To not use proper spellings when naming your child

Oh well…that will teach me 😉

Like about 100 other posters!
😆

My fault for not RTFT!!

This is like cancel the cheque 🤣

Ah seriously 😂

Not if the parents are Polish. Totally normal spelling.

The majority of my clients are from Overseas, many from Asia.
The first time I speak to them I get them to tell me how to pronounce their name properly and what they prefer to be called. I write them down phonetically in their file and make damn sure I get it right to their faces.
Its not actually very hard to do if you want to.

No, it was clear you were just pointing out the hassle they created for themselves. It's just unfortunate that micro acts of racism (which this is) caused them to feel like they had to do that.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying spelling it Tina is an act of racism. However, once you have been corrected, it is a micro act of racism to not at least make an effort to spell/pronounce it correctly.

I have yet to meet an english person who can pronounce my name correctly. However, most try and that is all I ask. The person who informed me she preferred her pronunciation of my name and would continue to use that was, I believe, being racist. She was a lovely woman otherwise and would probably have been shocked if I told her that.

Yes i agree. It was just a bit strange that they "gave in" and used the English spelling as the known as name rather than keeping the spelling of their heritage. I'm all for learning and accepting the different heritage of others. I hope i didn't imply otherwise.

Or would have been easier for people to recognise that not all names that sound English are actually English.

I've just remembered a girl in my class at school whose birth name was Teena. Her parents were of Indian heritage and that's the more usual spelling there. But they had very quickly found it frequently misspelled as Tina, the better known spelling in the UK and started using Tina as her "known as" name.

Her name in the school register said Tina with a note in brackets "birth certificate name Teena". But her exam certificates, passport etc all said Teena. Would have been easier to change it by deed and make it official!

A friend at school was called Linda, I went to her house and her parents called her Ling. When I questioned it she said Ling was her name but her parents thought Linda would be easier.
No easier at all and a shame when people feel they have to use a different name to fit in in England, a Welsh friend did the same but his name was lovely and not difficult at all

My HK Chinese ex-flatmate and her siblings have English names, their parents definitely had an eye on their planned future there. But I know some of her friends were just given English names when they went to school, if they only had a Chinese name. Literally a teacher saying 'oh you don't have an English name? Ok your name's Nancy'. She had a HK Chinese friend called Rice and another called Cross. It's sad that families or children feel they need to change their name.

My irish nanna used to pronounce karl as carol🤣

I understand from HK Chinese friends that some people even pay a consultant to choose an English name for their Children when they send them to The UK for their education.
I was at Boarding school in the mid 80's with a HK Chinese Kenneth, Susan, Monica, Edward and Lawrence amongst others

This is where we differ. I accept they have a legal right, but I don’t accept that they have a moral right to impose their fanciful indulgences on a child when the cost of those choices are borne by the child.

So the salient point is that I don’t respect, at any level, a choice like this. Children have a number of protections in this country because they are seen as human beings and not the playthings of their parents.

what i mean is i respect peoples right to name their child as they please but i will still find it a odd choice but i wont be rude about it to them.

Although people have weird naming conventions ultimately the child will change their name when their older anyway

I do feel sorry for them though

Lots of south Asian and Turkish boys are named Aran. I don’t even think it’s intended as the same name as Aaron (which I’ve only ever known to be pronounced as “arun”), it’s just a coincidence that it sounds the same.

I have to live with such a name and unfortunately it's a little more complicated than just changing it by deed poll in my specific case. It's not as dramatic as some of the examples here, but it does cause a number of issues.

I'd urge any parent to rethink what they are doing to their child, both in the short and in the long run. As a child, it was upsetting to never find a pen or keyring with my name on it (I was born at a time where personalisation was not as much of a thing as it is now). My teachers always mis-spelled my name and that was annoying. My name is not only mis-spelled but also the shortened version of a longer name, which is more common (like Val instead of Valerie) and I've often been mistakenly called by the longer version.

As an adult, I have to correct people on pronunciation and spelling on a regular basis, but more importantly, I've had a number of official documents being issued in the wrong name (for example my council tax bill) and I've had to spend time sorting this out over and over, but more importantly, I've once been denied a parcel because the name on it didn't fully match my ID.

Everyone tells me how wonderful and unique my name is, while they are probably secretly thinking the opposite. I've always hated my name and had a long phase as a teen and young adult going by a completely invented alternative.

But this is the point. It’s not your goat that’s floating - it’s the child’s. It’s them that has to endlessly spell out their names for their whole lives, deal with arseholes at school etc.

The child pays the price for the parent’s tacky whimsy.

I stand corrected. I think my friend's family must have been quite wealthy because they sent their children to England to be educated. This was in 1980.

Everyone i know pronounces it like Arran. But then I'm in Scotland where Karl is Carol.

I loathe Aaron (pron. Airon) being spelled and pronounced as if it was the Isle of Aran. It's not.

France has laws about names you are allowed to call your child - their is a list (and has been for centuries, I think). If you want a non-French name or a name not on the list you have problems. I think registrars should have a duty to point out stupid names or embarrassing ones. e.g. Chlamydia for a girl (not unknown in the US, apparently).

That's definitely not an Irish spelling.

According to Google, its origin is unknown but possibly hawaii or Polynesia.