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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to feel annoyed that people constantly mispronounce my baby's name?

100 replies

Busybee1234 · 31/01/2017 22:06

She's called Beatrix. People constantly call her Beatrice. Even when I correct them the conversation ends with 'Bye Beatrice'. Why? They're two different names! Question 2: How to go about correcting people in a nice way so they remember? I try saying "Beatrix, like the author Beatrix Potter" or "Beatrix with an x". Help!

OP posts:

lippi · 31/01/2017 22:58

I have an Irish name that people mispronounce all the time, I correct them 2 or 3 times and if they still refuse to get it right I resort to changing their name completely - Mary could become Angela, they learn very quickly.
I know its passive aggressive but I don't care, my name is my name and I would like you to use it thank you.

MikeUniformMike · 31/01/2017 22:58

What is your DS's name bummymummy?

Original poster

Busybee1234 · 31/01/2017 23:01

Thank you for the lovely comments. X I love her name, but I'm starting to worry that she might get so tired of correcting people that she might answer to Beatrice one day! I really did not think that so many people would confuse Beatrix with Beatrice. It really is about 3/5 people we meet who get it wrong. It is that bad... Her name is not THAT unusual imo.

I have to admit that I'm quite good with names as I work with children and try my very best to get even the unusual ones right. Maybe that is why I find it annoying?

I love the name Beatrice too by the way, it is just that Beatrice is not DD's name.

It took MIL a couple of visits during which I trained my older DC to correct her each time she said Beatrice befire she finally got it right. I might even have sent her a cute video of us playing peekaboo with Beatrix in which we repeatedly said 'Where's BEATRIX????" to help her along... ;)

I don't make a fuss about it at all and tend to correct people who might see her again once in a nice way as mentioned in the OP.

OP posts:

Enkopkaffetak · 31/01/2017 23:03

DD3 has a traditional Welsh name. We don;t get a lot of mis pronunciations. (people can't spell it) Though she complains in secondary school (she is year 8) they call her eefeR not Efa

DD2 however is called Eloisa we get SO many mispronunciations. I AM the mother who goes " its EloiSA with an A at the end. NOT Eloise" With her I really didn't expect it as it is a pretty straight forward name.

OP I think you just have to keep saying "It's BeatriX with a X/Like Beatrix Potter" However I have no magic solution.

Squibbler · 31/01/2017 23:05

I have a Beatrix and when she was a baby had people referring to her as Beatrice alot.

Give it time OP, if yours is any thing like mine she will be decisively correcting any mispronunciation herself soon enough!

Oh and don't worry it will be annoying for her, my Bea really loves her name

Original poster

Busybee1234 · 31/01/2017 23:07

Enfru, I love 'Eloise'!

OP posts:

bonbonours · 31/01/2017 23:15

I do think when you have an unusual name or an unusual spelling of a common name then you should expect people to pronounce it wrong or spel it wrong. However, as others have said Beatrix is a perfectly normal and well known name. The problem is it is not different enough from Beatrice for people to remember which it is. It's like meeting someone called Cara but by the end of your meeting you call her Clara. It's sounds close enough that your brain thinks you got it right.

I am usually pretty good with names but have to admit there is a child called Beatrix or Beatrice who has been at school with DD1 for years (though not actually friends with her) and I can never remember which it is. Also there is a younger sibling of a friend who is called either Evan or Ewan and I can never remember which.

Unfortunately, it's just one of those things. Your daughter's name is always going to be more important to you than to anyone you meet. Just as long as your family and close friends get it right, either ignore or correct other people.

Selok · 31/01/2017 23:20

My daughter is 11, her name is Alicia ( Alisya not Alisha) even though people hear us calling her Alisya, they still choose to call her Alisha - it is annoying especially when her best friend and her mum, friends since they were 1 - still calls her Alisha!!! My daughter corrects people now so has taken over that task from me lol:)

kittymamma · 31/01/2017 23:24

I'm far too English and tend not to correct. My DD name is Anya, and a work colleague calls her Anna. I corrected her twice, then I just went with it. In the grand scheme of things, it didn't seem important.

If it was family or friends I would push it more but with others, I don't really care enough to try.

I think the nickname idea as mentioned by a PP would fix it though as you are emphasising the X. But then you still don't get her actual names, and nicknames stick. My DS is now only referred to by the nickname that my Dad never wanted her to go by in the first place.

downwardfacingdog · 31/01/2017 23:25

Just keep correcting family/friends but don't bother with strangers. Also wondering what Bummymummy's DS is called... I saw someone on a property program once called Sian pn Cyan and thought wtf! Rainyday perhaps there is some non-Welsh name spelt the same. You could ask her? 'Oh it's spelt the same as the Welsh name, where does it come from?'

kittymamma · 31/01/2017 23:25

*DSis not DS... that would make no sense!

Italiangreyhound · 31/01/2017 23:27

I honestly don't think it is worth correcting people unless you see them regularly and even then I am not sure picking people up on the pronunciation is a great way to do it.

Both my children have names which are, apparently, unusual; I had not realised with dd that this was the case.

I don't really correct people but when we see them a lot I do want them to know how to say it. So I correct by pronouncing it correctly in a following sentence. I correct spelling in messages by spelling it correctly in a following text or message.

PickAChew · 31/01/2017 23:30

Hav e people not heard of Beatrix Potter? YANBU.

That said, I'm so used to my own name being mangled that I just and respond anyway, these days. The guy who was most persistent was a bit of a pillock, anyhow, so I just took to calling him tree-vor.

Boulshired · 31/01/2017 23:30

Sometimes it is the passive aggressive correcting that leads to the brain fart moment when both names come flooding in. The fear of getting it wrong leads to it being wrong. My name has an association with another name and all through my life have been called two names.

user1467798821 · 31/01/2017 23:37

My did who is nearly 30 is called Sara, not Sarah, she has spent her whole life correcting people, including family. I wanted to name her after my mother but use a variation. If I knew then what I know now, I would have gone with the more complicated Sinead!

pieceofpurplesky · 31/01/2017 23:38

selok I teach Alicia, Elicia, Alicia and Licia. Pronounces Alieesha, Eleesha, Aliseeya and Leesha. I have to admit I get it wrong sometimes!

djini · 31/01/2017 23:39

One of my DDs has a name that's pretty commonplace in Scotland but not down in the south east where we currently live. I'm getting very weary of correcting people who insist on continually pronouncing it wrong (like another name which may be front of mind due to a popular culture reference in the last few years) or switching some of the letters around to make another name. Bad enough when they say the wrong name out loud, but iPhones autocorrect it to a whole other name and it's tricky to correct people via text...

toomuchprosecco · 31/01/2017 23:41

My DD is Niamh and hardly anyone gets it right she is 12 and its starting to really get to her.

MikeUniformMike · 31/01/2017 23:42

Alicia to me is Alisha (just like Patricia is Patrisha), although I first heard it pronounced Al-issy-ah about 20 years ago and though 'Uh?'. I think people will say it as one of Alisha, Alissia, Alissyah or Aleesha.

SpangledShambles · 31/01/2017 23:43

I have a fairly common name pronounced in a different way. For years I would correct and feel pissed off. Now I can't be bothered in any way and answer to both. Your dd will probably end up with a lovely nickname at school like Bee or Trixie and will get round it that way. I know how annoying it can be but in the end you end up not giving much of a damn! I love the name, btw.

kittymamma · 31/01/2017 23:44

To be fair... Sara is a tricky one. I know a couple of Sara's that are pronounced "Cer-rah" and others that "Sar-a". I now ask (as I usually come across it while doing the register)

SugarLoveHeart · 31/01/2017 23:51

How do you say Eloise? Eh-Louise in my head...

user1467798821 · 31/01/2017 23:57

kittymama. Sara is also a teacher and she says it's made her much more aware of pronounciations of names. It doesn't help that famous people like Sara Cox pronounce it Sarah. I didn't use Sarah as it had been my great grandmothers name and she made both daughters swear never to use it as she felt it was an unlucky name, so my mum had the Scottish version and I used a variant. My DS has a fairly common name but hates one of the shortened versions of it, and my pill have used it all of his,life, and still 26 years on we correct them!

bummymummy77 · 31/01/2017 23:59

Very very outing but it's Eifion.

Pronounced 'i v on'. Or 'ivy on'

When he's getting bollocked it becomes 'iv yan'.

BastardGoDarkly · 01/02/2017 00:03

Enfru us too! The exact same! God it's annoying!

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