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  • Hello everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

  • Today, I've got a pronunciation video for you.

  • I'm going to teach you how to pronounce ten commonly mispronounced girls' names.

  • So, I've got ten of the most popular names in the UK that are commonly mispronounced.

  • So, if you have any of these names yourself,

  • you're going to have to say it a million times on the phone,

  • spell it out for people,

  • correct people.

  • Sometimes you might get so bored of it that you don't even bother correcting people any more.

  • So, let me know if you have this name and how you deal with people mispronouncing it all the time.

  • Now, some of these are mispronounced because there are various different ways of pronouncing them.

  • So, I will go through those and if I miss any out,

  • comment down below.

  • So, this video is a pronunciation lesson.

  • If you want to improve your speaking and pronunciation even further,

  • a great alternative to reading books is listening to audiobooks.

  • And you can read the book at the same time as listening.

  • And you can hear how the words are pronounced.

  • You can get 30 days for free on Audible.

  • That's a whole free audiobook of your choosing.

  • The link is in the description box,

  • along with some of my audiobook recommendations if you want to learn the British English accent.

  • And I've got some recommendations for American as well.

  • Let's get started with the lesson.

  • The first one is this one.

  • So, the official pronunciation of this name is Siobhan,

  • but obviously, you can name your baby whatever you want to name it.

  • So, if you want to call it Siobhan, that is absolutely fine.

  • It's a lovely name as well.

  • I think I actually had more Siobhans in my year at school than I did Siobhans.

  • Yeah, you can call it what you want,

  • but commonly mispronounced, so be careful.

  • The next one is a gorgeous name.

  • I absolutely love this name.

  • It is this one.

  • And the 'S' is silent.

  • And this causes some confusion.

  • It should be Isla.

  • Isla.

  • I think I just love any name with like the /ai/ sound in it.

  • I think it's so beautiful.

  • Isla.

  • Now, the next one is actually a combination of two names.

  • And this is mispronounced purely because people misread it.

  • So, we've got Kristin and Kirstin.

  • Kristin, Kirstin.

  • But yes, a number of times I've emailed someone called Kristin,

  • and I've greeted them as Kirstin.

  • And it gets a bit embarrassing.

  • So yeah, be extra, extra careful over Kristin and Kirstin.

  • Number four, there is no right or wrong with this one.

  • You can say Eva, or you can say Eva.

  • The best thing to do is just ask.

  • Number five, much like Eva or Eva,

  • is Kyra or Kyra.

  • With this particular spelling, it could be either or.

  • It could be either Kyra or Kyra.

  • But with other spellings, it could be a little bit more clear.

  • The next one, another one where you really should just ask.

  • Is it Mia or is it Mia?

  • Who knows.

  • Ask the poor person.

  • The next one is confusing purely because it has three vowels in a row.

  • Oh my God.

  • It should be pronounced Gaia, Gaia.

  • But I'm pretty sure there will be someone in the world that calls it Gaia.

  • Actually, on that line of thought, one of my school teachers was actually called Gay,

  • which comes from the meaning happy.

  • But yeah, bit of a shame, actually.

  • It's not a name that I hear so frequently nowadays.

  • Next one!

  • Anything containing "Leigh" spelled like this.

  • So it could Leigh on its own or It could be Ashleigh.

  • People who have this in their name frequently complain of being called "lay" or Ash "lay", etc.

  • Next, we have this one.

  • Now, obviously it depends on the parent.

  • This one should actually be Kaia, like in Maia.

  • But some people might pronounce it by saying Kaia.

  • And the last one is this one.

  • Again, it depends on the parent.

  • It could be Layla, or it could be Layla.

  • I personally prefer Layla because it's got that /ai/ sound in it,

  • which I think is so beautiful.

  • Right, guys.

  • That's it for today's video.

  • I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something.

  • Those were ten popular girls' names that are commonly mispronounced.

  • Comment below if you have a name that is often said or spelled incorrectly.

  • Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.

  • I have my Facebook. I have my Instagram. And I have my Twitter.

  • And I will see you soon for another lesson.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

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