If you add random extra letters into a name, don't be pissy when people mispronounce it!

[BoobsOnTheMoon]

I met someone recently who has a young child with a name that is actually quite a old/traditional English name, rare but not unheard of. Almost the perfect sweet spot, you'd think.

When I heard the name I immediately said oh how beautiful, I love that name. Which then set the mum off on a big rant about how nobody can ever pronounce it. Strange, I thought, it's not that unusual and tbh it's pretty phonetic when written down.

Except I found out later via FB that the mum has added two letters to the name (a consonant and a vowel), in two different places, that make it look like you pronounce it completely differently to the way she wants it pronounced. It's not an alternative spelling (which the name does have a couple of, both of which are completely obvious how to pronounce). If you were to see it written down you'd add an extra syllable when reading it out! And probably mispronounce the one of the consonants because it's had a random other consonant put next to it for...no reason? She must just like how it looks

I can't say what the name is because this child is literally the only person in the world with the name spelled that way, I've googled it and got the total of 2 results (both of which refer to this child, via their hobby). The closest examples I can come up with would be calling a baby Phetier when you want it pronounced Peter, or Elixzabieth but wanting it pronounced Elizabeth, or Dharrien and expecting everyone to know you say it Darren.

Anyway I don't particularly care how people spell names but to then be huffy that it gets mispronounced is just silly, right?

Amabelle. In pretty little liars. Of course everyone calls her Annabelle which infuriates the mum who says ITS AMA BELLE! 🤩

The point is, we all understand that Gaelic names are spelled and pronounced differently to English expectations of spelling and pronunciation. As are names from all sorts of countries around the world. But there is an “acceptable” way of pronouncing certain names in England. Adding a few vowels or consonants, doesn’t make you edgy, it makes life more difficult for your child.

Siouxsie

A fan of Siouxsie and the Banshees? That Siouxsie's real given names were Susan Janet, apparently - parents obviously the opposite of edgy and youneek.

😂😂
Very well done! You win the thread for me.

I always believed I was naming a future adult, not a child. My kids have sensible names which are widely understood. People need to get over their stupid ideas of yooniqueness. My young colleague has given her son a name which will constantly be misspelt and misunderstood. 😕

Phillipa?

Haha! That just reminded me of high school, we had a girl called Kayleigh and one of our teachers, when doing the register and reading out her name would always say “is it Kayleigh or kylie?”

Surely after several months and years of being told what it is you’d remember 😂😂

Hana is a legit name. In several languages.

Ayprill is one of the Radford grandkids I think

So silly. My childs school posted some pictures and they spelt a child's name what would be the "correct" spelling, at least 4 members of her family commented really snarkily about how her name was spelt wrong and I thought, someone spelt it wrong and it wasn't the school 😂 Don't know why people get so mad when they are the ones who chose to make up their own spelling

I'd say it couldn't. 'Kay' is always pronounced like that, it's not pronounced 'Ky'. So it could only really be 'Kay-lee'. It's not the best name but I'd say pronunciation wouldn't be the biggest worry.

I don't know where you got that but it's wrong, her real name is Laura Hollins

I think it's somewhat remiss for a school to miss-spell any of the names of the students. There really isn't any reason why that should happen. A name is spelt how it's spelt, you can't change it just because you think it looks naff.

I met two sisters who had what sounded like perfectly normal names think Emily and Joanna but they were spelled Emma-Leigh and Jo-Anna. Another woman who picked her daughter’s names from the dictionary because she thought the words looked nice. Think Enamel and Pyjamas but pronounced Enarmell and Pyjarmay.

I have also met children named after letters of the alphabet, children with unusual feminisation of masculine names and a lot of last name first names like Shaughnessy.

YY 🙂 The Middle English spelling of April is Aprille, Aprill, Aperil or Aprel. They could reasonably be thought pretentious today, but they're just as legitimate as any other old-form names. Averill and Avril are synonyms.

I believe Ayprill is a Manx or Scots form.

In cattle, c is followed by a so it’s the hard c pronunciation. In silence, c is followed by e so it’s the soft c sound. The rules make sense, just most people aren’t taught them these days.

No, she's almost right. It was the actress who consulted the numerologist, when she wanted a professional name to launch her modelling career.

I've seen Avah and Oliviah recently which gives me the irrational rage. It's so pointless.

I know a Rosé pronounced Rose. It gets pronounced 'correctly' more often than you'd expect, I assume people scan reading/not looking closely, but it's so pointlessly completely incorrect, it'd drive me nuts.

I once worked with a couple who named their son Aegon, from Game of Thrones. Not quite the same as OP is describing but equally as batshit IMO. What made it worse was they had both previously been married and had adult children (with normal names) then met later in life and started again, so they weren't 'young and dumb'. They were both teachers!

Cabal
Cable
Car
Care
Case
Cause

Cation but education

Facade.

The rules do exist, but they're far from simple - plus, if working it out from the orthography, you'd need to have a good idea whether the word's of Germanic or Latin origin or is a loanword (and, if so, from which language).

No need to be supercilious.

If she's becoming angry because people who read the name for the first time are mispronouncing it or asking how to pronounce it, then she is being unreasonable. If she's correcting them and they are still getting it wrong (assuming it's someone who sees the child semi-regularly) then I can understand her annoyance.

It's pronounced "Bob" 😂

Have they definitely not got roots in Estonia, or Hindi etc?

Not extra letters but a substitution in an already awful name - Chardonnai

Umm - that’s a correctly spelled Irish name 🤷‍♀️