Others calling your child whatever they want

Our daughter's name is Aurelia. Mine and DH's family cannot grasp this at all. It's not a made up name. To me, it looks like it sounds.

I feel like if people can say Aurora or Amelia or Cecilia, they can say Aurelia. AW-RAYLEE-UH. Due to the various southern accents we have locally, Ah, Uh and Oh pronunciation of the AU don't bother us, those are subtle. We don't even mind Raylee-Uh being crammed together to get "Railyuh"!!! We have coached people numerous times -- for months. I have sent audio files of me saying the name, I have made a smurfing jingle that rhymes Aurelia with "Australia" so that it's easy to remember (Who the hell can't say Australia?!). We even shorten it to Raylee pretty often which rhymes with my name, so I know they can pronounce that!

I don't mind if they come up with fun nicknames for her like munchkin, sugarbooger, princess, newbie. But much of our family insists on using her middle name to avoid the first name and it is irritating the hell out of me D: If we wanted that to be her first name, that's how we'd have named her!! So frustrated right now!!!

I get you are frustrated, honestly i had to read the name in my head a few times. How old is she?

Looks like Au-real-iya.

I would say it Oar-El-E-Uh. How does that rhyme with Australia?

i would pronounce this "aw-REEL-yuh"..... that's how it looks to me. is this how people are doing it wrong? because the way it's spelled it would make a REE sound, not a RAY. imo.

What's her middle name. Just correct them. If they say if re peat her name to them.

Gavin's great grandparents (husband yaya) put gavino on a card to him. They have never said it out loud but if they were to I'd correct them. Annoying tho that people just can't do something easy.

Honestly that is not an easy name to say and does not look like you said it's pronounced.

Quoting Mandy and her girls!~:" I would say it Oar-El-E-Uh. How does that rhyme with Australia?"

This is how I was saying it...
And OP even with the way you sounded it out.. I still can't say it lol.

It sucks, but i guess it comes with the territory of having a somewhat phonetically ambiguous name.

You can pick a name, but you cannot dictate how people will pronounce the syllables.. I mean, you can explain, just doesn't mean it will catch up.

And even though I absolutely understand your frustration, especially with them using her middle name.. I'm just not sure of what you can do the remedy the situation

Tell them that they need to learn to start calling her by her first name because you don't want her to get confused. Tell them it's either Aurelia or Raylee or a nickname like peanut or whatever they come up with. My mom started people on calling my daughter Harli and I HATED it. I finally told them "Her name is Harlow, not Harli. If I wanted people to call her Harli that's what I would have named her" They finally just started to give her nicknames and stopped with the atrocious Harli smurf.

Aurelia is beautiful, btw.

Quoting Buzz and Almond Joys momm:" Honestly that is not an easy name to say and does not look like you said it's pronounced."

this. You did not make it easy on them  

I've never known how to pronounce that name lol

It looks like a harder name but it's your choice and so people will have to respect that. Tell them you wish them to use her first name and if that's too much for them, then use a nickname. Have them understand what you wish from them. I think they'll do it after you show them you're serious. (:b

It's a beautiful name. I can see why they have a hard time saying it but give it time & keep repeating it so they can catch on. The spelling doesn't make it easy to sound out so hearing often might help them to get the hang of saying it. Very pretty name though.

Considering you've gone to great lengths to explain how it's pronounced, there's really no excuse. I can see if they've never seen the name, never heard it, etc. Then maybe it's forgivable for them to screw it up. But choosing to call her by her middle name to avoid saying the first name? That's just lazy. I would continue correcting when they call her by her middle name instead of her first. That's just ridiculous.