So in my real life I am going by the name Eli, Eli Jurgen to be precise.  My girl name is the Queen's name, and I've always felt attached to the letter E.  So my name must start with an E. I chose Eli Jurgen all by myself, but now I've got others comments on my choice of name to take into consideration.

My tutor kept calling me Ellie, even tho I corrected her.  Now she has it right.  When I told her I was making a business card that said the artist known as.... is now Eli Jurgen lastname, she said people would think it was pronounced Ellie.  I think that is just her.

So then I thought I would go with Elliot, which was the name in my head for ages and a fav of mine.  I told my best mate and he wasn't into it because he got beat up by a guy called Elliot.


So I'm back at Eli.  What do you guys think? I mean its my name, but other people will be saying it mroe than me.  I don't want it to be seen as a cutesy nickname for my girlname.

ok. well i think it fits you.. and Eli is not a girly name.. my boyfriends brothers name is Eli.

and.. MY name is Elijah.. which gets shortened to Eli a lot.. and I really like it.. and I think others like saying it I guess lol.

I think that most people wont call you Ellie.. your tutor was probably just trying to make it girly because she just had the wrong idea.

I agree that the vast majority of people won't think that eli is pronounced ellie. Your tutor is just barmy.

I like the name Eli, I don't think it's feminine whatsoever even though it is the first letters of your birthname.

Yeah I like Eli heaps! I felt a bit bummed that my tutor said long afterwards that Eli would be confusing for anyone.  I don't find it that confusing.  It's a BOYS name!

I think my tutor is a bit barmy and she obviously doesn't understand a thing.  She gets thouroughly awkward during my presentations at school, its kinda funny.

I definitely see Eli as a fully male name. I can't imagine why people would pronounce it "Ellie".
If you're happy with your name then that's all that matters. It's gonna suck to change your name to something you don't like as much just for other people.

I know.  Ellie has two ls. And an ie.  I've never known someone called Ellie to spell it Eli. Weird. Anyway, I just wanted to complain.  I am at work at the library, I only work here casual and haven't for ages. So I feel crap having all these people call me by my girl name.  Need to do a mass outing but I'm hardly here anymore.  And I've been working here on and off for 10 years so I got a lot of history.

If you like your name (Eli), then stick with it.

I could be wrong as I don't know the full story with your tutor, but did she know you as a female first and then later as a male?  Or did you come out to her?

My thinking is, if she sees you as female, then she might think others see you as female too.  Because she saw Eli as "Ellie" and possibly thinks of you as a girl, then she probably thinks other people will read it, look at you, and think the same way she does.

Which is all a load of crap.  You definitely pass, bro.  Eli is a strong, masculine name and I think it suits you.

Thanks man. I am sticking with Eli, it is my name. My tutor had me down as my girlname on the roll and I am still pre T so my voice doesn't pass that great, but I told her from day one I wanted to be called Eli. She's getting it more now, but she's kinda batty.

I'm feeling weird weird cos I'm working for the first time in ages at the library.  I'm just a casual at the moment, but been working there for 10 years on and off so a lot of people know me from way back.  My mum used to work here too. I've been telling people one by one and introing myself to new people as Eli.  Going well so far, but I hate starting that conversation over and over again.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say, at first I read it as Ellie,  (actually, with the Swedish pronunciation Ay-lee) probably because I just finished reading Let the Right One In, in which one of the main characters is a girl named Eli.  (Actually, Eli is the girl name chosen by a character who was once a boy named Elias.) 

That being said, if you plan on going on T, the problem will likely sort itself out once your voice drops.  You'll probably get the odd "Ellie" from telemarketers, and the like, but who cares about them? 

I read it as Ellie too, I'm still not entirely sure on the right pronunciation ee-lie I am assuming?

Quote from: Jeatyn on May 22, 2010, 05:50:32 AM
I read it as Ellie too, I'm still not entirely sure on the right pronunciation ee-lie I am assuming?

That is the way I always heard it.

It might be the Jew in me, but I would never in a million years think to pronounce Eli as Ellie.

Quote from: Kvall on May 22, 2010, 06:36:04 AM
This may be a regional thing. Eli is a very male name in the US; not sure about anywhere else. I definitely read it as male. Maybe it's more androgynous where you live? Or perhaps it's just less common, so people may not have encountered it before.

Nah, Jeatyn isn't that far away from me.

I read it as Eli. Eeeh-Lie.

On a common silly mispronunciation note... I wrote down the copy for my legal notice. The lady read it back to me after she typed it up. Rowan... Mur... Marie? Ugh no? Seriously since when is Marie spelled Murray. I know I don't pass, but really?

I think I'm gonna go with Devin Scott, which is what my parents would have named me if I was born with a male body.  The Devin can be either male or female, which I like because it'll cut down on awkwardness, and the Scott is unmistakably male.  I had played around with having my Hebrew name as my middle name, but I think I'm gonna go with Abijah for my Hebrew name, and to the English eye, that looks kinda female.  Plus it's weird.  And it doesn't flow.

Yeah I live in New Zealand, so Eli is not the most common name.  I'm just gonna do a lot of correcting!

Devin: I tried to do the, "what would you have named me.." thing to my mum and she said she would have given me away if I was born a boy and SHE WAS SERIOUS 

She'll get used to it.

I've got the same birth/legal name. I didn't pick a name that was similar to my birth name. It was recently suggested by somebody I met fairly recently that I should/could do MILD birth name alterations (Elizabeth to Eli Collen to Collin). It's not my flavor and I had a name picked 3-4 years earlier. I read Eli as E-lie, nothing else. Some people have pronounced my chosen name incorrectly, and the name I picked originally was always pronounced incorrectly (the reason why I didn't keep it).
Kieran (supposed to be like Kee-ran) was always pronounced Karen, and Kyle as Kylee (Kai-lee).

I definitely read Eli as male, but I say it as "Ellie" like it's short for Eliot. I'm guessing you pronounce it "Eleigh," right? I'm from the U.S. so like somebody else mentioned, it could be a regional thing. The spelling is masculine to me either way, whereas I see Elli/Ellie/Elly in a different note.

So if you like it, keep it It's yours so you're the one who's gotta be happy with it.

My name is Khrushchev's except it's feminized with an a in place of the first i. I always found it ironic I'd have a boy's name over in Russia but where I live it's undoubtedly a girl's.

Quote from: elvistears on May 22, 2010, 04:11:41 PMDevin: I tried to do the, "what would you have named me.." thing to my mum and she said she would have given me away if I was born a boy and SHE WAS SERIOUS 

See, my parents really wanted a boy.  Every single one of us was a failed attempt at a having a boy (they ended up with four girls before giving up).  So my mother used to tell us all the time what our boy names were going to be and how she had to come up with our girl names on the spot because she was so planning for a boy.

I think Eli is really masculine, & if you like it that's all that should matter.
I understand where you're coming from though, I went through a period of wanting to change my name again because I'm sick of people thinking I'm saying Alison and some comments of how weird/childish(wtfff) my name is.

I really like your name I think you should keep it