AIBU to think my son's name isn't that hard to pronounce?

[SailorByTheSea]

Or is this an acceptable pronunciation!?

We live in London, so 'fear' is 1 syllable (this is relevant!)

My son is called Theodore... You know, 3 syllables, 'The-uh-door'?

All he gets is 'fear-door' please tell me that this isn't an acceptable pronunciation? It makes me regret his name massively

I'm Manc. I don't get it at all.
Theodore - Thee-o-door
France- Rhymes with ants.
Maybe you should move up here OP?

I'm doomed now! 🤦🤦😁

@NC4now - apart from France doesn't rhyme with ants, so it probably wouldn't work out

France rhymes with prance and dance doesn't it?

Yes @BubbleAnimal

yes France rhymes with dance. the debate is whether your pronounce it correctly 😉 as daarrrnce or incorrectly as danss!

That depends how you say prance and dance, they might have an ant a in some accents!

don't be putting /r/ in dance, ummmm, it'll cause a whole new level of confusion for the scots among us who have rhotic accents and will wonder why the fuck you are puttting an r in dance!

I'm south east so I'm a daaaarrrnce person! Barth, Parth, gr-arse speaker. Hugely extended vowels much to DPs amusement

Scottish accents are a whole different thing! my Grandad was from Glasgow and had the strongest accent I have ever heard, he made Rab C Nesbit sound like the Queen, none of us understood a word he ever said

😂 this thread is a minefield!

Having your kids' names constantly pronounced in a way you do not like is sooo irritating.

We moved up north and our daughters (called similar to) Daisy and Poppy, overnight became Daiseh and Poppeh. I hate it.

Scot here - Thee-a-dore (and yes I pronounce the r beautifully!)
Definitely 3 syllables!

i will pronounce 'ear' as 'yuh' becasyse i'm welsh

When I moved to England I really struggled with this,

e.g. "are you having your yuhs pierced?"

Nobody knew what the fuck I was saying

Don't even get me going on daps ... another language

My son's a Theodore.
He's been a Theo since primary school though, so I haven't noticed.
I'm the only one who calls him Theodore.
He's 15 now. But when he was around 4-5 years old, he came home from school and informed me that I'd gotten his name wrong. According to his school friends, his name was FEO not THEO. We had a lot of 'Feo' when he was very little. Never bothered me at all. Most importantly, he didn't bat an eye. We were in SAAAFFF London then. I'm an American (been here 20 years). I love all the different ways words are said, not just regionally but in London alone.

You think Fear-Door would be the pan-London pronounciation?

I think you're probably worrying unduly TBH.

TheVanguard you have far too relaxed an attitude to be on MN. You should be outraged and spitting feathers, not delighting in regional differences!

I say TH and so does my husband and yet four of our children just cannot get to grips with it and all naturally say 'F'. They also say 'V' for an unvoiced 'TH' sound. It drives me batty! The issue is they all struggle to get their tongue in the correct position to make either the voiced or unvoiced 'TH'. Lots of practice and tongue twisting and they can now do it with concentration but it is far from natural or instinctive. They can now hear the difference though so we are making some progress. It obviously not a case of never hearing the sound for us or being raised with a specific accent for us

This is hilarious!

Maybe it's why both the Theos I know pronounce it Tay-oh

Tay-oh? Oh please 🙄

Tay-oh would be the Spanish/Portuguese/maybe Italian way of pronouncing it. So totally normal for lots of people.

To those trying to phonetically spell words in an SE accent, it's best to use Fraaahnce, not Fraaarnce.

This thread is making me want to start a thread on regional dialects and how words will be said differently depending on where you are.

I can't get the 'theo' to have only one syllable, even if i do it with a cockney accent.

On the not hearing the difference thing, I have a German friend who genuinely can't hear the difference between v and w, so she says wegetables and willage. Even when I pointed out the mouth makes a completely different shape for those letters (like th and f), she would not be persuaded.

I've heard Theo pronounced tee-o tay-o Theo and feo.

i have never ever thought this deeply about a name before!