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Bilingual parents pronouncing name differently

36 replies

Leeloo1233 · 30/05/2021 12:45

What do you think of parents pronouncing a child's name differently depending on their culture? Slight pronounciation differences are just cute in my opinion but for example the name Iris is pronounced quite differenty in my language (Eeris).

Will this confuse the child and do I always stick to the pronounciation I use with her, even when I'm speaking english to my husband?

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Violetlavenders · 30/05/2021 14:39

Iris is pronounced so differently in English (Eye ris) than in most languages (Eeris), I don't like the English pronunciation so that would put me off.

ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia · 30/05/2021 15:14

From personal direct multilingual family experience this is simply linguistic anglicisation modifying foreign words, names, and phrases to make them easier to spell, pronounce, or understand in English. Young infants with native multilingual backgrounds will not have issues with any words or variations of names in their particular default mother tongue languages. Many well known international names naturally includes using phonetics to translate original English into other languages too. To illustrate this the globally well known non Anglophone origin corporate Samsung in original Korean is 삼성 Samseong or Chinese Hanja (as Korean originated and developed from Chinese) 三星 tristar or three stars, combined representing powerful eternity.

CuteOrangeElephant · 30/05/2021 15:19

We're a bilingual family and purposefully picked a name that is pronounced the same in both languages.

At my work we either speak English or Dutch depending on who is present and my name is pronounced completely different on both languages. My colleagues use the pronunciation of whatever language is spoken at the moment and that is fine.

partyatthepalace · 30/05/2021 19:05

Parents with different accents pronounce names differently, I think it’s fine. As the child gets older they may decide they want to stick with one pronunciation or be happy with two.

Posieandpip · 31/05/2021 07:27

My children's names are said one way by me, another way by DH and his family, and a third way by friends and classmates in the country we live in. Not to mention nicknames! They're not at all confused

Chilldonaldchill · 31/05/2021 23:30

I don't think it matters at all.
I know one couple where their daughter is called Elizabeth by one parent and Elizabetta by the other - I have no idea which is on her birth certificate but English people call her Elizabeth (which is most people as they live in the UK) and the Italian family call her Elizabetta. It doesn't seem to bother her.
I know another family with 4 children. The oldest and third have name pronounced the same (think William), the second has a name which sounds a little different in dad's accent but it's more or less the same. The baby is Gabriel. Mum says GABE - Ree - uhl the "English" way. Dad says GAB- ree-ELL-ee. No one bats an eyelid.

Leeloo1233 · 25/06/2021 15:36

Thanks everyone for all the inputs. It does seem like kids adapt easily, so I guess it would only bother me Grin

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NothingIsWrong · 25/06/2021 15:40

Welsh/English household here. Their Welsh speaking dad says their names slightly differently to me and none bat an eyelid.

spiderlight · 25/06/2021 16:23

Same here - DS has a Welsh name, and over time I've gradually drifted towards a slightly more strongly Welsh pronounciation of it while DH (English) has gravitated towards a slightly more anglicised one. I don't think DS (now a teenager) even notices.

Kanaloa · 25/06/2021 16:24

I think it would be absolutely fine. Our friends are Chinese and their little girl has two totally different names. If mum is speaking to her in English she calls her by her English name and if they speak in Cantonese she calls her with her Chinese name. The little girl isn’t confused and she just says she has two different names, she knows they are both her name.

KeflavikAirport · 27/06/2021 10:52

Bilingual family, names pronounced differently in each language, it's never been an issue.

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