Names spelled with diacritics

[Anonymousmember667]

Apologies if this has been discussed or answered before but I have a question if anyone knows the answer, or who to ask or has any experience please?

So some names have diacritics, usually the name originates from another language other than english. Maybe the most common ones being Seán, Siobhán, Chloé, Zoë, René, Beyoncé etc etc.

Say for example, the name Chloé, Are there any issues registering this name with the diacritic on the “e” in England; on the Birth Certificate, with the NHS, in the school system, with banks, on her passport, driving licence etc etc.

Most people wouldnt know but Its simple to press the alt gr button + the letter to get most of these diacritics on a keyboard or hold the button on an apple keyboard, but do government systems and organisations systems generally support diacritic names?

Is there a right or expectation for organisations to spell your name correctly in England? Doesn't GDPR say this?

Is she destined for a lifetime of her name being spelt wrong or is she allowed to be a Chloé with an “é” !?

Thanks for any advise or experience anyone has 🙏

In Scotland, you can now ask for diacritics to be used on birth certificates. No idea about the rest of the UK.

The spelling is correct, spelling is the way letters are arranged - it’s an omission of a mark you’re referring to. For example, they’re / theyre are both spelled the same but the apostrophe is missing in the second one.

It's short for 'butty' which means a fellow-workman, friend, pal.

According to Wright's English Dialect Dictionary it was widespread in England.

The word travelled to the USA and turned into 'buddy' and 'bud'. American English changes t to d in some words - listen to the way Americans say 'duty' and 'beauty'.

That’s really interesting, thanks.

I’d consider a word spelt without an accent as being spelt incorrectly I have to say.

Without the accent the word is pronounced differently and often has a different meaning, or more usually no meaning. At least that’s the case in Irish.

If the baby is not born/registered already, then I would simply avoid the issue by not using a name with accents on it.

I received some tickets through the post today, even though the electronic form I filled in excepted my name (Siân) when I looked at my ticket my name is written as "Si?n" 😔

Do you pronounce it with an upward inflection? 🙃

Therefore, theyre is spelled incorrectly. There's no such word as 'theyre'.
Using a contraction as a comparative example doesn't really work.

As Whatpattern says, the word and the letter itself can have a different meaning without the accent, in Irish, at least.
For example é is a word in Irish, meaning 'it'. Without the accent it's simply the letter e, agus sin é.

Would it be Sh?n or See?n

I'm guessing Chlo -eh instead of Chlo - ee

Unless you need the diacritic to make the name make sense in your native language, it just makes no sense to use a name like that in the UK where those diacritics don’t exist in our language. As you say it just opens up multiple possible administrative issues for the child. My husband is of mixed European descent and we speak two languages, one of which uses accents (diacritics) and we would never use them in our child’s name as we are British and live in the UK.

What about Welsh speakers @ELS20 ?

Is Wales not part of the UK anymore?

Appreciate you are referring to UK passports but given the OP gave two very Irish examples in Seán and Siobhán (I would assume OP must have an Irish connection to consider these names but maybe not), I can safely say that Irish passports absolutely allow you to use the fada (á) as it is an integral part of the name. If the OP has no Irish/French (Chloè) connection, I personally think the use of ‘diacritics’ is nothing more than a meaningless affectation

It’s not accurate to say ‘capital letters don’t come with accents’ - Irish passports are written with capital letters and still include accents (fada). A quick Google tells me French passports also use capital letters but I’m not French so couldn’t swear to it

The spelling can't be correct when you choose to use wrong letters.

Some (european) languages, if faced with a need to write without accents would replace the accented letter with two letters, for example ö would correctly become oe.

That's just some French hesitance. Czech passport has no issue with ŠTĚPÁNKA ČÍŽKOVÁ

There are three French passports in my house, only the first letter of each name is capitalised.
However I have since remembered that Emile comes with an accent on the first E, so I expect they put the accent on the first E in French passports.

@AussieManque , if you have three French passports in the house and one of them is Émile's, why don't you check if it has the name as Émile or Emile?

No one is called Emile in my household so I cannot check how it looks in their passport. I said Emile is one (French) name I can think of that does come with an accent on the first E.

Oh OK. Étienne, Éric, Édith, Élise, Élodie ...

The French passport shows names with the accents. Noémie Édith Miramón
would have her first names as NOÉMIE,ÉDITH.
(looked for images of French passports)

Nobody ever bothers with my fadas. To be honest, neither do I unless I'm sending Irish relatives a card.

Hi! From my own experience, I’ve not had any trouble with accents at all. Most systems now support them. Two of my kids have accents in their names, and they’re usually written correctly. Sometimes older systems might just show the plain names, but generally it’s fine. People tend to be understanding if you ask nicely. Overall, I’ve found it’s not a big issue.

The spelling is incorrect because the letter a and the letter á are different letters.