Unexpected ways your baby's names are mispronounced

[CoalCraft]

I have two daughters, Beatrix and Lois. I thought these were two classic names with a single settled pronunciation each, with minimal room for misinterpretation, at least by native English speakers. Both was I wrong!

For the avoidance of doubt, we pronounce these names...

• bee-uh-trix
• lo-iss

And yet DD1 is often called "beet-rix" and DD2 is often called "Loyce", as in rhyming with voice.

i usually let the first go as I just think "close enough", but I can't resist correcting "loyce" 🤢

Beatrix is sometimes also called "Beatrice", which is an understandable mix up that we did expect but is annoying when even family do it, and Lois is often misheard as "Lewis" so that people assume she's a boy. Not bothered by either of these when the general public do it though.

So what unexpected mispronunciations or misinterpretations did you encounter after naming your baby?

I’ve got an Isolde. Nobody has a fucking clue where to start with that one! Most people who have a stab at it say is-old, or occasionally is-old-ay, which I actually think is nicer than the correct pronunciation. 😆

Would it be Is old uh? I think that's how I've heard it pronounced in relation to the story but it's a while ago now!
V unusual but cool.

That's my problem too! My Louis gets called Lewis all the time - sometimes I think I should have spelt it Louie but I prefer the s spelling haha I don't even correct it but say his name as it should in further conversation

How do you pronounce it? It looks very pretty

I am welsh and would think loice for Lois too

Not my baby but a friends - Ottilie mispronounced as Oh-Tilly or Oatilly

Yesterday in Tesco a lady asked what my DS was called and when I said “Jasper” she heard “Jezebel”. She looked quite shocked.

I have a William who is often referred to as Wee-yum.

I know a man called Brady
it really winds him up the amount of times people call him Bradley
nothing against any Bradley’s but it’s not his name!

A few years ago, I didn't know how to pronounce Lois (had never heard it said out loud).
I remember an episode of Murder She Wrote years ago, with a character spelled Lois, but they pronounced it as Louise.
Later, I worked with a Lois, and some US colleagues pronounced it Louise too.
Now I'd say Low-iss.

Should Ottilie be pronounced Ot-tee-lee-ay?

Taliesin. Pronounced by us Tal-Yes-in . Tal (short a as in Al), Yes (not quite as harsh as Y but close), In.
Tally-sin is the general pronunciation but he will also answer to Tar-lee-sin,Tar-lie-sin and ‘There’s a name here beginning with T?’.

Wow I never knew you said the a in Beatrix either!
I have a Pippa who is always called Peppa by children about 5 and younger for obvious reasons 😂

@Coolyule it’s is-ol-duh. It’s Germanic, which is why the e is sounded. Loads of different versions of the name, and I must admit I enjoy hearing all the different pronunciations that people come up with.

My first encounter with Beatrix was Beatrix Potter and I always thought it was just two syllables - Bee-trix.

I don't think I really came across it again until Trixie from Call the Midwife and I can remember thinking "Beatrix, how unusual. Like Beatrice but different. Never come across that before."

I would see it mentioned occasionally and wasn't sure how to pronounce, and tried to pronounce it Be-aa-trix but found it a bit clumsy to say.

Was a while before it clicked that I was familiar with the name (Beatrix Potter) but because I had grown up with it I had never thought about or queried the pronunciation.

Lois, whilst biblical, isn't very commonly used, I don't think, so I can understand why people might struggle with it being similar to Louise or Lewis, or think it's pronounced Loyce by sounding out the OI sound. But I guess once you point out "like Lois Lane" it should be east enough for people to understand / remember.

I was going to say exactly this!
I always just assumed people would have heard of Levi’s and say it the same but I hear Le-Vee all the time.

@Apollonia1 , Ottilie is Ott-ill-y, but in German is Ott-ill-y-uh.
@Theyorkshirelass , a miss is as good as a mile.
@Neverknowinglysensible , Welsh names are usually problematic. Years ago, a friend called Nia would get called Nina, Nigh, Nigh-a, Near, and 'What's your name again?' . The worst mispronunciation I heard was Gwenlli (presumably short for Gwenllian) being said as Gwentchie.
@jonesy1999 , Lois is very popular in Wales, and like other biblical names is pronounced phonetically in Welsh, so is pronounced Loyce.

@SkyeJ90 , The surname Levy is pronounced Leevy. I'd not think that anyone would get Levi wrong either but maybe they do.

Some people have no interest in names. It's not personal. I can't imagine not knowing how to pronounce Lois or Isolde. That surprises me, but I guess I have no interest in car names and would forget them/not know how to pronounce them. Some people are like that about human names!

The one that gets on my nerves is the pronunciation of Craig by Americans - Cregg I worked over there sadly with lots of Creggs and grated on me every time I heard it.

Oh and Michelle, mee-shell rather than miss-shell

@xJ0y , I agree. Some people just don't care about them, and will not understand why it matters to you.
They will try to map a name into something they are familiar with, so the Brady/Bradley one makes sense, and they won't get that being called the wrong name seems insulting.

My name is very simple and I can't understand why people get it wrong, but they do. Most commonly, they lengthen it, but often they'll change it to something with some similar letters.

My Tabitha is sometimes tab eee tha which annoys me! And Tabatha but that's an alternative spelling and slight vowel change mid word so unless they know the spelling g it's hard to know

I do too. They often get Levvy.

My daughter always get's called Layla and it's Lola

To the PP who said that "Welsh names are problematic", no they're not, they're simply from a language that is not English. If you have a problem looking up and pronouncing names from any language other than your own, that's a you problem.