would likely be spelled Laya or Leia (like in Star Wars?!).

I'm not a fan of Elfriede -- sounds like an old woman.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

it's not "my" version it's the Hebrew version. But yeah I'm sure alot of people will say it wrong.
Everyone spells and says my first and last name wrong anyhow and it doesn't bother me... But it is something to think about it.

Thanks for your thoughts on Elfriede as well, I'm still totally on the fence on that one.

[lovablemess.livejournal.com]

My name is Leah, pronounced Lee-uh, and I get it mispronounced Lay-uh A LOT. So, that's my imput which is the opposite of yours. Haha.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

wow, that makes me happy. Not that people say your name wrong, but, well that people say it wrong that's right for me...you know what I mean.

[mrsduryee.livejournal.com]

If you name your daughter Leah, she'll forever be correcting people to say Lay-uh. You should spell it Leia, like the princess, for that spelling.

Frieda is sweet in a interesting way. For a middle name, I think it's LOVELY.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm totally kidding myself that if we tell people how to pronounce it, like family members and teachers, it will take care of the problem.
I really want to use the Hebrew pronunciation of Leah and it is easier for people to say than some other names I like (Chaya).
Then again, I don't want to give my future child a name that becomes annoying to them.
Then again, I know what it's like to have everyone say your name wrong and it hasn't really had a negative effect on me or bothered me. So I'm hoping my future child will feel the same way as me about it. But who can say, I guess.

Thanks for your vote for Frieda

[mrsduryee.livejournal.com]

So the Hebrew pronunciation IS Lay-uh?

Now I am bothered that everyone says Lee-uh for Leah. Lay-uh is so much prettier IMO. :D

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

yes.
LOL I think it's prettier too.

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

I think correcting people might help. Some adults get REALLY stuck in their ways though. I had a teacher who mispronounced my last name (which granted, isn't really spelled like it sounds) every single day, despite me correcting him. He was the football coach also, so he tended to call everyone by their last names.

It's certainly not the end of the world though. I'm glad to be getting rid of my last name, but it didn't kill me to correct people. If nothing else, it made for amusing times sitting around with family comparing who had encountered the worst spelling/pronounciation. The best was when people spelled it wrong as I was spelling it out to them.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

People always say my last name wrong too and it is really funny because I think it's obvious how to say my last name.
It's Madeley - Made-lee, but no one ever can pronounce it.

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

I probably would have said Mad-eh-lee the first time. I think my last name would be better spelled Kaiten or something. But no. Cs and Os for me. "Miss...Cat...on? Kuh-tawn? Carton? Canton? Cotten? Cat-in?"

Oh well, easy way to tell if someone's a telemarketer.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

yeah people most often say Madly. Or sometimes I do get Mad-uh-lee, or Ma-DEL-ee.
But you're right about telemarketers, if someone calls asking for Audrey Madly (my name is Aubrey) I know it's a telemarketer.
It's really surprising when reading my name from a sheet of paper how many people pause for a few seconds and then say "Audrey". I want to say, that is not a backwards D people, it's a B!
But yeah when I get married my last name will be Schifman, I think it has less room for error in pronounciation, though everyone always spells it wrong.

[imyourrapunzel.livejournal.com]

Elfriede looks hard to pronounce, and I don't like the name. I do really like Frieda though.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

it seems the majority think that Frieda is the way to go. One of the reasons I was tottering between the two is because I wouldn't want to use a first and middle name that both begin with an "a" and most girl names I like end in "a".

[trissyd.livejournal.com]

Leah is "Lee-AH" IMO.

I know a girl named "Callie"... but it's meant to be pronounced "Kelly"... she's 22 and gave up on correcting people like 10 years ago, now she goes by "Cali". To me, the thought is nice, but in reality it'd be much better if you found an alternative spelling that gets across the pronounciation that you want. You'd still be naming her after a relative, just with a more "social friendly" spelling.

It's a beautiful name though :)!

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

Am I the only person that thinks if somebody mispronounces your name you correct them and move on?
It just doesn't seem like that big a deal to me.
But everyone seems to agree with you so maybe I need to think about it some more.

[springtide-hfa.livejournal.com]

If somebody mispronounces your your name daily, I'm sure I'd go insane. It is a big deal, considering I'm a person who gets her name mispronounced constantly.

[xanya.livejournal.com]

No no, that's what I think. You just say "no, actually, it's..." and that's the end of the problem. People are forever pronouncing my sister's name wrong and she corrects them and then everything is fine. I personally think everyone's reacting to this "problem" too strongly.

What's more, the Hebrew pronounciation of Leah is very easy to say and easy to remember that it's different after being told once, so, yes, not really seeing the extreme issue here. I think it's lovely!

I think Elfriede is also a very nice name, and if you think it doesn't work once you have your kid, then just permanently change it to Friede.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

thank you!

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem like a big deal to me either.

But then again, I'm one of the multitudes of 20-something Jessicas and that never killed me either.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

thanks!
I totally didn't think it was a big deal at all until people started saying it here.
If a peer says your name wrong you correct them and then they know, if a stranger says it wrong, what do you care.

[elemmennope.livejournal.com]

Leah is nice, but it would be difficult to say it LAY-uh. Lee-uh is by far the accepted pronunciation imo.

I think Elfriede is a really interesting and pretty name. I really like it a lot!

[thunderofsins.livejournal.com]

I don't like Elfriede or Frieda, but if it was a family name Frieda might grow on me (just as the family name Ruth has). Certainly I'd think about it for a middle name.

I like Leah as LEE-uh and Leia for LAY-uh but I know that depends on where you're from...accents, etc. so it'd be OKAY but she'd have to clarify more-so than someone who people were just clueless to the pronunciation

[hygher.livejournal.com]

I've always thought leah was lay-uh because that's how it's pronounced in the bible.

[ladyartemisa.livejournal.com]

well the bible doesnt really come with a soundtrack so we arent really sure of that either... i have heard the leah from the bible pronounced both ways.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

isn't the Hebrew language kind of the soundtrack to the Bible?

[ladyartemisa.livejournal.com]

yes but the spoken and the written hebrew language are both still up for debate because of the fact that the language made little to no use of vowels.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

The Masoretes added vowel markings in 600 A.D. If people have been using the same vowel sounds since 600 A.D. in Biblical Hebrew that's good enough for me.

[-door-.livejournal.com]

Elfriede is kind of awesomely old ladyish... I kind of like it because it makes me think of Frieda which makes me think of Frida Kahlo and I think she is neat.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

cool!

[neroli.livejournal.com]

I have only known one Leah personally, and she pronounced it LAY-uh, so I was surprised when I first heard that some people pronounce it LEE-uh. It's just what you are used to.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

Yaay! I'm glad to see this perspective.

[marije.livejournal.com]

I don't like Frieda at all - that's very old lady like to me! Maybe because I grew up near Germany and it was a common name for older women.

Elfriede is quite rare, and I think it would make a lovely middle name.

[opalfirefly.livejournal.com]

when i had a friend named Leah when I was younger, she pronounced it Lee-uh
the spelling Leia has always been to me pronounced Lay-uh b/c of the Star Wars movie

[anapology.livejournal.com]

I pronounce Leah like Lee-uh.

I really love it, especially as a nn for Amelia.