A mum-to-be has asked for advice on the name she and her partner have picked for their daughter, as she’s worried she’s ‘doomed’ her to a life of correcting people
Picking out the perfect baby name can be a source of anxiety for many parents.
While some have their heart set on a name long before their bundle of joy makes an entrance, others are frantically searching for that perfect moniker right up to the last minute. But what happens when you’re not quite sure about the baby name even after your little one has arrived?
This is the worry plaguing one mum-to-be, who’s due to give birth in mere days through induced labour. She’s nearly settled on the name Isla for her daughter, but there’s a catch – she’s concerned that people won’t realise the ‘S’ is silent.
Sharing her dilemma on Reddit, the expectant mother wrote: “Our first daughter’s name is Ava and we think Isla goes well for our new baby. The problem is the silent S. People say they keep wanting to call her ‘Isis’!! Or they want to pronounce the S. We want it to be pronounced like ‘Island’ where the S is silent.
“We already have a silent S in our last name that people butcher. Our last name is similar to this: Quesmal. You’d pronounce it Kwa-mal, but people say Kwes-mal. Now I’m worried about people pronouncing both silent Ss. People are saying to change the spelling to Ila or Eila, but that just looks weird to me.”
The woman expressed that she “thought people generally understood” how to pronounce Isla, noting the influence of celebrities like Isla Fisher. However, after hearing several botched attempts at saying it, she fears she might be “dooming” her daughter to constantly correcting people.
Debates erupted online over the name’s pronounceability. Some commenters suggested Isla is well-known enough for its pronunciation to be generally recognised, yet others feared persistent confusion. And those who were against the moniker recommended she opt for a simpler name to avoid issues.
One advocate for Isla advised: “It’s a very, very popular name in multiple countries right now. I would say most people know how to say it by now. If you won’t do Isla, I think Anna or Ella would work well with her big sister’s name. But I say go for Isla, it is a beautiful name.”
Conversely, another commenter admitted: “I would absolutely pronounce this with the s – Eez-lah, as in island in Spanish. It simply would never occur to me to pronounce it another way, to be honest.”
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