To cringe when people use accented letters wrongly? (light-hearted)

[CaptainBinker]

Aargh, this really does my head in!

I have a couple of friends who are lovely people but have obviously been playing around with their keyboards and have noticed umlauts - they are now spelling their babies' names with them... Using an O with umlaut because it looks like a shocked face and a U because it looks smiley

Plus there's others who randomly add acute accents because they think it makes them look more mysterious and sophisticated but haven't got the first idea how to pronounce them. I work as a languages teacher (which probably explains why I'm so annoyed!) and once taught two brothers, one called Shaun and the other called Sean (acute accent on the 'e', can't do it on phone ) and didn't realise they were the same name because apparently if it has an accent it must be a foreign mysterious name!

I know I'm being a ridiculous pedant and there's far bigger problems out there but...Aibu to inwardly cringe to myself?

[Apileofballyhoo]

I have an accent (Irish name) and something that does irritate me is that on official Irish government documents it is usually left out. I don't really expect other countries to get it right but I am sure if I were French, for example, this wouldn't be the case. Without it, my name is pronounced totally differently. It is as bad as leaving out a letter. Computers in Ireland are set up for English, the majority language obviously (and my language from birth), but it is irritating. I guess Welsh and Scots Gaelic named people run into similar difficulties.

[mignonette]

Yes because we are all born with the knowledge of how to type in accented letters Stormy. Nothing is hard when you know how to do it.

It is not the bank tellers fault if his I.T systems aren't set up to 'handle it.

[Viviennemary]

I think life is complicated enough without people adding accents to names for show.

[PeppiNephrine]

Computers in Ireland are set up for fadas. Look áéóí.....so no difficulties there at all.

[complexnumber]

I just find it peculiar that a registrar didn't know. Surely he'd registered babies with accents in their names before?

You originally stated that you found it annoying rather than peculiar.

And babies with accents in their names are not that common, so maybe it was the first time, or, s/he may have forgotten since the last time.

[mignonette]

W"e all learn something new every day. I didn't know about how to do accents/ Spanish ? on my laptop so I appreciate Rachy's post.

[wowfudge]

Did anyone ever see the episode of Kath & Kim about choosing a baby name and spellings? Hilarious.

[CaptainBinker]

Peppi I taught Sean and Shaun! It was real!

And thank you for telling me how to do an accent on my phone...my rant has been productive for once!

So just to get my original point across, my friends' babies have names like Doüg or Jöhn. Obviously I've changed them to keep it anonymous but that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

[DisgraceToTheYChromosome]

Håkarl. Öy. Dvo?ak. Long press and swipe on a Samsung.


Carry on.

[MetellaEstMater]

Õöôóò. N?? šk??l.

[whoneedssleepanyway]

I know where you are coming from OP.

Some close relatives have a little girl and they spell her name with é at the end (which would be pronounced - "ay", think purée) but they pronouce her name "ee" at the end. When I asked why they had the accent they said it was because they thought it looked better than way when written down.....

[Pagwatch]

My name has an é.

Most people can't pronounce it and never include it when they spell it.
When they ask me to spell my name if I include 'the final e has an accent' they look at me like I'm a twat,if I don't they looked baffled and then add a y

It's really tiresome.

[BlackbeltinBS]

Is that a Chloé, like the designer label? Or I know a ésmee (obviously with a capital, she's not ésmee e cummings). The accent/capital just makes it worse.

[elQuintoConyo]

A-ha, sorry Captain , misread your op

So, something along the lines of Spóngebôb Squãrepänts is obviously ridiculous - although funny! I appreciate in real life it'd be bonkers.

Didn't Denise Van Outen add in the 'van' to jazz up her name? Perhaps christening a child Deníse would be trying for the same caché ?

[riksti]

I'm Estonian and Õ Ä Ö and Ü are letters with a completely separate pronunciation from O A and U. It irritates me when these letters are used to make names more exciting in English. Mainly because I automatically try and pronounce them and that's obviously not what was intended. Like Mötley Crüe... I'm sure they'd hate how stupid their name sounds in my head.

[Wibblypiglikesbananas]

Absolutely agree OP. As a fellow linguist, it's not quirky or cool or cute to deliberately misspell a name (which is essentially what this is, each accented letter having a different sound). It's just ignorant.

Mandy - I am however ROFL at 'Jewann' - seriously?! That is hilarious!

[Methe]

Ì döñt r?ä??? ?ëë th? prôb??m.

(Very easy to do on an ïpäd)

[nerdgirl72]

I know lots of "Jewanns", spelt Juan. It is a traditional Manx name. Hilarious.

[PervCat]

grrr at " lighthearted"

[CaptainBinker]

Don't get what you mean PervCat

Have you been watching too much daytime tv? :)

(Saw your other thread - totally agree! I'm spending my mat leave watching it and it's totally mind-numbing...)

[badtime]

'Juan' used to be pronounced 'Ju-wan' in English - consider Lord Byron's poem 'Don Juan', where it is usually pronounced 'Ju-wan' (to rhyme with 'true one', as in the text).

[Trills]

Sounds like they are doing the computer equivalent of drawing a little heart above i's or j's.

They are not "using it wrongly" as if they think that's how the word is spelled, they are just having fun with the characters that are available to them.

[nerdgirl72]

Badtime, I have heard Germaine Greer pronounce Don Juan like that but was not sure of reason, makes sense. Thankyou!

[misspontypine]

I live in a country that uses öäå. My dp's name and tge name of the town we live in both have multiple ä and å (s) in, when my family write to us they just put dots over all tge vowels. It's cute really, at least they are trying!

[TallulahBetty]

Juan as Jewann reminds me of a story that an old teacher told us at school. She taught a little Hugh, pronounced "Huggy" - the parents liked the way it looked but had no clue how to say it