Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

"th" names a problem

33 replies

palmsandwine · 20/08/2020 09:38

I may be over thinking this but has anyone ever been put off a th name because of the way people pronounce th as 'f'?

I never really gave it a thought until Stacey in Eastenders named her baby Arthur but he never got called anything other than arfff-ah

2 of my favourite boys names are Theo and Arthur. I also like Thea for a girl but I do worry about people calling him "Fee-oh." Anyone else think like this??

I am a chronic over thinker. I talked my way out of Rory because I worried in case my child struggled saying their R's. Lots of names have an R and i would still use them but I thought two R's would just be too irritating for a child with a speech impediment 😬

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
bubblebubblebubbletrouble · 20/08/2020 17:55

I wish I'd thought about this before I'd named dd1.
It makes me cringe everything one of her friends yells Befffff

sweetnosugar · 20/08/2020 17:50

Theo and Thea are fabulous names imo!
I don’t know anyone who pronounces the ‘th’ as a ‘f’. I know many Arthur’s in my DC’s schools and their names are always pronounced correctly.
Just choose a name you like, not because of regional accents.. (or laziness when speaking, don’t mean to offend!)

RemyHadley · 20/08/2020 16:47

I have a name that I actually couldn’t say properly until I was in my late teens - took a lot of speech therapy to get there, and meant I used a nickname constantly until then! I did take that into account when choosing names - my children’s names don’t have R, Th, or S as I just didn’t want them to have the same issue.

I think if there’s an obvious nickname that you’re happy with then it’s ok to use a Th/R/S name though.

DuckonaBike · 20/08/2020 16:41

Both my DC have names with “th” sounds in them, and I’ve never heard anyone pronounce them with a “f” sound instead. I would just pick the name you like. Arthur is a lovely name. And Eastenders is (fortunately) not real life.

Pippilangstrumpfie · 20/08/2020 16:35

Many can't or can't be bothered to pronounce TH correctly. Arfur and Feo are awful.

I also know quit few who really struggle with their Rs. So names like Rupert or Rory are a real struggle for them!

MikeUniformMike · 20/08/2020 13:32

I'm not keen on names with 'th' in them but it depends where it is, and what the other consonants are.
Theo and Thea - not keen.
Theodore is awful but Theophilus ok.
Dorothy ok, Dorothea and Theodora not ok.
Arthur - not keen, but it's nice in welsh (ARR-thirr)
Elizabeth and Ruth are fine.

Maybe it's just me.

Feo and Fea are awful.

SionnachRua · 20/08/2020 10:53

Yes I can't stand the th as f thing, it's likes nails on a blackboard. Thankfully we don't typically do it in Ireland but my partners brother does (not sure why, it drives me mad) and I couldn't bear having to listen to him saying Thea as Fea or whatever. I've ruled any Th name out just because of that. Grin

bee222 · 20/08/2020 10:50

Yes! My mum does this and so did I (because my mum never corrected me) for a while and I had to train myself out of it as an adult. I like a lot of th names but I would just cringe every time I heard my mum say her name (I realise this makes me sound awful)

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread