Name pronunciation debate/ Vent

Katm89

 Hi Guy,
So my husband and I have had names picked out for FOREVER. I just found out that our hypothetical daughters name is pretty controversial and now I am second guessing using it but I am so in love with it. Our two names we have been set on are: Atom Davis( for a boy) and Halley Florence( for a girl). We picked Halley after "Halley's comet" but I just looked up reviews of the name and some people believe the comet to be wrongfully pronounced and actually be pronounced like Valley. We really want it to be pronounced like Hailey but we want it to be after the comet to invoke the image. This is the only name DH has agreed on for a girl and we love it deeply but I read that if a child's name is often mispronounce and spelled wrong they will have a harder time with reading comprehension and do bad in school. Help!? What do you guys think? I know our names probably won't be anyone's taste lol, but I am more curious about how you believe the comet is pronounced. Apparently its old english from the 1600s and is believed to be pronounced both ways.

Disneygeek77

I would pronounce Halley to rhyme with valley.

I have a common name, but an unusual spelling.  I personally don't like it as I am constantly correcting people on the spelling and pronunciation.  Trust me, it gets so old and I would probably have it legally changed it it wouldn't cause more problems.  

penelope4612

You might want to try posting this on the Baby Names board, as you might get more feedback.

I have heard Halley pronounced both ways.  I don't know enough about it to tell you want the "correct" pronunciation is.  You may have to correct people and/or deal with people telling you you're pronouncing it wrong, and it's up to you if you'll care about this or not.  I don't think your child is going to do poorly in school because of the way her name is spelled.  

Katm89

Thanks! I will repost there, I didn't know about that board.

vampbride99

I've heard it pronounced both ways, but I've heard it pronounced more as the version that rhymes with Valley, which is the way I would pronounce her name.

The major thing you would have with naming her that is the constant correction of how to pronounce and also perhaps the spelling.  My name is Danielle and 9 out of 10 people can't spell it let alone say it at times *sigh*...so I can imagine what would happen with her.  Despite that, I don't think that she would have any problems in school because of any difficulties with the name.

lalala2004

I'm not gonna lie, I'm more confused by Atom than Halley. Wouldn't people just think it's Adam when they heard it out loud?

Xstatic3333

I've also heard it both ways, but would be tempted to go with the " Hailey" spelling and pronunciation because I think it's less likely to be mispronounced. Some people take the constant correcting in stride, but others can get really frustrated. I also think it has no bearing on school performance, though. My best friend is named Lindsay and gets really fired up when people spell it with an -e, but she still did awesome in school.

Katm89

Yea, J and I got so frustrated that it has both ways of saying it and I kind of mourned the name. I hate the valley pronunciation because it reminds me of Halle berry and it sounds horrid with Florence which is non-negotiable because its a family name. We talked this morning and J found the name Rhea( ray-uh), its a moon of saturn and I like that alot and we would call her Ray for a nick name. I am sure people would mispronounce this too but not as bad.

Xstatic3333

Katm89 said:

Yea, J and I got so frustrated that it has both ways of saying it and I kind of mourned the name. I hate the valley pronunciation because it reminds me of Halle berry and it sounds horrid with Florence which is non-negotiable because its a family name. We talked this morning and J found the name Rhea( ray-uh), its a moon of saturn and I like that alot and we would call her Ray for a nick name. I am sure people would mispronounce this too but not as bad.

I like Rhea! Very pretty.

Katm89

thanks! I really do too

Katm89

@lalala2004 Yea most people would just think its Adam when hearing it, but I still love it. My DH and I came up with it during a 15 hr car ride and thought we "invented" it and then we saw a more that was directed by and Atom... and we were shocked! and I looked it up and even though it is rare it is used and in the top 4000 names in the US

lalala2004

Katm89 said:

@lalala2004 Yea most people would just think its Adam when hearing it, but I still love it. My DH and I came up with it during a 15 hr car ride and thought we "invented" it and then we saw a more that was directed by and Atom... and we were shocked! and I looked it up and even though it is rare it is used and in the top 4000 names in the US

Not to mention you can't exactly "invent" something that already exists as a word. As long as your last name isn't bomb, I guess it's not too bad ;-)

RachelT1234

Rhea is very pretty! I had a coworker named Rhea and I really can't think of any instances where someone mispronounced her name.

ArtlessIbex

FWIW, I know a girl named Halley (like valley), and people are always calling her "Halley, Hayley, whatever" when they mention her.  And those are people who work with her, so really there's no excuse for not knowing her name pronunciation. 

Their rudeness aside, it seems that this would be a name that is easy to mispronounce and might lead to a lot of explaining about the origin.

I do like Rhea, though.

Katm89

@artlesslbex We decided Rhea is our girl choice right now, we really like it. DH loves it.. he told some other couple that we picked out a girl name just in case and told them the name. I was shocked... usually he hates names