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Help[Opinions] Louis Pronunciation Problem - What to do?
Louis is my favorite boy name, but it violates one of my personal qualifications for an ideal name, which is a pronunciation issue.
I suspect this pronunciation issue only exists in the US, where we often bastardize many cultural artifacts from other countries.
All of my life I thought it was pronounced LEW-IS in English and LEW-EE in French. After some research, I learned LEW-EE is the correct pronunciation in both languages.
I like the LEW-EE pronunciation so that is not the problem. What I see as the problem is that the LEW-IS mispronunciation is such a common mistake to the point that an American LEW-EE could suffer a life-time of constantly correcting his name from LEW-IS and might even come across as a little pretentious in the process.
I don't like Lewis because it clashes visually with my vowel-heavy Italian last name.
But I love Louis, and even like the correct pronunciation. In fact I think I like LEW-EE even more than LEW-IS.
I only knew of one Louis, and he went by Lou so I am unsure of how he pronounced his name.
So what would YOU do? Would you insist on the LEW-EE pronunciation, despite the constant corrections? Would you knowingly use the common mispronunciation just to save the kid the headache? Would you let your kid decide how he wants to pronounce the name? Or just abandon the name altogether?
I really love how Louis is classic, underused, and full of historical significance. I hate the thought of knowingly mispronouncing a name, but nevertheless want a name to be easy to bear.
I suspect this pronunciation issue only exists in the US, where we often bastardize many cultural artifacts from other countries.
All of my life I thought it was pronounced LEW-IS in English and LEW-EE in French. After some research, I learned LEW-EE is the correct pronunciation in both languages.
I like the LEW-EE pronunciation so that is not the problem. What I see as the problem is that the LEW-IS mispronunciation is such a common mistake to the point that an American LEW-EE could suffer a life-time of constantly correcting his name from LEW-IS and might even come across as a little pretentious in the process.
I don't like Lewis because it clashes visually with my vowel-heavy Italian last name.
But I love Louis, and even like the correct pronunciation. In fact I think I like LEW-EE even more than LEW-IS.
I only knew of one Louis, and he went by Lou so I am unsure of how he pronounced his name.
So what would YOU do? Would you insist on the LEW-EE pronunciation, despite the constant corrections? Would you knowingly use the common mispronunciation just to save the kid the headache? Would you let your kid decide how he wants to pronounce the name? Or just abandon the name altogether?
I really love how Louis is classic, underused, and full of historical significance. I hate the thought of knowingly mispronouncing a name, but nevertheless want a name to be easy to bear.
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