Spelling my DS name

[FootrotDog]

My DS is nearly 6.
He is irritated with people mispronouncing his name (there's a kid a couple of years older in school with the same name but he goes by the mispronunciation).
DS has argued with me for about the past 8 months on how to spell his name!!
He wants to spell it slightly differently to reflect how it should be said.
I much prefer the "correct" spelling.
AIBU to insist he spells his name correctly?
YABU: It doesn't matter, let him do it if it makes him happy
YANBU: Of course you should insist he spells it properly.

*Luredbyapomegranate

Ha!

But same as above applies..

(Ex-zay-vi-er is hilarious)

Why is it "hilarious"?

Perfectly acceptable pronunciation.*

Well no,it's incorrect. It's used by those who don't know the correct pronunciation (& watch X-Men as their frame of reference)

I would pronounce it Hav-i- ey.

@CheesyWeez
What do you love about it OP? I think it's cool to have the initial X

Yes, I just love having X as the initial! This is probably deeply embarrassing to admit to, but I love that his initial is the symbol for a kiss.

At least Z is still a fairly unusual initial.

I'm just glad I haven't had the X tattoo I've been too lazy to get around to doing been planning just yet!

As a name it’s supposed to originate in Xavier, Spain. The local Basque pronunciation is Sha-vee-yaya. Assuming you’re in the UK, then the accepted Anglicisation is Zay-vyuh( like saviour but with a short zen instead Of the s); French it’s Ha-vy-air, in mainland Spanish.
It’s a standard but uncommon name throughout the Muslim world, and I’ve never heard it said with an ‘Ex’!

Ex-say-vee-ur is a mispronunciation by someone with a tin ear (not least because it’s the hardest to twist your mouth around)

Basque should be Sha-vee-yay; an extra vowel got in by mistake!

I’m I’ve only ever read that name as zay-vi-er, I’d never say X-zay-vi-er!

@GeneLovesJezebel that pronunciation is for the name Javier

@Brieandcamembert

*Luredbyapomegranate

Ha!

But same as above applies..

(Ex-zay-vi-er is hilarious)

Why is it "hilarious"?

Perfectly acceptable pronunciation.*

Well no,it's incorrect. It's used by those who don't know the correct pronunciation (& watch X-Men as their frame of reference)

I've never seen X-men.

It happens to be one of my OH's names. He is not from the UK (neither was his godparent with the same name)

People pronounce it all sorts of different ways, but that doesn't make it "hilarious" - just different.

Ex-zay-vi-er is hilarious

Why is it "hilarious"? Perfectly acceptable pronunciation.

Erm, no it isn't. A quick google, including listening to how to pronounce this name, shows that "Exavier" is just a made up name from X Men.

The poor kid whose parents used X Men as a point of refernece for their child's name is going to have loads of people querying his name or assuming that his parents aren't very well educated.

Surely people would know to pronounce Xander as Zander and not X-Ander?
Xavier works in the same way

OP I’d personally let him coo had his spelling of it makes him more comfortable, my DD has a name that can have different variations depending on what letters you take away and as she has gotten older we’ve been happy for her to refer to herself however she is comfortable. She goes by a shorter version of her full name and I think myself and my DH are the only people that call her by her full name now.

Change his spelling*

I'd pronounce it havier but would use whatever pronunciation requested when corrected.

I pronounce it zay-ve-er. Lovely name

@RampantIvy

Ex-zay-vi-er is hilarious

Why is it "hilarious"? Perfectly acceptable pronunciation.

Erm, no it isn't. A quick google, including listening to how to pronounce this name, shows that "Exavier" is just a made up name from X Men.

The poor kid whose parents used X Men as a point of refernece for their child's name is going to have loads of people querying his name or assuming that his parents aren't very well educated.

OK - I conceded that "acceptable" may be pushing it a bit.

Perhaps "logical" may have been a better choice of word?

It is not a very common name and it is understandable that not everyone will pronounce it the same but I still don't see what is "hilarious" about it (and yes I know that you didn't make that comment originally).

Xavier is Zav-y-ay in my mind? Maybe that’s what you’re saying though?

Ex-saviour is just wrong though.

I’d probably stick with his current spelling although Zavier is fine too - a different language I think!

Ex za vier? As in pronouncing the 'e' in the beginning? . That's weird. Do they also say exylophone?

My daughter has s difficult to pronounce name but at school the teachers make it s point to learn the pronunciation and the other kids say it properly as well. At six years old you could enlist the teacher's help.

@VanCleefArpels

I think you should encourage him to spell it the correct way because as he grows up and gets used to spelling it a different t way he might get in a pickle with the difference between his “name” and official documents eg when buying flight tickets, name has to be the same as passport. This has happened on my family where a child was named eg James but always been known as Jamie

That really isn’t an issue. I’m known by my second name, but use my first for flights, official documents etc.

It’s really common for Catherine to use Kate, William to use Bill etc, changing the initial like your son wants to do.

It’s his name, so I’d let him spell it how he wants. If he still prefers that spelling in a few years time, he could change it officially.

If you know how to read English, you know that x at the start of a word is always pronounced z - xylophone, Xerox, xenophobic. There is no precedent for pronouncing a word with a hard ks sound at the beginning in English. I don't think he should change the spelling of his name - he's just as likely to find people pronouncing it the French way as the X-men way and he won't necessarily always be in the same school as the other child.

I think you should stick with the original spelling.

This is about teaching him not to just move the goalposts for others. A lessons in resilience.

Interesting! I've always pronounced the name Xavier as "Havvy-air". Have I been saying it wrong for the last 30 years?! 🤣

@FootrotDog

Pretty sure you were gonna need the name, hence my NC!

It's Xavier.
We pronounce it zay-vier
The older kid is an exay-vier

He wants to write it Zavier

That's a Catalan name, so not surprising that English people can't pronounce it.

Changing the spelling might cause him problems later in life if his name doesn't exactly match his official documents

It’s his name so I’d let him choose how to spell it.

However, I say this as I had a very similar annoying situation when I was 12 and I changed the spelling of my name adding a Z to it and I’m mid-fifties now and it still has the Z in it.

No problems getting Passport, degree certificates, marriage certificate etc. in my revised spelling and I’ve never bothered getting it changed by Deed Poll either.

@MaggieMooh

Your son goes by a mispronunciation too, because it’s correctly pronounced Zha-vee-air 🤷‍♀️

Or Zha-vee-ay?