To not use proper spellings when naming your child

[Catterpillarsflipflops]

Am I being unreasonable to think it's ridiculous to use a funky spelling of a normal name. I spent today dealing with lost paperwork for a child as the person that took the details didn't think to check the spelling as there is no other spelling of the name.

It looks silly and just causes no end of problems for the child. It also disadvantages them as straight away people get an image of what the child is like.

I've seen

Jaymz
Ezmay
Lil-leigh

Yes i agree. It was just a bit strange that they "gave in" and used the English spelling as the known as name rather than keeping the spelling of their heritage. I'm all for learning and accepting the different heritage of others. I hope i didn't imply otherwise.

No, it was clear you were just pointing out the hassle they created for themselves. It's just unfortunate that micro acts of racism (which this is) caused them to feel like they had to do that.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying spelling it Tina is an act of racism. However, once you have been corrected, it is a micro act of racism to not at least make an effort to spell/pronounce it correctly.

I have yet to meet an english person who can pronounce my name correctly. However, most try and that is all I ask. The person who informed me she preferred her pronunciation of my name and would continue to use that was, I believe, being racist. She was a lovely woman otherwise and would probably have been shocked if I told her that.

The majority of my clients are from Overseas, many from Asia.
The first time I speak to them I get them to tell me how to pronounce their name properly and what they prefer to be called. I write them down phonetically in their file and make damn sure I get it right to their faces.
Its not actually very hard to do if you want to.

Not if the parents are Polish. Totally normal spelling.

Ah seriously 😂

This is like cancel the cheque 🤣

My fault for not RTFT!!

Like about 100 other posters!
😆

Oh well…that will teach me 😉

Kids bully other kids. If your kid has a stupid name, expect them to be bullied. Also please don't give a name which rhymes with surname.

A school friend married her OH who has a surname which rhymes and sounds a mouthful. She kept her maiden name.

But are you going to pronounce it the Welsh way too? 😀. LL has a very distinctive sound.

Can I ask what is the welsh way of pronouncing it? I'm not British so hopefully that will excuse my ignorance😀

Is that REALLY racism, or just very rude? I can’t see the racist element at all.

Not excusing how they behaved, but racist?? No.

Yes I have already been corrected by multiple people. Thank you. I learnt something new on Wednesday. 🙂 (Sorry could resist!)

Couldn’t resist… 😉

No Idea, I haven't mentioned Racism

Message for OchonAgusOchonOh
🤣 I was so hoping you wouldn’t ask that! It involves a lot of ‘tongue behind front teeth’ shenanigans! It’s difficult to describe, but if you say ‘th’ with an ‘l’ on the end, (so ‘thl’) it’s pretty close. Don’t worry too much! You need to worry when someone asks you to pronounce
‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndrobwllllantysilliogogogoch‘!. That is a village in Wales and it’s no wonder even the locals call it ‘Llanfair pg’! My Nan was Welsh and she taught me to say it when I was small and I’ve never forgotten it.
As for pronunciation, if you enter the name of the town as a search on Google followed by the word ‘pronounce’ it will say it for you. You need to turn the volume up, of course.

Glittertwins · Today 14:47

Oh well…that will teach me 😉

I doubt that there's a single poster here, who hasn't jumped to the end of a thread and then seen that a correction has already been issued...

Guilty as charged!

I can only assume you have not been victim to the myriad micro aggressions experienced in the UK daily by the average Irish person (I can only speak from personal experience so can speak for other nationalities/ethnicities). It's always just a bit of banter / it's too hard to say etc etc.

Racism also refers nationality from a legal perspective.

Some people want to be creative and like you I hate that.

But there are some people who like a name but have no idea how it is spelled and never bothered to look it up.

I knew a Shevonne and it was not a creative spelling on purpose. Her parents just had realised that it’s spelled “Siobhan”. They registered it as they heard it. She said they discovered years later when they were discussing it with somebody.

I am an Irish person (with an Irish name, to boot) living in London, and no, my life is not a constant onslaught of micro aggressions.
Maybe it’s the company I keep?

As I said previously, most english are perfectly reasonable people. A lot of the micro aggressions are not from people I would generally hang around with. It's the "banter" that is micro aggressive. I also lived in England in the 80's when it was outright aggression, rather than micro aggressions.

Perhaps you have just accepted the claims that it's "just a bit of fun" and not to do so would be a lack of sense of humour on your part.

I do wonder if people have mentioned this since Wednesday, in order to inform @tulippa ?
Perhaps she would be grateful.

Maybe I'll just wait until I need to learn...

It's interesting the way Welsh, Breton and Cornish got all the consonants while Irish, Scottish and Manx got all the vowels in the alphabet division in Celtic languages.