My name is
Marisa. About 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the people I meet who don't hear my name first assume it is pronounced muh-REES-uh. I pronounce my name muh-RISS-uh but my mom had originally intended me to be muh-REES-uh but some how I became muh-RISS-uh, though my mother calls me by both pronunciations.
Even though my name is spelled
Marisa and I pronounce it muh-RISS-uh, if I met a person with the name
Marisa I would assume that it was pronounced muh-REES-uh and if I met a
Marissa I would assume that it is pronounced muh-RISS-uh since that is the most common way those two spellings are pronounced.
I have only ever met one other person who was
Marisa muh-RISS-uh. All the other muh-RISS-uh's I've met were spelled
Marissa. All of the muh-REES-uh's I've met were spelled
Marisa.
My point is I wouldn't worry about
Marisa being mispronounced as muh-RISS-uh very often. Take it from a person whose name is spelled
Marisa. Most people are going to correctly pronounce your child's name as muh-REES-uh if you spell it
Marisa.
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This message was edited 10/28/2012, 3:02 AM