"th" names a problem

@excitedemmi you have to stick your tongue out quite far and put your top teeth (teef) on your tongue.

Hadn't thought about this! Where I used to live, 'th' was 'f' and the 't' sound didn't exist. My Nana despised it when people missed out the T in my name! I solved it by moving to a place where 'ee' is pronounced 'eh' instead. Ha.

Hadn't thought about this! Where I used to live, 'th' was 'f' and the 't' sound didn't exist. My Nana despised it when people missed out the T in my name! I solved it by moving to a place where 'ee' is pronounced 'eh' instead. Ha.

Same, my DH and I moved to Essex so now we have to practice saying all potential names in an Essex accent!. Most of my friends here have said they've avoided "th" names

Yep. I live in Essex and no one seems able to pronounce Th properly apart from me (lm not from Essex). I’ve already said to my partner Feo isn’t a name we could ever consider

I have a Theo. He's 18 now. But I remember him coming home from school (reception or year 1. Can't recall) and saying, "Mummy, you've been spelling my name wrong. It's F-E-O. My friends told me."

Yes! My name ends in 'th' and sounds horrible when people pronounce it with an 'f'. My DH is not British and struggles with that sound (he calls me by a nickname instead ) as would most other foreigners as it's not a common sound in other languages except Greek maybe?

DH's brother is Theodore but has always gone by Ted for this exact reason.

DS1 talks endlessly about "me best mate feo" at preschool but he also pronounces trousers as "trazziz" so I have no hope.

With my accent I usually turn th in to f, but always make a conscious effort to say the th's in names because I don't like butchering names.

Where we live is the reason DS1 isn't called Xavier. When I suggested it, DH just called out "zzaaavvvviiyyaaaahhh" as that's how it would be shouted across the playground and I couldn't bear to hear that day in and day out.

God yes.
I’m 31weeks and have had to rule out all ‘th’ names due to DP’s inability to pronounce it properly.
His parents never corrected him as a child, so I’m trying to change 35 years of bad habits. It’s not working. But I could not bear him butchering a name with ‘th’ in it every time he said it.

@ZebraKid71 yes to this! We’re South Yorkshire and really wanted to call DD Harriet until we told the in laws and FIL said - no I’m not keen on arriat 😭😭

My favourite boy's name is Theo, and for my husband it's Arthur. Unfortunately, I can't pronounce "TH" to this day. Despite my sister trying to coach me our entire lives and determining that I'm lazy! I'm really not lazy! Free/three is really the bain of my existence!

However, if we have a son, my husband has already named him Arthur..... so he better get used to Ar-fuh? SORRY! :(

My dh says f instead of th. It drives me crazy, so much so that he now says bird fur instead of feathers .
I liked Seth but no way with dhs laziness. He's not even a Londoner.

I live in Yorkshire and I would 100% be put off a name because of it. In the same way I probably wouldn't use a name that started with 'H' as it just gets dropped so often near me.

God yes, awful to hear names massacred like that. Like people who say free instead of three. Awful.

My DD pronounces th as f, due to hearing issues she doesn’t hear any difference. It’s made looking for a name for this baby a lot harder. We liked heather but she said it as heffa and that put me right off.

I don't generally like names that begin with a 'th'.

It can be a weak, lispy sound like in Thea/Theo which I really don't like, or be mispronounced as 'f' depending on accent.

I don't mind it in the middle of a name, eg Arthur, Catherine, Dorothy.

I don't like it on the end of a name, eg Ruth, Keith.

I have a teenage Theo and it has never been a problem although it could depend on your location!

Yep, I can’t pronounce th and it sounds ridiculous as my accent is very queen’s English otherwise, so I avoided it in names.

I have a norf London accent. I avoided th and ph names.

Pity really as I have always loved Sophie for a girl.

I went to school with a Caff. She didn't like being called Cath as she thought it sounded posh! It wouldn't put me off, but I can understand your concern.

Don't overfink it.

Yes, we considered this. Arfa and Marfa are quite different to Arthur and Martha. We have family in the north-west and I'm not fond of the way that the regional accent renders names ending with an -ee sound into -eh, so we avoided these too.

My husband particularly hates the f for th sound yes and I do agree it would put me off choosing say Theo especially in an area where fick and fin is prevalent! It drives him mad ! He'll say do you say the ? Well then you can pronounce it properly 😂🤣he points out the Americans never do that - which you may notice now ! In a way it's ok for a cockney to do that because that's their regional
Accent but now so many other areas do it as well 🙈

Feo and Fea are awful

Fia with an F is a lovely name.