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?

Yup Lois is Loyce In welsh

My Dad was a Louis from Brittany. His name was pronounced as one syllable. Lwee. He had a hard time when he moved to Canada, it being pronounce Loo-wee or Loo-wis. I thing the common English pronunciaton is Loo-wee with emphasis on first syllable.

I am Michelle, pronounced Mee-shell growing up at home, but Mish-elle now., even by my siblings.

I have a Millicent and she gets Melissa a lot. And over the phone people sometimes think her name is medicine!

My daughter Raegan (Ray-gan) has been pronounced Ree-gan a few times. Annoying because I chose the spelling to try and make the pronunciation more obvious 😂

Cora pronounced as Cara. I think it must be an accent thing (or maybe they are hedging their bets as there is a Cara in the class too 🤔).

My son is Asa, regularly get people saying 'ass-er' and also assuming he's female? The name is biblical and as old as time, so I genuinely didn't think it would baffle so many people.

There is an Arab boy's name Aaser, pronounced ass-er - maybe some people have confused it with that.

My DD is Delilah and mainly at the doctors surgery she is called Delia! Im always correcting them!

I love the name Asa. ❤️

My youngest DD is Iris. She occasionally gets called I-riss (I think it's a common European pronunciation) rather than Eye-riss, but mainly people get her name wrong and call her Ivy or Isla 😂

@minmooch

Sadhbh is an Irish name.

It rhymes with five.

what to your ear is the difference between I-riss and eye-riss?

I-riss would be like the I in India or Igloo

@LorenzoVonMatterhorn , I think she meant it gets said as Irriss not Eye-ris

Interesting to see that the phrase 'butchering a name' apparently means 'not pronouncing it the English way'.

@contrary13

Aoife is 'Eefeh'.
Eoin is 'Owin', sometimes rendered as Owen. There's very little difference.

Niamh is Nee-uv.

They're Irish names and follow Irish pronunciation rules.

And 'ett' for 'ate' is an older pronunciation of the word. It's common in Ireland among older generations.

In the family we have an Evelyn pronounced Eve Lyn bit people always pronounce it the more popular way of Ever lyn. Theres also a Bethany who gets stephanie or Becky when on calls.

@LorenzoVonMatterhorn, yes sorry, not very good at explaining it! But I-riss I meant with a very short I sound like in phonics and the word 'in' or 'it', rather than my DD's pronunciation which is eye-riss.

I have a daughter named Orla but we like in the east of England. We pronounce it Or-luh

is that incorrect?

Live*

William. Annoys the hell out of me when people say Will-yum !

Thankfully he's old enough now that most people call him Will.

@ClannadSinger , but it is Will-yum.

@LittlemissMama67 , it tends to sound like Aw-luh in parts of the UK that don't have a rhotic accent. The irish pronunciation is mor like Orr-lah.

I have an Elodie - pronounced eh-lo-dee, it doesn't look hard to pronounce to me. But often people overthink it and say E (like capital E sound) and "low" so it sounds like eee-low-dee. It makes me laugh! I always correct. It meant once we were in A&E for an extra hour as I didn't hear the nurse call her name as she said it like that and it was soooo busy and loud.