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?

You can hear the name said in this link.

forvo.com/word/orla_fitzsimons/

They aren’t pronounced the same either really. People (even in Wales)will pronounce Owen as Ow-in, but in Welsh it’s O-Wen. With an eh sound not an ih or an uh.

There are two pronunciations listed there.

ɛt- like vet
eɪt- like hate

both are accepted and valid pronunciations if the word ‘ate’.

My brother is Taliesin and my mother used to get SO mad when people would say ‘tal-ee-es-in’ 😂😂

I’ve never as a welsh speaker heard anyone pronounce Nathan as anything but Nathan. It’s not a welsh name so I’m not sure why anyone would.
It IS true that welsh people (not all accents but some) ‘flatten’ vowels that are traditionally diphthongs in English accents. So the vowel in ‘nath’ which most English people would make an ay sound (like in hay) doesn’t have that y on the end. So it is slightly different, but I’ve never heard it as Nath like bath.

names are pronounced differently in many languages. Welsh is a Celtic language and you only have to look at a map of where the celts came from to see that Greek names and Celtic names will have similar roots, but will have different pronunciations over time.

DD2s middle name is Sian. As it's only a middle name it's very rarely said, but the very first time in hospital a nurse pronounced it "Shane". Urghhh

@TheOriginalEmu , there were a couple of Nathans at school and the teachers would say Nath-an unless corrected to Naithun.

Nathan isn't particularly used as a Welsh name, possibly because it might seem like a 'Catholic' name. Welsh-speakers tend not to be Catholics.

The name is from the Old Testament, and generally, Welsh speakers will pronounce Bible names phonetically.

@DacwMamYnDwad @TheOriginalEmu I wonder if the Nathan thing is particular to a very specific chapel going older generation? I am Cymraeg and have never heard it pronounced anything but Nay-than- other biblical names, such as Moses or Job, are pronounced differently in Welsh ime, but not Nathan (and I was an Ysgol Sul stalwart so I would have expected to have heard it from the older members chapel perhaps...)

Maybe it’s a regional thing then, I’ve never heard it in my kids schools in Swansea area and I have 5 kids so I’ve known lots of Nathan’s, but obviously I know things vary a lot.

Could well be! My grandparents were Ysgol Sul fanatics so I know the type you mean. 😂 I went as a child but we never had any Nathan’s so I can’t say how they’d have said it.

@DacwMamYnDwad love the user btw.

I know an English Siân who’s mum saw it in a book and liked how it looked but didn’t know how to pronounce it so she’s called Sigh-Ann.

@TheOriginalEmu
I've heard of that happening. And now people insist that it can be pronounced either way. Nope. If it was any language/culture other than Wales no-one would dare say such a thing!

I can understand how it used to happen, this Siân is 40 years old so there was no internet, but these days there is no excuse to mispronounce names really, If you aren’t sure then Google it.
my biggest pet peeve is people who pronounce Seren as Seh-run. It grinds my gears, it’s such a pretty name and it’s ruined by that 😂

@PotatoFacedWombat , you probably wouldn't have heard about Nathan in Sunday School. The name as a boy's name is not unusual, so you'd have only heard it as Naythun. If you had never heard the name said, and were reading a welsh bible, you'd probably say Nath-an, just like you'd say Eli as Elly or Jacob as Jack-ob.

@TheOriginalEmu , thanks.I totally agree about the anglicisation of names. I don't particularly like the name Seren, but it is ruined by being said as Serrun. Similarly, Bethan said as Bethun etc. but this is MN and you can apparently say welsh names however you wish.

There's a baby on The Archers (Radio 4) called Seren and they say it as seren, not Serrun, and every time her name is mentioned by her father, there are a few posts on how he says the name in an affected way, and one user says 'but he says it correctly'
Seren

there were a couple of Nathans at school and the teachers would say Nath-an

I've only ever heard it as Nath-an. Like Math or Nathaniel. Never heard it as Nay-than

My family are from North Wales and Anglesey. Grandparents are in their 80s.

Urgh. Well that’s irritated me 😂😂

Ah, well that’s a very different part of the world. My own grandparents would be 100 and 97 if still with us and my Mamgu didn’t speak English until she was an adult but claimed to have a hard time understanding her cousins from the Gogledd 😂, but then she also claimed that kebabs were made from horse, so…😂

DS is Hugh. Not easy to mispronounce, except by the one person who pronounced it 'Hug-huh'. We found it so amusing that it's now his nickname.

Yes in North Wales Lois is Loyce but weirdly stretched IYSWIM: Loy-ss because of Welsh being "pronounce every letter": so to my anglo ear it's L=le O=oh I=ee S=sss. for Beatrice I'd pronounce the spelling variables differently. The one above: Bee-uh-triss. Beatrix: Bee-uh-trix.

I think you are confusing me there @UnattendedPotato . I've only heard Lois said as Loyce not L-oh-ee-ss. The oh-ee run into each other to make one syllable, otherwise you'd need a dieresis.

@OneTitWonder , scottish Hugh gets 'shortened' to Shuggie.

I do wish sometimes there was an audio version of mumsnet lol. You're right it's more Lo yeess because the i in Welsh is pronounced ee of course. But round my way I'm always surprised by how long a two syllable name can take to say. To my learning ear it's like everything is emphasised all at once.

It rhymes with voice. If you are hearing Lo-yeece then it might be regional, or your hearing.
With some names, you can't train someone with no ear to hear how it sounds.