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?

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I don't know anyone who says ate as eight, and I've lived in several different parts of the UK.
I'd say Jeannette as Jin-ette, although it's probably Zhan-ette

I'm in Scotland and have never ever said et for ate

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I know an Eoin, and when I had only seen the name on paper, I thought it looked like a Gaeilge form of John, so my inclination was that it might be pronounced Ee-in/Ian. Fortunately, I asked someone, and she said 'Owen'. When I hear the name Eoin Morgan, I think of a welsh man called Owen. Owen and Eoin don't have the same meaning.

It’s eight for ate in North West England.

I have a Dante and he gets called Dontay a lot (which I hate!). I know it's not an English name (DH is Italian) but I thought it would be easy to pronounce, it's literally spelt Dan so no idea where the O comes from.

Oh, and I would say ate and eight the same way.

Which part of the NW? I've lived in the NW, but it's a big area.

My mum is from Bolton in the NW and says them the same, in fact I remember her telling my sister off for saying "ett", she called it lazy English!

I also would have corrected my children if they said ett for ate.

The more common spelling of DD's name has a silent letter which I dropped. Like Phoebe spelt Phebe (not her name) I am confused by the amount of confusion this seems to cause. It was a silent letter that played no part in pronunciation, a left over from the language of origin.

I say eight a sandwich.

I pronounce Jeanette as JIN-net.

Jeanne I have no idea how to pronounce!

I have never heard anyone pronounce it that way.

That’s the equivalent of someone saying ‘I seen…’, ‘I done….’ to my ears.

So sorry for the diversion into how to pronounce my mother's names. Think Etta Fitzgerald's first name, then, minus the 'a' (and understand that I tend to shy away from phonetic "spellings" or representations because I'm old and my brain simply refuses to work that way!). My father's side of the family would scalp me if they caught me saying "ate" as anything other than "eight", because yes; it is lazy English to pronounce it any other way... yet at the same time? It's weirdly not. Go figure. Each to their own, and good luck to ye...

With regards to Eoin, there's Eion (which is pronounced "Ian") - which I think a lot of people lean more towards. My partner's sister is Aoife, pronounced "Ava", although I've also heard it said as "Eva", just for fun. Niamh, by comparison, is a lot easier to decipher, albeit equally cultural and pretty to boot, but my mother's name is French, in origin, and mangled by a mid 20th century rural Welsh Borders inhabitant (ie, my Nain - pronounced "9" and meaning "grandmother, or nan"). As is my name. Apparently in this family, we like to keep the torture of names going (my daughter's name is Portuguese, to reflect her paternal grandmother's familial heritage - and no one but she and I seem able to pronounce it correctly, either!).

I thought Aoife was more like Eefa than Ava

I use both "ett" and "ayt"! But I say "ayt" more commonly. I mostly only say "ett" when I'm trying to be comedic and consider "ayt" the default.

And I've only known one Aoife and she pronounced it "ee-fuh".

Tbf, I would have said "jean - ette" (with a question mark in my voice) if I saw Jeannette written down.

I would say "ate" the same as 'eight' too. I think that is pretty normal.

My DD is Anya pronounced "An-ya". Pretty easy I thought. But she regularly gets Aine (pronounced "Ohn-ya"), Anna, Enya and, on one memorable occasion, Onion!

Id say "bee-trix like I'd also say "bee-trice"

I am embarrassed not to like the Welsh pronunciation of Dylan

More misheard than mispronounced but someone thought we'd called our daughter (Orla) Paula 😂

Paula!!! Oh my g00dness
And yet, pronounced the Spanish way, it's lovely, imo

That is wrong - Lois is not Welsh, it is Greek. The Welsh often butcher it, but it is not correct, despite what they claim

I dont know why the Welsh do that - it's not even a Welsh name, it's Greek. Rude really, to decide how to mispronounce a name.

@TallulahBetty , the name Lois is from the bible, and if the Welsh language was good enough for Iesu Grist, it's good enough for the rest of us.

As it happens, many Christian countries used the Loyce pronunciation of Lois.