To resent my parents choice of name for me?

[Blaengwnfi]

This is a rant - apologies.

I’ve always hated my name.

No one can pronounce it. Not even my father or siblings. It was always read out incorrectly at school and the other kids would laugh at me. It gives me major anxiety having to introduce myself.

I use my middle name professionally but it doesn’t feel like “my” name. I feel so angry with my parents sometimes for burdening me with this name.

Parents - please think before giving your kid a weird or “unique” name! It could really mess them up…

I don't say it with r. The ^ over the â makes the a long but there is never the r sound - Siân

Can registrars query wrong spellings like Dennis but meant to be Denise?

The poster would have a non-rhotic accent. The 'r' would not be pronounced.

@AustinsPowers , " I hate oddly spelled names.
The one I struggle with a Sian.
I think it looks like Sigh Ann or See Ann.
God knows how it is pronounced Sharn."

It is Siân, not Sian. It is not oddly spelled. God gave us Welsh, and that is why it is pronounced as it is.
It isn't pronounced Sharn.

Feel your pain - Myfanwy as a middle name , even the vicar at my wedding pronounced it My fanny

Untoasted bread with nothing on it. I think it’s extremely boring without even the virtue of being pretty (which some boring names at least have). And she will meet dozens of people with her name throughout her life.

I also don’t think a name can be ‘pretentious’ or ‘showoff’. That extreme desperation for conformity is a British hang up that I thankfully don’t have.

@KimberleyClark , I'm welsh and have a much-mangled welsh name.

If I did have a Welsh name I’d find the idea of changing it to make it easier for English people to pronounce rather offensive.

Me too. The comment by a pp about Siân being oddly spelt was bordering on offensive.

Alright Mfanwy, calm down!!

Actually, I do agree with your post to a certain extent. Parents should realise they are choosing their child’s name, not their own name. I deliberately chose “Prime minister” names for mine. Maybe they won’t want to be Prime Minister, but they could.
Some people say you should be able to use a name you love (YOU do but your child may not) and if it hinders their career it’s due to snobbery. They are right but the fact is it probably will.

Oh I know it isn't. 🙂 It has to have a roof over the â!

Indeed!

The one I struggle with a Sian.

I think it looks like Sigh Ann or See Ann.
God knows how it is pronounced Sharn.

You know that different languages have different letters and pronunciation rules, right?

The fact that one of the front runners for PM is named ‘Rishi’ and we’ve got a Cabinet with people named ‘Sajid’ and ‘Kemi’ on it rather bludgeons that point to death.

There was a boy in my school called Scott Haggis, nojoke.

This was my guess too!

Also my DH swears blind his mate Seamus's brother's name is Festus.

😂

I don't quite understand the anger to your parents. I have names I didn't like and didn't feel like me. How were they to know? They didn't know me in terms of what my personality would be or how I'd turn out. I was always called a completely other name as a child which did feel like me and then I changed to that properly as an adult. It was a bit awkward each year in school to explain it but not the end of the world.

It's quite conventional in some places to for men to have their father's name and be called by their middle name, for example, so I don't see why you couldn't just have done that. You say noone can spell your name. I have a really really easy to say and easy to spell name and noone spells it correctly. I don't really care and it doesn't offend or impact on my sense of self. I just am a bit amused/roll eyes about it as I don't really understand why as it's so simple. It seems to me that you must have been very shy and self-conscious as a child and I can understand why an attention-grabbing name was a horrible issue for you. But I don't understand why you couldn't just use another or a nickname at school or why it's still such an issue for you now as a grown-up. I think resentment towards your parents as an adult over such a thing seems very extreme to me. Most people get teased about something. I was teased about my surname which isn't even that funny. It wasn't nasty teasing though. If people were nasty teasing or bullying then that is traumatic but probably to do with the people doing it rather than you or your name.

You know that different languages have different letters and pronunciation rules, right?

I think people struggle with this part but I don't get how you go through life never mixing with people from other countries & cultures!

why would you think this is the right thread to ridicule names?

i mean, it's dickish anyway but do you really think this is the right thread?

Kwasi, Lucy, Simon, George, Elizabeth, Priti, Thérèse, James, Dominic, Nadhim, Ben, Kit, Greg, Steve, Alok, Anne-Marie, Grant, Sailesh, Suella, Nigel...

It’s interesting, isn’t it? Lots of English people seem unable to get their heads around even Welsh and Irish names, much less anything properly ‘forrin’.

‘Classic’ Anglo Saxon names only! Anything else is ‘show off’, ‘difficult’ or ‘tacky’. Lord help us all.

Oh - the rhotic R... every time someone posts "it's not pronounced Sharn" I try to work out how it is pronounced. Is it just the rhotic R? So Shahn (which is the same as Sharn in my accent)

Yup, he still can’t pronounce it. Neither can my brothers. It’s infuriating.

I mean if you are well into your adulthood and your own siblings and father refuse to pronounce your name properly that is an issue with them not your name. It only takes once or twice of hearing the name to know how it is pronounced, to continue to say it wrong is just rude.

Im the opposit, I had a common name and did change it to something unique.

My parents where hoping for a boy and picked a boys name but I arrived sans penis. They paniced and just used the first girls name they saw, which happened to be the number 1 girls name at the time.

I started going by a nickname at 8 (well my mam used the nickname as long as I can remember but I started introducing myself as it at around 8) at 12 I came up with a longer version of the nickname and as soon as I was 18 legally changed it.

My names pretty rare in this country and gets mispronounced a lot but I wouldnt want to be Rebecca Louise again, there was 3 others in my class in primary school and we had to go by surnames (and a Rebecca the year above even had the same surname).

I dont buy people truely hating their name but never doing anything about it, if you didn't/don't act then its on you and you choose to keep that name and can't blaim your parents for a choice you also made for yourself.

As it is my name, I know how to pronounce it. There is no r. I have been called Shane Shaney, even Shyann ( by those who do not speak Engkish as a first language) but it is the spelling which bugs me the most. It is my only name so I dislike it when the ^ is missed. It is a different word without it. Siân!!! A first world problem but still...