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?

I would fight to the death to be on that committee! What a great system.

Agree, but the previous poster wasn’t sure how to pronounce it

Stop giving people ideas 😂.

I know an Elijyah ...pronounced Aliyah... she's never getting that pronounced or spelt correctly... her mother was a moron, so not the girl's fault.

Haha

Bheowulffe

I hope we wouldn't have to fight for the job, @viques. We could jobshare. Not in Iceland, though.

Ooh I wonder if we know the same one! 🤔

I love the fact that the ‘fish’ meme taking the piss out of the english language has a pretty glaring spelling mistake in it 😂

A chap I used to know dated a girl called ‘See-Anne’ spelled ‘Sian’. She was most adamant that Sian could not be pronounced any other way 🤨

I know a Sharon , gets annoyed when pronounced incorrectly- apparently it’s pronounced Share-ron 😉 . ‘Course it is love.

I have seen Caitlend written down, not 100% sure how they pronounce it though.

I came across the opposite of that - written as Maisie, pronounced as Macy (as in Macy's department store).

Shay-ron is a less common pronunciation of the name spelled Sharon.

I used to know a Suellen. Her mother was a Dallas fan.it seems.

Why it wasn't hyphenated I'll never know ( Sue-Ellen )

As someone with a reasonably common/traditional names with a legitimately billion different spellings I feel for the kid.

I have even had customer service reps telling me that I spell my name to me as an adult.

It’s not clever or cool to give your kid a name that they will constantly feel victimised by just to feel different. Do it as a middle name

I worked with Share-on years ago. Only one I have met.

That’s so bad it’s almost good. Almost.

Ah, the traditional Surrey name.

Free rein … not reign.

Is Keyanti meant to be Chianti, the wine?

I was teaching a girl with a name like this. She had to spell it out for me during enrolment and I said it was an unusual name and she said yes, it tells the whole world that my mother is illiterate. She was going to change it as soon as she could legally.

@GarlicPile I love language too, especially because of all its ridiculousness! I stumbled when I read (red/reed?) 'outliers' in your comment; 'liers' as in 'hoteliers' or as in 'liars'? And do we ever call someone who's lying down a 'lyer'/'lier'? 'Misled' is another word that trips me up. Mizzled?

I agree with you not posting the name, but it'd hard to say whether you're unreasonable or not without knowing the name. It could be entirely reasonable, and you're just not reading it correctly. We only have your word for it that this is not the case.

My name is sort of like this in that it’s a fairly popular girls name but instead of ie it’s ea
but you pronounced with normal ie so it’s pronounced normally

But it’s always a case of me spelling it as people get it wrong which isn’t there fault I have only ever met one person with the name spelt the same and she was a tiny toddler

I used to know a girl who’d been lumbered with Channell – her parents had been aiming for Chanel 😭

I came across a Shyvonne pronounced Siobhan. It was written down and I pronounced it phonetically, as it looked but was corrected to Siobhan.

I just assumed the parents weren’t very bright. I always assume that when I see “wrong” spellings of names.