Anyone with a non-British name?

[ttcAlex]

If there's anyone on here who has grown up in the UK with a non-British name, how did you feel about it while growing up and how do you feel about it now?
Do you love it or would you rather your parents gave you a "normal" British name? Have you ever struggled with fitting in issues and does it bother you to correct people on spelling/pronunciation?

Bump as I'm curious about this too!

Double barrelled Western European name. I was 6 before I could confidently spell it correctly I go by a shorter nickname but get my full name mispronunced and misspelled regularly which pisses me off more than it should. Please give your child a short, traditional, easy to spell name.

No, never had an issue with my name. However, my name has 5 letters and it is easy to pronounce; it is actually pronounced the way it's spelled.

My mom's name is Sajma. The "j" in Sajma should be pronounced like a "y". Nearly everyone pronounces her name wrong.

My DF has a very Scottish name, but is clearly not from the ethnic group people expect when they meet him. He finds it hilarious.

Yes! I have loved it especially because it was my grandmothers name too and so I have always felt a connection to her although she died just before I was born.

Love the connection to the heritage it has given me too.

Although my surname before I was married was one of the most popular British surnames..which put a dampener on things! haha!

Me! Born in late 70s, grew up in 80s, sometimes wished I was called something like Claire or Sarah (as loads of girls in my school had those names) but come senior school I started to get ok with it (didn't hate it at juniors, it just felt a bit different, I reckon in this day and age no one would have thought twice about it)

I love my name now. It's still bit unusual but that's so much better than having a name everyone of my generations has. (Sorry all the Claire's and Sarah's! No offence intended!)

Forgot to say, frequently correct people on my name still, doesn't bother me though, I'm used to it. X

For a year or so in primary I wished I had been named Sandra. But TBH the bullies would have found something else to torment me over.

Apart from that, I have always felt comfortable with my unusual foreign name. People often ask me about it. If I fancy engaging then I will give them chapter and verse about it, if not then I just grin and say "Yup, that's my name."

It's easy enough to say, but I accept that in English it's pronounced subtly differently to in my mother tongue, and I even pronounce it the English way when I introduce myself to English speakers and the mother-tongue way when I introduce myself to speakers of my mother tongue.

What does annoy me, though, is that people maul my name when reading it, and then really struggle to get the correct pronunciation fixed in their heads. My name is spelled exactly according to the phonetic rules of English - you can sound it out even if you've never come across it before - but because someone famous pronounced their name one way but wrote their name a different way, people default to their way. It's as if your name was Ephen, pronounced Eeff'n, but people insisted on calling you Eev'n (because of Stephen).

So if you're going to give your dc a name from a different language, make sure it's been transliterated into English by a proficient English speaker who will understand not just how people will sound it out but also what irregularities the spelling might have.

Me! Got a bit of teasing but my parents were reassuring. Love it as an adult.

I am used to being called tens of incorrect variations on my name. It bothers me that people can't swallow their pride and ask up front about spelling & pronunciation sometimes.

My first name is british but not english. Always gets misspelt or mispronounced. I would not recommend it. If I go to the GP, the receptionist will call out an approximation of my name and I'm lucky to recognise that they are calling me. Prescriptions are often misspelt etc.

If people vaguely remember my name they'll usually pick a vaguely similar but - to me at least- hideous name.

I generally don't correct more than once. People don't like it and I go by a nickname. It's easier to ask them to call me Dan.

Yes, I used to have the most common boys name in the world, so people could generally say it properly. However it did lead to quite a bit of blatant racism at school, from both pupils and members of staff. The joys of being brown in secondary school in the early 2000’s.

As an adult I completely changed my name, none of my names now reflect my ethnicity, not because of a race issue, they’re just names I liked. My new name is short, very easy to spell/say and isn’t overly common.

One thing to consider is that people with names that aren’t typically British are less likely to be called for job interviews.

Times have changed, a child now growing up with a “non-British” name would be treated very different to a child growing up in the 70/80s.

I doubt that. If your name makes you seem a bit different they will try to bully you. Simon's original name is one of the most popular names now, so he would probably be ok, but kids will be kids.

My name can be spelt several ways. I wish my parents had spelt it the typical British way. It's been a pain in the neck my entire life.

My DD2 has a non-British 'top 3000' name and gets far less rudeness and bullying that involves her name than DD1 who has a very British top 100 name. There are just more associations that people can use. If DD2 had a more obvious or familiar foreign name, the story might be different, but bullies often pick the most randon shite to pick on, rather than just specifically unusual. I mean, my spouse in primary had bullies insult him for walking too quietly...

DD2 is more likely to use a nickname and get comments on her name, nearly all positive, and rarely bothers to correct people's spelling and mishearing. I've had some very odd interpretations over the years (but I get that with my own name). I think finding books and things with her name in them helped her. This is something I've for all my kids, but she attached to hers more.

Mine is now well known, but was incredibly unusual. I had an unusual name and then my parents moved from the North East of England into the Home Counties. So I now had an unusual name and an accent that was rarely heard in that part of Hertfordshire. Life was pretty shit for a few years, made worse when I became pretty much the only child with divorced parents in my school year.
I still hate my name, but would never change it as my parents both love it.

Mine is common in France but unusual here, I’ve never met another one and I love that, I think I’d be freaked out if I did! It is easy to pronounce, sometimes spelled wrong but I don’t mind. People complement me often. For me it is a good thing.

I wish I had a 'boring' British name growing up, now I love my more 'exotic' name - it's very 'me'

My partner and our sons have non British names. They all get mispronounced and I have to remind people how to say it initially. However ive found because they're unusual names it makes more impact on people, the names are not difficult to say at all and I have a common name that is constantly confused with another varient so its not exclusive to non British names. There are so many unusual names about these days too, British or otherwise.

DH has an Irish name, quite unusually for someone of his age, and also has an Irish language surname. When he moved to England for work in the 80s people hadn't a clue how to pronounce or spell it, and before meeting him made incorrect guesses as to his nationality. It's not even a particularly difficult Irish first name. Even his credit card arrived with his first name spelled incorrectly, because whoever issued it decided that what he'd put on the application form couldn't possibly be the right spelling and changed one letter to another to make a completely different name without bothering to check. Pure ignorance, really. These days people are generally more accepting of unusual names.

I have a non British name but iI am British.

I don't like my name but not because it's non-British.

I just think it's too long and I don't feel it's ever suited me.

Bit of an opposite here, I have a very common English name, it has a few variations of spelling it and mine is the least common way of spelling it. It obviously hasn't been an issue for me people pronouncing it wrong. And everywhere I go I tell people how to spell it if its necessary. I had a manager who had a daughter with the same name but with the popular spelling and he routinely spelt it wrong. Luckily it hasn't really bothered me, if I need to give details over the phone or anything I just spell my name out. Because if I dont people will not spell it right 😂

I had to change my name to a more 'common' nickname that people can pronounce and spell. Growing up yes was annoying and I tried to change my name so many times to make it easier for others...

My name is uncommon in the UK, common in my Mother's home country (without being specific, benelux country) and is of Hebrew origin. I grew up partially abroad in a country were weren't linked to and it was never noticed, then once we moved back to the UK I was relentlessly mocked for my name, I hated it, thought it was ugly and awful as that's what people told me it was. I wished for a 'normal' name that people could spell without thinking and didn't think was horrible.

Now, I think back and just think how incredibly pathetic it was to mock my name, which is actually beautiful, uncommon and suits me. It took a long time for me to feel this way though, and people still pretend they can't spell it, when it's incredibly simple.