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 🙏

I don't think you'd have a right to insist on a letter that isn't part of the English alphabet, which I don't think acute accents are. We only use them on loan words and often drop them even then. Pretty sure people from, say, China, can't insist on having their Chinese name (which is their correct name, after all) held in Hanzi.

It looks lovely but it will be more trouble than it’s worth. Youre burdening your child with having to ask continually for people to spell her name correctly. In my work I’d not even know where to find that letter and symbol on my keyboard so she get a usual “e” not one with a line. And good point a pp raised about searching on databases. Sorry OP. Dont do it.

As the vast majority of people in the UK have no idea what the little dots and squiggles above letters in foreign languages mean, does it matter?

Yes you can, we registered my daughter’s name with a diacritic and it’s on all her official documentation.

I am with the pp that Chloe has two dots if you are doing anything with it.

I’m a Zoe with the umlaut who finds it does matter. I always use the umlaut when handwriting things, usually in typing but not always and find myself a bit annoyed if friends forget. Organisations generally don’t support though, my passport and driving license do not include an umlaut for example. You would expect it doesn’t matter and everyone knows the name so would pronounce it correctly regardless but you’d be surprised. Often people try and put a Y on the end or pronounce it Zo which is technically correct without the umlaut. My dental hygienist calls me Zo every time without fail no matter how many times I correct her and I feel a bit silly correcting because technically she’s right as their computer system doesn’t include the umlaut even though I put it on all the forms. It’s not that big a deal but it is a bit annoying.

If it has an accent, does that change its pronunciation to ay instead of ee? Like café?

i know lots of people called siân. Most would hand write the â but when typing some just use a normal a. With a normal a, the pronunciation isn’t quite right in Welsh.

if you need the é because it alters the pronunciation to the one you’re going to use then go for it. If you’re going to pronounce Chloe the normal way then why would you have an é? I wouldn’t bother

Except it’s correctly spelt if it is spelt in the way you intended. Plenty Irish people in Ireland do not use the accent. Obviously the fada, or lack thereof, can change the meaning in Gaelic, but unless you’re a Gaelic speaker i
this isn’t such an issue.

Chloé will find she’s either called chlo-ay, or it is missed off… do you want it pronounced in a French accent?

Unless you are actually French or of French origin and plan to pronounce it Chlo-ay then please leave the accent off. English people who don't understand what accents mean sticking them on names randomly is ridiculous and makes you look ignorant. Same as people who choose 'Beau' as a girls name. It's literally the masculine form of the adjective.

My native language has lots of accents but I would never give my child a name with accents precisely because they will be dropped as a matter of course in the UK. We live here and will long term so why choose a name that's going to be purposefully misspelled and annoying to fill in online forms etc? As I see it, we don't have a right to "demand" people write in a spelling that doesn't exist in the country's official language

Our DD is Zoë. She always puts the dots when writing. They are mostly left off official documents (but are on her birth certificate) but we accept that is a likely outcome of choosing the name. She does get called "Zo" occasionally which always surprises me as it's not exactly a rare name.

Actually Siân is good example as its a welsh. But a PP said accented names are not allowed on UK passports, is that correct? A Siân has to just be Sian on a UK passport?

The accent does change the pronunciation - in Zoë or Chloë it tells you to voice the "e" sound and not pronounce it like "toe".

And a good solid royal king of the english name like Æthelstan ?

We made a conscious choice not to put accent on. Most people don't know how to when typing, we thought it would just add unnecessary complications. No one has ever mispronounced.

Yes it's not allowed on passports or driving licences.

Do you pronounce Zöe "zo-way"?

Names in UK passports are written with capital letters and capital letters don't come with accents. Even in French you don't write the accent if it's in capitals. Hence French passports only capitalise the first letter of each name so accents can be included.

Where's the 'w' coming from?

As others have said it will change the pronunciation to Clo-ay which is odd. I have a common Irish surname with an apostrophe in it which causes me enough headaches with online forms. Some websites accept it, some don’t. Surnames we’re fairly stuck with but first names we aren’t. Please don’t burden your child with a name that you will probably be pronouncing incorrectly just to make it look ‘pretty’ or ‘different’ which will cause her issues in the future. Just leave it off.

actually it's even more different " chlo-AY" versus "CHLO-ee". The stress is completely weird. Like "Gay Par-EE" not PA-riss.

it's how zo- ayyyy will come out, the mouth makes a w sound on the way between those two vowel sounds because it's not fluid to create a glottal stop between the vowels of o and ae.

Accents might not be, but German umlauts certainly are (though can't presently think of a person's name that starts Ä, Ö or Ü).
Edit - there might be some Turkish names.

No, Zo-ee

If it was an acute accent it could be Zo-way I suppose, but the diaresis shows the "e" should be voiced (as an "ee" sound).

The usual way of saying single syllable words ending in "oe" in English would be to use an "oh" sound like in doe or toe. That's why there is a diaresis on the e (not the o) of Zoë.

By diacritic do you mean accent?

Is this a known problem for systems not to cope with accents?

Though I doubt anyone in this country is spelling Zoe or Chloe with an accent anymore.