Baby names you wouldn't choose because of regional accents

[bez91]

Just for fun really... no offence intended!

Is there any names you think sound better in a certain UK accent and if you'd avoid using them because they sound awful in some accents?

Example. We live in the midlands and did quite like the name Leo, it would just be that pronounced short and sweet however in-laws are from West Yorkshire who stereotypically like to hold onto their o's. So it would be Lee-oooooooooooooo

I also think Rafe sounds the best in a north east accent!

Interested to hear more!

Bedfordshire here - I ruled out all names with a 'T' sound at the end, Annette, Colette, Harriett, Elliot etc because I find it almost impossible to sound the T with my accent!

Pearl - pronounced like "peril" in some parts of Scotland. Not a nice word for your name to sound like. Similar to the Carl/Carol example.

I ruled out Paul immediately because H's family are London/Essex.

Not sure how to write it - Paow, probably

(H is convinced that he pronounces the l at the end of hospital. He really doesn't.)

Hearing the name Ewan pronounced in a broad Norfolk accent for the first time was quite an experience - it sounds something like "Ooo-wan". Also Muriel sounds more like Mirriel or Murriel. And Noah is pronounced with one syllable, apparently: Naw.

Mumsnet has put me off the names Joel and Joseph, after discovering that a lot of people dislike the way people with my accent naturally pronounce them (Joel with one syllable, rather than Joe-ul, and Joe-zif rather than Joe-suf respectively).

We had to rule out so many names due to accent.
Alana or Juliana (anything that could be 'arna or ahna' because we say it differently and I couldn't have her having two different names. This also applies to Alexandra which I loved.
Hattie, Lottie, Letty, Kitty etc as 't's get dropped around here (South East London). There is a lovely Letty working in the local hairdressers and I cringe when I hear her called Leh'ee.
Pearl because the l becomes a w.
Thea or anything with th in the middle as DH and family are Irish and say it with a t sound.

I think accent can have such a huge impact on names! The Irish accent makes anything with a t at the end sound beautiful for example but in London t's are so very neglected.
Anyway that's me done!

I’m Canadian and when I hear anyone British saying a name I automatically hear it as the way it’s spelled, it doesn’t occur to me that an H has been dropped, or an L, etc. The only time I’d find it confusing is if an Eleanor sort of name was pronounced Elena as I might not be sure what their name actually was.

When I lived in England I worked with a young woman with a middle class accent (who inexplicably worked at WH Smiths) and I called her Sally (as in sally forth) and she said to me “it’s Solly ectually” (ducking things thrown at my head). But saying “Solly” in the middle of my (not very strong) Canadian accent would have been weird. I have Latino and Asian students and they pronounce my name differently than English speakers but I think it would be rude to adjust their accents.

West Yorkshire - immediately discounted anything with a T in it and anything starting with a H as they just get dropped.

I’m from NI and can’t really say Howard or Graham properly (“hard” and “gree-am”),

For my own children as pps have said the non-rhotic English accents have ruled out lots of Irish names. I can’t stand how Orla and Iarla for example become “awla” and “eala”.

I'm welsh and hearing welsh names said with an english accent is like nails down a blackboard.

I also find the popularity of french names like Amelie and Elodie, and irish names, a bit . They sound lovely in their original language but dull in an english accent.

Louise is pronounced with a nasal weeze in Norfolk. I at the beginning of a name becomes Oi and in the middle of a name becomes U for example Iris will become Oirus. E at the start of a name will often be pronounced Ah or Air for example Ellie = Allie

@RosieLemonade

I can’t my head around what the dropped Ts sound like ?!

Hattie would be “a-ay” with a glottal stop in between the a (like cat) and ay (like hay).

DH’s nickname is Marty, and that gets shortened to Maa-Ay.

Another vote for Cara - I love it but DH and I have very different regional accents, we pronounce the middle "a" completely differently and I don't like his way! Anything beginning with H is out too as he would drop it.

I love Rosa but we’re a couple of northerners living in London and Roooowzaah isn’t going to work!

A friends wife if Rosa and Irish and it sounds divine!

@Terriblecreature I came on here to say Carl. I have a colleague with this name and when he says it with his Norfolk accent it sounds like Carhrul. In London it would just be Cahl.

I also had a colleague from East Yorkshire who called my friend Curry. Her name is Kerry

@cheapskatemum

I also had a colleague from East Yorkshire who called my friend Curry. Her name is Kerry

😂 yes and on the opposite, my west Yorkshire in-laws call curry, Kerry

Do you fancy going for a Kerry?

I live near Hull. Sophie is Serphie. DH is terrible at dropping his aitches. I have a friends called Hannah and Helen who he refers to as Anna and Ellen.

This thread's reminded me, my mum pronounced my name differently to everyone else - she wasn't local. There's an et in there. Locally it's said as an 'it', but she always said it more like a non-rhotic urht.

And I knew an Irish Ciara once, who found my very local 'keee-eh-reh' pronunciation both hilarious yet oddly endearing.

I'm in Essex so no names with a "th" !!!

I always loved Scarlet for a girl I had boys but with a West Country accent it would have been scarrrlut

I saw an old cockney called Harry on ‘ambulance’ (or ‘24 hours’/similar) and he said “my names ‘arry - A.R.R.Y”

Theo. I live in Essex but lm not from here. The majority of people would say Feo

@mintich exactly!

Harper is particularly bad in a West Country accent

‘Arrrrpurrrr!’

What's the accent where "Clare" sounds like "Clayer"? Is that Liverpool? Normally when people pronounce names differently according to their regional accent (e.g. whether they pronounce Alexander with a long or short A) I just think of it as their accent and not a problem, but that one does grate on me a bit - and I'm not even called Clare.

Have to agree with the people who said they pronounce Tanya with a short A even in the south. "Tahnya" sounds well pretentious to me.