plunderb:The pronunciation of this name makes me nervous. I say JAH-duh, but then I get all paranoid about being hyper-correct, like when I pronounce words like ricotta and mozzarella around my husband's non-Italian family. So I would be tempted to just say jee-AH-duh just to fit in. But that makes me nervous too because it's not really right.
Long story short, I think it's a beautiful name, but I can't use it because I overthink things.
I'm totally with you on this! I grew up calling tomato sauce gravy (South Philly Italian thing) and have pretty much switched to saying sauce because everyone would always comment about it being weird. Same with Italian pronunciations - even though I know the proper way, I often adapt to the Americanized version.
We're using Giovanna for a middle name, and even though I pronounce it Jo-VAHN-nuh, I feel like I might say Gee-oh-VAHN-nuh just to "fit in" and not have people think I'm mispronouncing my own kid's name!
I do like Giada, though, and if you love it I could see overlooking the pronunciation issues.