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Baby names

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

Original poster

If your friend had named her baby Ralph...

68 replies

surprise · 19/04/2008 22:59

would you pronounce it Ralf or Rafe?

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3andnomore · 20/04/2008 14:33

but franny those are words that could not possibly be described as phonetic words anyway,lol

3andnomore · 20/04/2008 14:33

lol....trust them upper classes eh....

is it that plum that makes it so hard to pronoune things "correctly" , lol

FrannyandZooey · 20/04/2008 14:32

well, it's like cough and through and bough, I would say
just one of those strange quirks of language - not everything is pronounced phonetically

qv thread on necklace atm!

edam · 20/04/2008 14:31

I think there's a class issue here - upper classes pronounce it 'Rafe', everyone else pronounces it as it is spelt.

3andnomore · 20/04/2008 14:30

I still don't get why Ralph ever could be pronounced Rafe...just doesn't make sense to me....at all....

llareggub · 20/04/2008 14:27

I don't think any child of the 70s would call a child Ralph. We passed that book around constantly at school. I would also snigger.

FrannyandZooey · 20/04/2008 14:24

well, not wrong, just that it now has a modern pronunciation as well - ralf
just that the name was originally said rafe - this is sometimes still used - it isn't something the OP's friend has made up

MotherofUBERboys · 20/04/2008 14:19

right, so pron it ralf is actually the wrong way? interesting.

FrannyandZooey · 20/04/2008 14:17

ralph used to be pronounced rafe i believe
the modern way is usually to pronounce it ralf, but there are still some rafes about, eg ralph fiennes as mentioned on here

MaryAnnSingleton · 20/04/2008 14:15

duh, I meant pronounce it Ralf

MaryAnnSingleton · 20/04/2008 14:14

Ralph - nice name too

MotherofUBERboys · 20/04/2008 14:13

ralph will alway be the willy in forever for me too. hehehehehe

what is this ralph rafe thing anyways? is it just pretension or arwe there really two different names or pronunciations?

minster · 20/04/2008 14:10

Ralf - if she wanted Rafe she should've called him that

3andnomore · 20/04/2008 12:54

why would people want to pronounce a child called Ralpf Rafe? doesn't make much sense at all....

branflake81 · 20/04/2008 07:27

Yes, makes me think of that Judy Blume book too! It was the name the guy had for his penis. Hopefully that connotation will die out by the time the kid gets older.

itsahardknocklife · 19/04/2008 23:55

I mean ROFL!

itsahardknocklife · 19/04/2008 23:54

"Is it in yet? Are we doing it?" ROLF!!!

Aimsmum · 19/04/2008 23:53

Message withdrawn

DrippingLizzie · 19/04/2008 23:29

Ralph. The noise you make when you vomit.

itsahardknocklife · 19/04/2008 23:27

Aimsmum, that's exactly what I was thinking! Snigger!

nancy75 · 19/04/2008 23:20

i always thought ralph fiennes pronounced it as rafe because he was really really posh and just said it funny!

nappyaddict · 19/04/2008 23:18

why didn't she just call him rafe Confused

MoreSpamThanGlam · 19/04/2008 23:13

Ralf

MrsJohnCusack · 19/04/2008 23:11

I'd pronounce it 'your baby'

no I'd ask

IdrisTheDragon · 19/04/2008 23:09

I knew there was another Ralph pronounced Rafe.