Frances? Does it matter if we pronounce it differently?

[hopeful4us]

Currently expecting baby #2 and struggling to find a girls name we both agree on.

Frances is top of our list but my husband is northern and pronounces it clipped: 'Fran-sis'. I'm from the south and pronounce it 'Frarn-ses'. I'm happy to adjust my pronunciation but my family will also likely say it the southern way and my husband is concerned our baby will dislike it/get confused.

Anyone with a similar name/various regional pronunciations able to comment on whether they find it irritating?

This is actually why I didn’t name DD1 Frances! It’s her middle name instead. I’m Canadian and DH is from the north so we pronounce it the same way, but I knew that she would ultimately have two pronunciations based on where we lived, and it bothered me too much. However it is a fabulous name!

I know a Frances who changed her name by deed poll for precisely this reason - even within her immediate family there were two different pronunciations. So I wouldn’t do it.

I think it's an odd thing to be concerned about. Surely there are many surnames that are pronounced differently in different accents which people readily accept. It shouldn't be all that different for a first name.

That’s rude! It’s my mum’s name and is lovely (she was called after her dad who was Francis as he wanted a boy). Fran/Frannie not Fanny were/are shortened versions.

OP, I don’t think it matters about pronunciation being different due to accents.

What about Francesca? She could then be Cesca. As well as other shortened versions.

My DH is Frances. He pronounces it the posh way and my family and I pronounce it the Northern way. No one cares!

Its a horrible name regardless of how it is pronounced. One my Father liked but thankfully vetoed by my Mother. I would usually think the the Fran-sis pronunciation was more for male version Francis where are Frarn-ses is more female.
Francesca is much nicer.

@hopeful4us , I think the child will be OK with the two pronunciations.

I like the name but it will be misspelt a lot, and some numpties people will assume she's male.

I know several families where the parents say their child's name differently e.g. one parent has a rhotic accent, the other not, one parent says th as f etc. I don't think it's caused confusion.

It will be fine, it’s just different accents.

My DD’s name is pronounced differently by DH family, who are from another country.

Even when Dd was tiny and just learning to talk it was fine - if she heard her name called in the “English” pronunciation, she would say “yes?”, if in German pronunciation she would say “ja?”
If speaking to an English speaker she’ll introduce herself as X, if to a German speaker she calls herself Y.
It was completely automatic to her and never remotely an issue, as far as she’s concerned it’s just her name, said in two different ways.

I'm sorry, I must have missed the "r" in "barth" when I learned to pronounce it incorrectly.

You’d be wrong about the different ways of pronouncing the female and name versions differently. It’s entirely dependent on accent.

Oh the irony of some of the folks in this thread dismissing things as 'horrible' 😂pot? Kettle?

I also need to know how posh southerners say ducks - I knew about baths and garages, but that's a new one to me!

Frances is a gorgeous name, she'll be perfectly fine with you pronouncing it differently!

This is my name. I took your thread title as a personal call! I’m Scottish so was originally short ‘a’. Came to south of England and was immediately called ‘Fran’ (which I hate), probably in order to shorten the ‘a’ which they would otherwise have lengthened. But when I’m called my full name, it’s short or long ‘a’ depending on the person’s accent.
I find a lot of things irritating in this world, but regional variations of my name are certainly not. It’s solely an accent thing, not a different name.

Thanks mate. And wrong about the pronunciation anyway.

@Pootles34i for one am extremely upset that some random folk on the internet think my child’s name is “horrible”. I’ve cried all day so far about it and am now seriously considering changing it by deed poll.

🤣

Didn’t mean you obv Piglet!!! (Love the name Piglet) 😉

That was my DM name. The most annoying thing was, apart from her family, most people used to spell it Francis!

@MynameisFrances123south easterners cannot deal with names longer than a syllable: it’s a statistically provable fact. I was at uni with a woman called Amy. Her friends shortened it to “Ame”. Laura became “Laur” and so on.

It’s my daughter’s middle name and especially I always say as Frances. I think Francis pronounced is for male, but with E is female form.
Since I was about 14 ( Dirty Dancing Fan) I knew I will have Frances name one day, however I didn’t want Fran or Franny or Francesca so I used it only as second name.. Still so beautiful…

Different spelling but same pronunciation though no?

I really like the name. I knew a nice one growing up who was a neighbour. Her parents were Scottish living in SE England. I'm sure they pronounced it in their usual accent. I dont think either of you need to change how you say it naturally.

I say with ,, e… FrancEs

It's an accent thing and if it's bugging you enough to pop it in here, I'd think another name might be in order.

Although, how would you pronounce Frannie? It'd rhyme with canny/Annie/Danny yes? Would that be a happy middle ground? Or everyone calls her Fran? (because fraaarnces would surely still be Fran to rhyme with pan/man/ran in either accent?)

Or you go into it knowing people will pronounce it differently depending on where they're from. It's not an incorrect pronunciation, it's just regional differences.

My kid's got a Welsh name that gets all sorts of pronunciation and we just roll with it. It's pretty rare and he likes it. We live in Wales so most of the time it's no biggy.

I think people either shorten or they don’t. Maybe not. I always feel really self-conscious at the thought of shortening a name unasked whereas I know people who do it after 5 minutes!

I actually recently met a man called Frances!
But yes
Frances pronounced ess
Francis pronounced is

Ah ok. I don’t think I’ve really heard anyone do that with my name. They very often spell it with an ‘I’ though.