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

[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.