Page 9 | Names spelled with diacritics

Anonymousmember667 · 2025-07-26T07:40:02+00:00

Apologies if this has been discussed or answered before but I have a question if anyone knows the answer, or who to ask or has any experience please? So some names have diacritics, usually the name originates from another language other than english. Maybe the most common ones being Seán, Siobhán, Chloé, Zoë, René, Beyoncé etc etc. Say for example, the name Chloé, Are there any issues registering this name with the diacritic on the “e” in England; on the Birth Certificate, with the NHS, in the school system, with banks, on her passport, driving licence etc etc. Most people wouldnt know but Its simple to press the alt gr button + the letter to get most of these diacritics on a keyboard or hold the button on an apple keyboard, but do government systems and organisations systems generally support diacritic names? Is there a right or expectation for organisations to spell your name correctly in England? Doesn't GDPR say this? Is she destined for a lifetime of her name being spelt wrong or is she allowed to be a Chloé with an “é” !? Thanks for any advise or experience anyone has 🙏

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Original poster

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 12:02

Sellenis · 26/07/2025 11:52

Sorry, are you in fact planning, with aforethought, for your child to go through a perpetual bureaucratic fight with everyone in England for the rest of her life? As in, this is literally your plan and apparent dream for her?

Pregnancy hormones are an absolute trip! Put down the GDPR and back away from the diacritics. When people say choose your battles they don't mean plan them in from a list. 😂

Lol just asking the question and so far I seem to only have two definitive answers.

that you can register on the birth certificate a name with diacritics/ accents in the UK.
That you cannot have a UK passport with a name with diacritics/accents.

that just leaves eveeything else 😂

OP posts:

HotCrossBunplease · 26/07/2025 12:01

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 11:55

Yes I read it and its a document specific to passports and thats the rule for UK passports then, but, if its an ICAO regulation, How do other countries passports contain names with them?

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Nobody ever claimed it was anything other than a document specific to UK passports?

ErrolTheDragon · 26/07/2025 12:00

gotmyknickersinatwist · 26/07/2025 11:59

Are you still talking about Chloé?

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I think she was talking about Siân.

ErrolTheDragon · 26/07/2025 11:59

cringforyou · 26/07/2025 11:32

But we aren’t talking about being in Sweden 🫤
you wouldn’t expect authorities in the UK to use Korean characters would you

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No. It’s an interesting unusual example of a non-bogstandard character used internationally as a unit symbol though.

(‘interesting’ to a few people, anyway ‘)

gotmyknickersinatwist · 26/07/2025 11:59

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 11:49

Irish passports contain the diacritics/ accents on their names. It isn't an ICAO rule then is it? You can have diacritics/ accents on capitol letters in many languages. Whats strange is a native british name is not allowed on a british passport.

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Are you still talking about Chloé?

HotCrossBunplease · 26/07/2025 11:57

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 11:49

Irish passports contain the diacritics/ accents on their names. It isn't an ICAO rule then is it? You can have diacritics/ accents on capitol letters in many languages. Whats strange is a native british name is not allowed on a british passport.

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Interesting that you assume that the UK government are wrong and it can’t be an ICAO rule, rather than accepting that maybe the Irish government has chosen a different approach.

In any event it actually says ICAO standards, not rules and cross refers to a transliteration table.

Protest all you like but you can’t deny the fact that UK passports do not allow them and ICAO discourage them.

Original poster

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 11:55

HotCrossBunplease · 26/07/2025 11:16

That’s a different question to “is this correct?” when you had the official document right in front of you.

And the inconsistency is also explained in the document- to comply with ICAO regulations. Just read the bloody document!

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Yes I read it and its a document specific to passports and thats the rule for UK passports then, but, if its an ICAO regulation, How do other countries passports contain names with them?

OP posts:

Sellenis · 26/07/2025 11:52

Sorry, are you in fact planning, with aforethought, for your child to go through a perpetual bureaucratic fight with everyone in England for the rest of her life? As in, this is literally your plan and apparent dream for her?

Pregnancy hormones are an absolute trip! Put down the GDPR and back away from the diacritics. When people say choose your battles they don't mean plan them in from a list. 😂

Original poster

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 11:49

HotCrossBunplease · 26/07/2025 11:07

Why are you asking if this correct when that PP @BlueyNeedsToFuckOff included a link to the official Home Office guidance that says in very clear terms that diacritic marks are not allowed?

I would also point out that the Home Office explain that their policy is set in order to comply with ICAO regulations (International Civil Aviation Organisation). I suspect that the EU has the same policy so the millions of EU citizens who have diacritics in their names (and come from countries where they DO know how to read them) do not have them either. Have you ever seen an Irish person’s EU passport?

If I recall correctly from when I learned French they often omit accents when writing in capital letters, yet still manage to read what is written.

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Irish passports contain the diacritics/ accents on their names. It isn't an ICAO rule then is it? You can have diacritics/ accents on capitol letters in many languages. Whats strange is a native british name is not allowed on a british passport.

OP posts:

HotCrossBunplease · 26/07/2025 11:47

Interesting - it seems that the Irish passport office do indeed issue passports with fadas on them. However, Aer Lingus’ booking system doesn’t allow them!

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/fada-aer-lingus-booking-system-29936024?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

(nb Aer Lingus don't insist the passport match the booking in terms of fadas so it’s resolved pragmatically. Maybe they've also updated their IT since the article, you never know).

Aer Lingus passengers frustrated as system unable to use fadas on Irish names

Exclusive: The system Aer Lingus uses, Astral, was developed in the late sixties

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/fada-aer-lingus-booking-system-29936024?int_campaign=continue_reading_button&int_medium=amp&int_source=amp_continue_reading#amp-readmore-target

GloriaMonday · 26/07/2025 11:47

@Anonymousmember667 I have a name with a letter with a diacritic, but my birth certificate doesn't show it. No documents ever show it.

For example, say the name was Éloïse, but the BC says Eloise Claire Smith. Nobody cares, not even me.

Although her parents persisted with the accent nobody else did. When she got to nursery and school it was always spelled without the accent on it and I don’t think she uses the accent now. She is known to her friends by a nickname. sums it up.

FusionChefGeoff · 26/07/2025 11:43

As another example of it being difficult, I work with event registration systems a lot and very few of them have diacritic capabilities despite being global companies. Badges / forms / access passes etc all default to ‘normal’ spellings

MauriceTheMussel · 26/07/2025 11:36

Following with interest

Venalopolos · 26/07/2025 11:33

ErrolTheDragon · 26/07/2025 11:21

Don’t you mean a phi?

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Ha, yes I did.

I wrote Penelope first but thought the two p’s might have been confusing, but didn’t think my change to Phoebe all the way through.

Let me go hang my head in Greek shame.

cringforyou · 26/07/2025 11:32

ErrolTheDragon · 26/07/2025 11:11

Å isn’t a mere accent, it’s a separate letter in the Swedish alphabet which has 29 letters, and also the Danish/norwegian which also have 29 but two of them are different from Swedish - they still have the Æ and Ø.

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But we aren’t talking about being in Sweden 🫤
you wouldn’t expect authorities in the UK to use Korean characters would you

cringforyou · 26/07/2025 11:30

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 10:00

And a good solid royal king of the english name like Æthelstan ?

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But that’s old English. It’s like saying Latin and Italian are the same language. They aren’t.

TheyFuckYouUpYourMamAndDad · 26/07/2025 11:22

You seem to be overly focused on ‘the rules’!

’Are they allowed to demand…?’
’Are they entitled to…?’
’Is it right that…?’

Posters have answered, given their own lived experience, and even linked you to government guidance…and yet you’re still coming back with the same questions that have been answered!!

The old expression, “like a dog with a bone” springs to mind!! I can only imagine how exhausting you must be to live with! 🤯

Twinklewonderkins · 26/07/2025 11:22

I have an a/e name, such as Diane/Diana Julie/Julia and have a hard enough time getting the correct version of that.

ErrolTheDragon · 26/07/2025 11:21

Venalopolos · 26/07/2025 11:18

I suspect most organisations keep the names stored as capital letters (that’s how it’s shown on passports and bank cards for example) and capital letters stylistically drop the accent, so it wouldn’t be incorrect for them to be CHLOE.

But given you’re operating in England, whose language doesn’t use é I think you’d be as successful demanding that an institute spells Phoebe with a pi symbol instead of a P because you want to honour the Greek spelling.

Don’t you mean a phi?

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 26/07/2025 11:19

SilenceOfTheTimTams · 26/07/2025 11:04

My daughter Ænåbẽłlë has to put up with this. I have to make thousands of GDPR rectification requests every year.

Apparently I have a nickname at the Information Commissioner’s Office, but I haven’t been able to discover what it is yet.

Response of the month for me!🤣

ErrolTheDragon · 26/07/2025 11:19

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 11:17

This is a great point too.

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Afaik they pragmatically use transliteration eg Ørsted becomes Oersted where systems don’t allow extended character sets.

RabbitsRock · 26/07/2025 11:19

Am I alone in having to google “ diacritics”?

Venalopolos · 26/07/2025 11:18

I suspect most organisations keep the names stored as capital letters (that’s how it’s shown on passports and bank cards for example) and capital letters stylistically drop the accent, so it wouldn’t be incorrect for them to be CHLOE.

But given you’re operating in England, whose language doesn’t use é I think you’d be as successful demanding that an institute spells Phoebe with a pi symbol instead of a P because you want to honour the Greek spelling.

gotmyknickersinatwist · 26/07/2025 11:17

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 09:37

I would guess Seán is the most popular name in the UK that should have a diacritic but is spelt incorrectly as Sean.

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I have an Irish name with a fada, which changes the sound of the vowel. I use it when spelling my own name but it's often missed elsewhere. I doubt that most people would know or care that technically, the pronunciation is different without it.

It's not in any of my official stuff.
I'm not a bit bothered.

ErrolTheDragon · 26/07/2025 11:17

Anonymousmember667 · 26/07/2025 11:12

Because it seems strange to me that one government department (births, deaths and marriages) recognises names
with accents/ diacritics and another one ( home office) does not. Why are they inconsistent?

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perhaps BMD has to accommodate records predating computerisation and international standardisation? Whereas passports have to conform to international standards. There may also be different standards for checking dodgy input into computer systems - if you’re guarding against injection of dodgy code then restricting input to a standard alphabet may be applied?