Anyone else find it incredibly weird how Norrington knew Elizabeth since she was a child?

Well hundreds of years when this takes place, it was common for an older guy like that to marry a younger person. Personally I myself am 34 years old and would rather date someone much younger than me since every woman my age who is in my area does not agree with me religiously or politically.

Back then it was normal for marriages among the nobility to be arranged as far back as from birth. Not that he would have had long to wait, she looked like she was about to hit puberty by the time she got on his ship anyway.

It's true, it was common for girls to marry men older than themselves, because men couldn't marry until they were established, and upper-class girls were considered eligible as soon as they hit puberty. But most young people married within their parents' social circle, they'd marry neighbors or the sons or daughters of their parents' friends, or (ew) their own cousins.

And ambitious men like Norrington would definitely have an eye out for the daughters of anyone who could help his career, or for heiresses like Elizabeth. Money was always left to the sons in those days, the only time a girl would inherit real money instead of just a dowry, was when she was an only child like Elizabeth.

the OP issue wasn't so much the age gap as the fact that he'd known her as a child.
If Norrington had only met Elizabeth when she was a young adult and he was 10 years or whatever older, it wouldn't have been weird. It's the fact that he's known her since she was a child when he was already an adult that makes it seem highly inappropriate to me as well. I'm just glad someone else has mentioned this!

Your username suggests that you find it appealing. Just sayin'

Let's think about this:

Norrington was probably 16 or 17 in the first scene we see him in, whereas Elizabeth Swann was 8. That means that he is 8 or 9 years older than her in the story. At that time in his life, he probably was not thinking much about her beyond his job, and probably saw her the same way an older brother would see an annoying little sister he was forced to baby-sit. I doubt he was harboring thoughts of pedophilia at the time.

Also keep in mind that they did not know each other until Elizabeth was traveling across the Atlantic with her dad to move to their new home in Jamaica. They did not spend more than 2 months on the same ship, and I doubt they associated with each other closely at all. She probably didn't see Norrington again for years after setting foot in Jamaica after that trip.

The dialogue in the film indicates that the story moves forward 8 years, and Elizabeth is 16 when the main story starts. That means, if Commodore Norrington is 8 or 9 years older than her, that also means he is 24 or 25 in the main story. Not much of an age gap for those times. Don't be fooled by the white wig either. It was pretty normal for men of his age and station to wear white or powdered wigs, particularly in the 1700s. Didn't matter if his own hair had not turned gray yet.

The real reason anyone should hate him is because he's snooty, stuck up, selfish, a misogynist, has narcissistic tendencies, he's jealous that a lowly blacksmith has his fiance's attention more than him, and loves to show off. He's more concerned with self-image more than anything, and the only reason he had Elizabeth rescued after she fainted and fell into the ocean was because it would reflect badly on him if she died due to his negligence, not because he was concerned about her.

I doubt thoughts of pedophilia ever entered his head at any point in the movie. In fact, the only person who seems to harbor such thoughts or to bring them up at all is the OP.