to stop my children speaking with the local accent?

[workshy]

95% of the time I accept that my dcs speak with the local accent -I'm not a fan but they fit in with their peer group, I chose to live here so it's fine

but when they pronounce their own names differently to me it drives me insane

they both have an 'a' in the middle of thier names which when I was naming them I pronounced with a short 'A', like the name of the letter
locally it's pronounced 'aaaaaaaaaa' -children in their classes are telling them they are saying their names wrong!

AIBU to insist they say their names the way I intended or do I just go with the flow?

Yanbu at all - correct them and then at least they'll know there is a 'proper' way and a regional way to speak

The name thing is really grating though
I am happy for DD1 to pick up the local accent (Manchester), which I do not have (Kentish Maid). But it did drive me nuts when for a little while she referred to herself as "Phoe-beh". dd2 was born up here, and for her we deliberately avoided names that end with an "ee" sound .

My kids are 19,15 and 11 (and a half) and we live in E. Yorks. Both my boys still speak with Hertfordshire accents, but my daughter now has a broad E.Yorks accent. She picked it up very early on when we moved here. When I am at work, I speak with a sort of a very soft local accent, but at home with my DH and the kids I use my normal Herts. accent.

I don't correct my daughter's speech - why should I? To her, that is the 'proper' way to speak...she thinks I speak funny!

YABU

My son switches accent between 'local' Oxfordshire well spoken posh in his Dads eyes and County Durham.

He usually says bath not barth though

Round here people drop their aitches (not haitches ). I have a friend called Ellen and she always introduces herself as "Ellen with an E" otherwise people assume she is called Helen!

I quite pleased that my mother didn't allow us to speak with a local accent at home. Consequently I am (still) bi-lingual and can flit between the two easily. In fact it's my party trick!

I do it to DD all the time, she's started coming home with a reet northern broad accent. I don't have an accent neither does DH really, so I will say "it's there not thurr" the same for hurr and sturrs. I do like a northern accent, all my family are from the here (just not me). I know she'll prob pick it up from school but if she knows how to do it first she won't have to pay for elocution like my cousin did (and now a v strange accent). I had scally speak for school and mc at home.

CharlotteB that reminds me of the hilarious Victoria Wood sketch where she is a dim northern teenager and she says ' 'ave yer seen me friend Kimberleh?'

When I was PG with DC2 I loved Xanthe as a girls name but when I told a few of my more common friends and people I knew at toddler group they all said 'Zampfee? I've never heard that before'. and it put me right off!

I'm still struggling with this Graeme business.

Every Graeme I've ever known (including one in my family) has been pronounced identically to every Graham I have ever known (including one in my family). It's Grayum. IME the only people who are unable to pronounce the name are Americans, who seem to say it sort of 'Graaaaam'

But it is a Scottish/Irish name. And in Scotland/Ireland, we say Graym.

I'm pretty sure my Scottish BIL says Grayum.

Though we might be splitting hairs a little here

The difference is fairly miniscule, I don't know why I'm even bothering to argue to be honest!

That's settled then.

It is Graym though.

I have 3 children, we have lived in the US nearly 7 years.

Eldest has an English accent with American intonation.
Younger son has a mixture of American/English.
Our DD 3 has a totally American accent , in fact its very strong!

DH has a very soft American accent , and I have a 'well spoken' accent whatever that is

In a few days we are going to live in Dorset/Somerset ...I'm wondering what will happen?

I love all accents, I think it is more important to be articulate. For me, it makes no difference what accent is used. These days particularly so :)

I'm Scottish, and all the graham/graemes I've known have been pronounced identically.

DS1 was born in Glasgow, picked up a bit of Edinburgh there, reverted to broader Glasgow than you can imagine when we moved down south, but has softened to a more generic Scottish now we're in north east England. DS2 has a very weird accent: part Glasgow, part southern (like DH), part Geordie and part something else entirely (we have no idea what, but it's a bit west midlands-y). I imagine it'll end up mostly Geordie though, which is fine by me. DH's family keep mocking him for sounding increasingly scottish/northern. He now says bath.

Actually it annoys me that my parents called my DD, Ern, her name is Er-In. Erin. Erin. Erin. Locally Karen is often pronounced Karn, Sharon as Sharn. But I really didn't expect Ern.

Ex (Yorkshire accent) will often say Olleh. I ignore him because I know no-one of that name. My DD is Holly.

Thinking about names...

My youngest son is called Madoc ...round here , he is known as Maydock.

Subtle I know ;-)

I'm struggling with the Graham/Graeme. When I said it in my head it sounded Grey-em. When I said it aloud it sounded Graym

I do ferociously correct my DD (5) when she says "haitch" because that's what her teacher says. She says "I can say it how I like" and I say no you bloody well cannot "I'd rather you pronounced it aitch"

Haitch is like nails on a blackboard.

Are any names accent proof?

I've a northern friend called 'currreh' (Kerry), and another called 'jurh' (Joe).

Growing up in the south we had a 'na-a-leee' (Natalie) and a 'meeeee-shell' (Michelle).