Accent ruining all our name choices.

[mangoespadrille]

DP and I, and both our extended families, are Manchester born and bred and speak accordingly (think The Royle Family, Gallagher brothers, Coronation Street etc.) DD1 is on the way in January and we're trying to think of a name. The problem is the huge number of names around at the moment ending in -ee -ia and -a sounds. We like a lot of them but, when said aloud in our accents, they sound terrible; for example, at the antenatal clinic yesterday there was a lady with girls called Lexi (Lex-eh) and Olivia (Olivi -uh).

We don't like the current trend for "old lady" names (I have one despite being born in the 80s and have never liked it). Any ideas? Do you think our accent matters or am I over thinking this?

Our next-door neighbour has a grand daughter named Heather. Lovely name but unfortunately mangled by Brummie accent and pronounced as Heatha. It goes right through me every time and I consider myself a proud Brummie!

We live near Manchester and our daughters go by shortened versions of their names that have 'y' endings. We pronounce it properly, so do our daughters, but I have noticed lots of our friends use the 'eh' sound instead.

But really so what. You will never find a name that is totally accent proof. We could have named them something Manchester proof, and they could end up living in London, with a name that sounds daft there.

Rose wouldn't work in Manc accent because of the flat "o" sound. They pronounce it more like ROARS.

Oh I hear you OP! One of my children's names is completely butchered when I take them to my inlaws. It sounds horrible. Not saying where in the country.

You just have to practice saying it in the broadest variation of your local accent and see if you can live with it!

This thread has made me smile. I have relatives from Manchester who have a 'Daaaze eh'. Apart from thinking Daisy is a cow's name, it sounds terrible.

However, up until now I always thought that people didn't hear their own accents which is why people have 'phone voices' etc. Interesting to read otherwise.

I don't think you're overthinking things OR being snobby. It's important to consider how names might sound in your local accent.

I'm from Essex and there's a little girl called Annabel I sometimes see at playgroup. Problem is, when her mum calls her name, all I hear is "AnnaBEWL! AnnaBEWL!"

I think the point about Rose was it would be turned into Rosie as a nn, and the ie ending would be 'eh'.

It's a joke for 'Our ('R') Rosie/Fred/Bert' I think.

I also like, for your purposes, Kate.
But then you would have to fight the Katie I guess.

My ILs (with a strong regional working-class accent which pronounces 'Th' as 'T') can't pronounce our son's name properly. My own parents (same accent) initially had the same problem but have actually begun to manage it ok.

But we don't live in the same country, so it's a different issue to choosing a name you have good reason to believe will be mispronounced by everyone your child meets...

Wowzer! Thanks for all the input - it's good to know I'm not completely crazy! We've been mulling it over and have come up with a short list of Grace, Iris, Jessica (DP's favourite, despite the 'a' - hmm, we'll see), Gabrielle and Rose. I love Kate but Ts tend to disappear in Manchester too.

Out of interest, I looked up the names of the Gallagher brothers' daughters: Anais and Molly. Molly's not too bad I suppose but can you imagine, "Our Anais's 'avin a chippy tea"? I guess little Anais doesn't spend too much time hanging around the Arndale though.

*please forgive terrible punctuation - brain on half term break

I think Anais was probably chauffeur driven through Manchester once, tinted windows and no touching of the locals. 'See where Daddy grew up Anais'.........and she was then promptly shuttled back to Primrose Hill.

I can confirm that they can pronounce Grace although they do extend it, to Gracie.. (With the 'uh'....).

Watch out for Gabb-eh as a nn for Gabrielle.

Jessica would be nice imo - goes down well everywhere. You could use Jess as a nn.

Could still end up as Jehssseh though...

Ann is pretty clean in terms of pronunciation, or other single syllable names like Pam, Claire (although that could come out as "Clehrrr", I suppose)

As a child, I moved from the Manchester area to the home counties. My new teacher was reading the Rosemary Manning dragon books to the class. I couldn't understand why the dragon insisted the little girl (who had just met him) referred to him as 'our dragon'. I found out years later he goes by the name R. Dragon.

How about
Alison
Jocelyn
Marianne
Carmen
Eden
Erin
Mirren/Merryn
Robin
Saffron

When I was PG with DS2 who is 19 I said if it was a girl I would call her Xanthe. I lived in a particularly crap part of Kent at the time, and everyone said 'Zampfy? What kind of a name is Zampfy?'

Thank God I had a boy.

And in same said crap part of Kent anything with an ee sound on the end could sound like aye.

Vick-Aye

Kayl-Aye

And-Aye

Anything with a th sound would automatically become f

Ethan = Efan, Beffanie, etc.

And anything with a T would get the dreaded glottal stop. Not too bad at the end of a name, like in Margaret = Margare 'uh'

but fucking grim in the middle of a name, like Peter = Pee 'uh'

I had to move in the end. My children's vowel sounds were becoming like fingers down a blackboard.

fingernails, obviously

Actually it would be Beffan-aye. That would be a double jeopardy name.

Sorry -- posted on the wrong thread - ignore...