Baby names you wouldn't choose because of regional accents

@Terriblecreature I came on here to say Carl. I have a colleague with this name and when he says it with his Norfolk accent it sounds like Carhrul. In London it would just be Cahl.

I love Rosa but we’re a couple of northerners living in London and Roooowzaah isn’t going to work!

A friends wife if Rosa and Irish and it sounds divine!

Another vote for Cara - I love it but DH and I have very different regional accents, we pronounce the middle "a" completely differently and I don't like his way! Anything beginning with H is out too as he would drop it.

DH’s nickname is Marty, and that gets shortened to Maa-Ay.

Louise is pronounced with a nasal weeze in Norfolk. I at the beginning of a name becomes Oi and in the middle of a name becomes U for example Iris will become Oirus. E at the start of a name will often be pronounced Ah or Air for example Ellie = Allie

I'm welsh and hearing welsh names said with an english accent is like nails down a blackboard.

I also find the popularity of french names like Amelie and Elodie, and irish names, a bit . They sound lovely in their original language but dull in an english accent.

I’m from NI and can’t really say Howard or Graham properly (“hard” and “gree-am”),

For my own children as pps have said the non-rhotic English accents have ruled out lots of Irish names. I can’t stand how Orla and Iarla for example become “awla” and “eala”.

West Yorkshire - immediately discounted anything with a T in it and anything starting with a H as they just get dropped.

I’m Canadian and when I hear anyone British saying a name I automatically hear it as the way it’s spelled, it doesn’t occur to me that an H has been dropped, or an L, etc. The only time I’d find it confusing is if an Eleanor sort of name was pronounced Elena as I might not be sure what their name actually was.

When I lived in England I worked with a young woman with a middle class accent (who inexplicably worked at WH Smiths) and I called her Sally (as in sally forth) and she said to me “it’s Solly ectually” (ducking things thrown at my head). But saying “Solly” in the middle of my (not very strong) Canadian accent would have been weird. I have Latino and Asian students and they pronounce my name differently than English speakers but I think it would be rude to adjust their accents.

We had to rule out so many names due to accent.
Alana or Juliana (anything that could be 'arna or ahna' because we say it differently and I couldn't have her having two different names. This also applies to Alexandra which I loved.
Hattie, Lottie, Letty, Kitty etc as 't's get dropped around here (South East London). There is a lovely Letty working in the local hairdressers and I cringe when I hear her called Leh'ee.
Pearl because the l becomes a w.
Thea or anything with th in the middle as DH and family are Irish and say it with a t sound.

I think accent can have such a huge impact on names! The Irish accent makes anything with a t at the end sound beautiful for example but in London t's are so very neglected.
Anyway that's me done!

Hearing the name Ewan pronounced in a broad Norfolk accent for the first time was quite an experience - it sounds something like "Ooo-wan". Also Muriel sounds more like Mirriel or Murriel. And Noah is pronounced with one syllable, apparently: Naw.

Mumsnet has put me off the names Joel and Joseph, after discovering that a lot of people dislike the way people with my accent naturally pronounce them (Joel with one syllable, rather than Joe-ul, and Joe-zif rather than Joe-suf respectively).

I ruled out Paul immediately because H's family are London/Essex.

Not sure how to write it - Paow, probably

(H is convinced that he pronounces the l at the end of hospital. He really doesn't.)

Pearl - pronounced like "peril" in some parts of Scotland. Not a nice word for your name to sound like. Similar to the Carl/Carol example.

Bedfordshire here - I ruled out all names with a 'T' sound at the end, Annette, Colette, Harriett, Elliot etc because I find it almost impossible to sound the T with my accent!

I love the name Theo, but I’m Irish and a lot of our regional accents don’t pronounce the “th” sound. Hearing my child called “Tio” would drive me mad 😂.

Similarly had to veto anything ending with T, as the general Dublin accent drops them all the time. Violeh, Mahh, it just wouldn’t work!

I teach a child named Carl. He hates that I make it into two syllables with a rolled R in the middle. I can’t help it! The local accent here omits TH. My own named is mangled...

Leo sounds like Eeyore round here.

Blair also a bit of a risk. (Blur)

I couldnt have Harriet because my saaaf laaandan husband would have called her (Hatty) 'ah-ee'

My sister wanted Kitty - but she lives in West Yorkshire and didn’t like the ki-ee pronunciation (that’s ki as it would be said in kick and ee as it would be said in fee)

I wanted Valentina for our DD, which sounds lovely in an English accent. However, we live in Australia and it sounds ugly and quite grating in an Australian accent.

In my part of N Ireland quite a few (although by no means all) people pronounce Jack and Jake exactly the same. I had a relative once who was really irritated when someone 'called the baby Jack but gave it a ridiculous spelling. She spells it J-A-K-E, did you ever hear anything so daft?'.

I spent hours trying to explain that they were two different names.

^As someone has already mentioned Carl in Scotland. Impossible for most of us to say without calling the poor bloke Carol.

Also in Dundee Emma would be an unfortunate name to have as it sounds like "I am" in the Dundee accent.^

Came here to say the same thing! I worked in Dundee with an unfortunate Emma Payne. I loved the name Emma but couldn't use it because of that and the way my MIL (from South of England) would put a random R on to the end of it so it sounded like Emmar

If i lived in areas where people pronounced A as ER there are lots of names I'd discount.

Emma, Hannah, Sarah, Ava, Bella

not

Emmer, Hanner, Sarer, Aver, Beller.