Name spelling rules

[AngSam]

I have a question. Are there any rules on spelling and pronouncing names? How about correcting people on how to spell and pronounce names, would you bother?
Example, girl named Joan (general pronouncing sounds like John) but her is Jo An?
Or Laura not Lora but LAUra
Your thoughts?

If anyone ever mispronounced my name I would be ABSOLUTELY LIVID. Correct them in every circumstance! It is a sign of disrespect to have your name said wrong.

Are there any rules? Not really, I'm not sure what you mean.

Laura would be pronounced differently in different countries, for example - it's fair enough for an Italian Laura to get English people to pronounce it her way. Is that what you mean?

How does Joan sound like John??

Joan doesn’t sound like John.

Yeah.. You're not making sense?!

I had an argument with my auntie about unusual spelling of original names, to her it changes the whole name or cause trouble in everyday life trying to spell the name or correcting it.
Is it not enough to tell people how you want it to be pronounced or spelled? Like above name Joan? 🙂

Joan is not pronounced John. I dont understand the Laura pronunciation. I would say Law-ra

Well I would never say Joan as Jo Ann as it's Joan. Is that sound what you meant be saying Joh-n. Hard to spell it phonetically. If people spell names oddly they can't really complain when people mispronounce them.

So Joan is pronounced Joanne?

More like J-own

She said why not to give Joanne instead of Joan, if the parents want same pronunciation 🙄

I agree. If you want it pronounced Joanne then spell it that way

A nursery parent shrieked at me because I said Louis to a child whose name tag was Louis. ( My first day)
It’s LEWIS...LEWIS!! she screamed.
Well you’ve spelt it Louis. What do you expect people to say?

I think, though it's hard to tell from your posts OP, that I agree with your aunt. If there's a name that you like the pronunciation of, you give your child that name with its usual spelling. Don't make up some other spelling, even if you think it looks more phonetically accurate.

Years ago I read a book with a heroine called Roane. I spent the whole book flipflopping between rhyming it with Joan and with Joane. In the end I had to message the author and ask her.

I think I agree with your auntie as well. It’s all very well saying people should adapt to how you want it pronounced, but god life is too short to correct people every single day of your life.

Joan and Joanne are two different names.

There was an Emmalee at my kids nursery. Pronounced Emily..... why not just not mess with names!? Gives me the rage! Weird spellings of very common names seems so unnecessary

Joan and Joanne are not pronounced the same. And neither the same as John. People aren’t mind readers, if they see a name they’ll assume it’s the normal pronunciation.

Agree with your aunt too, if it's an unusual name with an unusual spelling then that's fine, you tell people how it's pronounced and carry on, but you can't just decide to pronounce a name a completely different way from the 99.999999999% of everyone else and expect that to be generally accepted and not constantly pronounced wrongly.

Exception is when it's someone for whom english is not a first language or they live somewhere where english is pronounced differently and common names in the uk are not common there. i.e. Indian colleagues call a uk colleague Low-ra instead of Laura and another Ann ee instead of Anne. They are sort of following the phonetics but it's not quite right.

If you want Jo ann then it really needs to be Joanne or Joann or with a hyphen. Joan is Jown

I once new a Karen who insisted everyone pronounce it Kay ren. Did my head in.

I’m a bit confused, but I think I agree with your aunt. If a name has a pretty ‘standard’ spelling that will mean everyone knows how to spell and pronounce it (like Joanne does),
just use that spelling?

My names is pretty simple, except in England it's ALWAYS spelt wrong as it's welsh, only by one letter! I always correct people, also I correct their pronunciation sometimes but have given up as it's just dialect.

My daughters name is always spelt wrong, and people tend to use a nickname I don't like with her. I correct people every time

I'm honestly a fun person

By the way my daughters name is Isobel.. husbands half Scottish probably outed myself!

One of the many reasons I left my arse of a husband was that he took it upon himself to tell people how to pronounce their own names. For example, we knew an Aaron. He and everyone else pronounced it Arran. Arse-face insisted it should be prounounced Airran.

Ok think of Lucia. You cn say it the Spanish way. (Luthia) The English way. (luseea) or the itallian way (Luchia). SAme name.

When I learnt RE at school it was Moses and Aaron ( pronounced Airon), but nowadays it seems to have morphed into the Arron pronunciation.

People choose to spell or pronounce name differently to make it unique or unusual? I don't know 🤔. Maybe it's better to use common sense and not to make child's life more difficult.
Surely in different languages you might pronounce Joan with an a but not likely in UK.