No one can pronounce my baby's name!

[Bewilderbeastie]

Had my baby this year - decided upon a name which is definitely not common but (we thought) really not difficult. It's very short, two syllables, no special characters, nothing odd about how you pronounce it (it's very say what you see).

We both saw it, loved it, didn't consider people would she trouble with it... But they do! I've heard every wrong iteration of it. Even when we say what the correct pronunciation is, people continue to struggle?! We've been witnessing this with growing horror and worried now we've saddled our child with a name that will haunt them for life. Every time I hear someone say it wrong, I cringe inside. I can only imagine what it's going to be like for my LO.

It can be shortened even further, so that's an option. But it's not the name we fell in love with.

Any tips on dealing with this? Both my husband and I have very trad names so never had this ourselves. It gets a bit awkward to keep correcting people... Help!

@user1493494961, Ellw would be a very strange name for a girl.
Elliw on the other hand is a pretty name.

@CthulhuInDisguise, believe it or not, Alwyn isn't a welsh name.
Arwyn and Alwen both are.
I know a few Alwyns who are welsh but the name isn't.

@InfiniteSheldon

I'd also like to know why Dan e elle is wrong

I've usually heard it pronounced just 'dan-yell' (as opposed to 'dan-ull' for Daniel, and with more of a stress on the final syllable), so with two syllables not three. I have heard it both ways, though.

@InfiniteSheldon

And how do you pronounce Fifi I on.

This ^^.

I remember a thread on MN where someone called 'Helen' was upset that her in-laws called her 'Hel-un' rather than 'Hel-in', even after being corrected - that one is quite difficult because it's not so much that there's a right and wrong way as a posh and not posh way, and it feels awkward to demand that people pronounce it in a way that will feel very unnatural in their accent - if a non-RP accented person says 'Hel-in' it sounds a bit like they're taking the piss.

My guess is that, going by her posts, that OP's baby has a straightforward, popular, name like Manon, Mali, Betsan, Ffion, Tesni, Seren, Catrin or Nia, and that family, friends and various other people come across find impossible to get right even if they hear it said many times.

My sister has an unusual Welsh name (our mum was Welsh). It has a very easy shortening but the full version is a bit more tricky so I wonder if it's that? If so, it's fine, my sister is someone whose name everyone remembers and she never has to say more than her first name on the phone.

My name is a bit unusual too tho not Welsh. It starts with an H and people often call me Helen at first try (lots of people my age called Helen!) but I don't mind really.

My young brother is called John! I think my dad put his foot down!!

Well if you cant tell us the name, your post is pretty pointless isnt it.

I think you just have to give them something to rhyme it with. It’s something for them to remember and ‘hang it on’ in their mind until it is established in their brain. Eg ‘Gaia rhymes with flyer.’

Ok ... I have only just read that it doesn’t rhyme with anything. You may have to accept that this will be the norm then.

Is it Lowri? A beautiful name.

I think the answer is to ask close family members to be completely truthful. '"Are we loving the roots of the name and unconsciously pronouncing it with a soft Welsh inflection and lilt which makes it difficult for the listener to catch certain sounds?". And: "Is the wrong way people try to say this name completely awful, or should we just put up with the mangling and be cool about DD having to put up with mispronunciation? And: " Is the mispronunciation actually virtually the same - and we are being precious?"

I've got a totally different view of naming to what I had years ago. I now think that a name is a tool for getting through life; it's for easy identification. Of course if people are going to say a person's name differently to how it will be written down, it's going a pain at the least and potentially more negative if confusion and misidentification results.

Parents spend much of their child's life being told, rightly, that what matters is what is best for the child, and the child's choice is what is important. Therefore, I think it's useful to give a name which the recipient can play around with and shorten or add a 'y' to suit themselves. Among friends, nick-names are given, partners use pet names, kids say 'mum'. It's the official identification aspect of naming which needs the careful thought -IMO.

Lol at the people saying you should only have to correct people once. If only this were true...

@LunaLula83, if OP said something like "DD's name is Carys and we live in Derbyshire (or wherever)". it would pretty much out her.

I pronounce Danielle as Dan-yell and Daniel as Dan-yull. Everyone I know with those names where I grew up pronounced them the same way.

I would love to know OP's DD's name but it's probably sufficiently unusual enough in England as to out her if anyone she knows sees this thread.

I also suspect it's something like Nia being mispronounced as Near, Tesni as Tez-nee, Bethan as Bethun, Megan as Megun, or Gwenllian as Gwenleeun. The last four could be shortened to Tess, Beth, Meg and Gwen respectively.

Out of interest, how would Tesni be pronounced authentically? Gwenllian?

I thought it was impossible to mispronounce Ffion!

@Diverseopinions, Tessny

Nia gets mispronounced as Nigh-ah.

Just 3 letters and they f**k it up. This was on Radio 4.

It also gets Nai.

Is Rhian pronounced Ree-ann then? I assumed it was like Ian but with an R in front.

I'd say Danyell not Dannyelle.

I suppose ffion could conceivably be Fy-on rather than fee-on.

I know a Lauren who gets Lau-on (to rhyme with moron) rather then lo-ren.

My name is sometimes mispronounced. It's a minor irritation at best.

I get called Ell-ay-nah, Ellen-or, even Helen. I don't mind. My friends say it right. I love my name and its slightly unusual spelling. Don't change your daughter's name. I bet she'll love it as she grows up.

Nia gets mispronounced as Nigh-ah

My friend has one and that's how she pronounces it. I supposed it could be Knee-ah (is that how you say it?), but I've always thought of it as Nigh-ah because of my friend's child.

Adelaide - Rhian is pronounced Rhee-Anne. There is no R in Rhian as Rh is a letter in Welsh.
www.bbc.co.uk/wales/livinginwales/sites/howdoisay/names/index.shtml?rh

Welsh has a different alphabet to English, it doesn't contain the letter K for example. It has letters with don't exist in English - Ll, Ch, Rh, Ng, Ph, Ff. Ff is pronounced like F in English and the letter F in Welsh is pronounced like the English letter V.

So Hefin is pronounced Hevin, not Heffin, for example.

In my experience Nia is mispronounced as Near as the 'A for apple' sound in the letter a tends to become 'uh' in a lot of English accents.

I'm half Welsh/English, born and raised in England and I have to work hard not to slip into Near for Nia and into Ei-ruh for Eira.