Most americans will mispronounce it the first time around, or perhaps forever. People won’t be able to spell it. People will call her Caroline.

To me, it’s too big of a burden to give a child. A million headaches for the rest of her life. Sorry Americans are dumb, but that’s the reality.

Beautiful name, but just name her Caroline.

I have a friend with this name and it is fine. Beautiful choice.

I love it, and only spelled that way. I think you should be prepared for people to pronounce it like the state, but they'll catch on. Also, if it suits her, you could nickname her Lina (pronounced Leena) and that will clue people in.

If the last name is Hispanic I wouldn’t hesitate to pronounce it caroleena. If it’s Carolina Johnson, I’d definitely pause.

OP here- thank you everyone, much better feedback than I was expecting! I am half Spanish and would like a semi Spanish name for our third, the first two have very Anglo names, but this isn't too far out there. DH is convinced people will mispronounce it but to me who cares? You just correct them once.

Don’t change the spell. You’ll have to correct people but it’s not big deal.

I’m a Caroline and people say Carolyn all the time or ask me if it’s “line”.

Do you have a cultural background that would pronounce it Caro-lean-a?

It's a beautiful name, use it and please don't change the spelling. It's beautiful the way it is, no need to butcher it.

This is a DC board, so it skews heavily SE USA, ie, people think of N and S Carolina right away. People in other areas of the country don’t think about these states much, if at all, so we would not default to that pronunciation. I live in the northeast and understood immediately how you wanted the name pronounced.

Anonymous wrote:I saw it and immediately thought it would be pronounced like the state. I think it would be a frequent occurrence, so if it would bother you, maybe don’t do it.

+1. 90% of people will pronounce it like the state. Could you spell it differently? Carolena? Caroleena?

It's very cute, BTW!

I saw it and immediately thought it would be pronounced like the state. I think it would be a frequent occurrence, so if it would bother you, maybe don’t do it.

I have an Italian/Spanish/Portuguese name, and it’s easy to manage because you usually say it first. She’ll occasionally correct people, but it’s ok.

I would use it.

No, that would not stop me but I'd be very purposeful early on to make sure all family and friends were pronouncing it correctly. Like get used to writing/saying "Her name is Carolina (pronounced Caro-lean-a)" for a while until you know they all have it. Once you've got that initial group on board, pronunciation issues like that get easier. You and she may need to correct people now and then, but it's not some crazy pronunciation, and lots of people will default to it.

There are lots of names that have slight pronunciation variations like this and people seem to handle them find (Jo-ann-ah versus Jo-hawn-a, or Keer-sten versus Kir-sten, both immediately spring to mind).

If you love the name, I don't think this should knock it out of contention.

My best friend is Carolina. When someone mispronounces her name, she corrects them. This doesn't happen too often.

What about spelling it Carolena?

Love this name but worried people would pronounce it Caro-lie-nah like the state. Would it stop you from using it?