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 🙏

Noone, least of all me, said you were lying, I was merely stating an fact that there will always be someone who knows someone who has is etc but it is usually four, five and more on a lot of threads on MN.

You may do, but have you seen all the birth cerificates? I know for sure that three of those names were registered in Wales without the diacritics.
Sïan is very unusual (and a bit ) but it is used.

The ICAO document in question is 9303, do have a read if you’re genuinely interested. It was part of a major review around 2014/2015, prior to which date some UK passports did include diacritic marks.

The stated aim was to harmonise international standards for machine-readability, in order to enhance security of air travel/borders.

Its legal status is a “SARP”, which is short of “standards and recommended practices”. What this means is that ICAO strongly encourages adoption of this standard by all states who are signatories to the Chicago Convention (most in the world) and makes life difficult for those who do not, but it can’t force them.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standards_and_Recommended_Practices

Presumably Ireland, with its controversial history of suppression of the Irish language, chose to prioritise domestic political sensitivities over international harmonisation.

Of course I haven't seen their birth certificates - but I was in school with people with these spellings, why would they use a different spelling in school to their birth certificates?!

(I am from a Welsh speaking area so I accept that I know more people with accents on their names than most people would).

My (Portuguese) name has one and it's really not practical to use it in the UK.

I've found that most IT systems in the public sector don't accommodate for it and it's chaotic to try to "enforce" it.

A diacritic is the correct term for it.

@Anonymousmember667 my daughters name contains and â, it’s Welsh, and it’s not on her passport or driving license, but is on her birth certificate and her bank card.
She isn’t precious about it if the system says no, but tbh I think the fact it doesn’t in 2025 is ridiculous.

I’d never heard it before either. 🙂

Because the names do have the diacritics, but they might have been entered on the BC without the diacritic.

Like with the name Seán, the diacritic changes the sound, so the individual might always have used it.

No they wouldn’t, the name in English would be Irish. Irish isn’t Gaelic. Scots Gaelic is a language.

Sean (with an accent) in English though is just Sean, surely? It's not spelt wrongly, it's just the English form. We don't use accents in English so the accents get dropped but the name sounds the same.

I'd just pic a name without an accent if the accent is going to be really important to you OP.

I have an accent on my birth certificate as do two of my family members. How do you know if people do or not?!!!

I have an Irish name with a fada over my é and it’s on my passport, however it is an Irish passport!

It’s the term used in linguistics for ‘accents’ on letters, but also for markings in IPA that affect how a sound is pronounced.

She’s operating in the U.K. which has at least 2 native languages that use diacritics. So, it really shouldn’t be as difficult as it is to spell names correctly.

Capital letters can certainly have an accent (called a fada) in Irish and Northern Ireland is part of the UK,
For example, the names Éabha, Úna, Órla, or Íde all have accents.

I’m not sure about Scottish Gaelic or Welsh but guessing that Scottish Gaelic at least is similar regarding accents on capitals.

Like all biases and stereotypes, it's completely unreasonable.

Agree.

Yes, exactly. Dear Lord, the lack of knowledge of the obvious on here can be astonishing.

I’m thinking of names other than Zoë here but…English isn’t the only language in the UK so why should the English alphabet alone be considered relevant?

Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Welsh all have accents. These languages shouldn’t be considered ‘foreign’ languages within the UK. I’ve noticed a few posters now seemingly considering English as the only relevant language, but there are a few other languages native to this place too.

Accents aren’t foreign to the UK.

In English, the name Sean rhymes with Bean though.

It's simply not an English name, and if the slender S is pronounced properly, then its fada should be included too, when writing the name.

Pronouncing the name properly (i.e. 'shawn') but spelling it incorrectly (i.e. Sean) is picking and choosing which elements of the orthography of another language you're going to observe.

As an Irish person who speaks and reads Irish, when I see the word 'Sean' I read 'shan'. That word means 'old'. The fada makes a completely different word. I'm sure there are many examples from other languages of an accent or lack thereof being essential to meaning.

It’s not ‘the English form’. For that, you would have to use the rules of English language orthography. Which would be ‘Shawn’ or ‘Shaun’.

‘S’ does not make an ‘sh’ sound in English, as it does in Irish in some positions. ‘Ea’ in English is pronounced ‘ee’ as in ‘heap’, ‘shear’ or meal’.

As @mathanxiety says ‘Sean’ (no fada) in Irish is pronounced ‘Shan’ and means ‘old’. ‘Sean’ pronounced according to the rules of English orthography would be ‘Seen’.

What you’re doing is mangling.

To your last point, absolutely. In French, ‘mur’ means wall, ‘mûr’ means ripe. ‘Mais ’ means but, ‘maïs’ means maize. ‘Tache’ means ‘stain’, ‘tâche’ means task. ‘Ou’ means ‘or’, ‘où’ means where. Etc etc.

What you’re doing is mangling.

Or adopting names and anglicising them. I really can’t see why that’s a problem.

In English, the name Sean rhymes with Bean though

In English it actually rhymes with fawn or dawn.

At least, that’s how the two Seans I know pronounce their name.

As an Irish person who speaks and reads Irish, when I see the word 'Sean' I read 'shan'. That word means 'old'. The fada makes a completely different word. I'm sure there are many examples from other languages of an accent or lack thereof being essential to meaning

In a predominantly English speaking country the chance of confusion is minimal

In English it actually rhymes with fawn or dawn.

@Elbowpatch No, that’s the Irish language pronunciation (more or less) which English speakers still use…though they change the Irish spelling by leaving out the accent.

‘Ean’ doesn’t normally rhyme with ‘awn’ in the English language.