Is there such a thing as Creative Pronunciation, and isn't it a bit...

[Mahauld]

...mad?

I mean where people use pronunciations they have decided on which are obviously wrong.
Is it really bad manners to correct them and isn't is just 'creative' pronunciation.
Or is it acceptable to make-up your own pronunciation as some make-up names?

Hyacinth Bucket

It is mad, and just sets the poor child up for a lifetime of spelling out his/her name to various officials.

DH has an unusual/hard to spell surname and he spells automatically to people - even his own brother. So we definitely had to go with a user friendly first name.

You can't really correct the creative pronouncers though, they take offence.

Nuttery. Utterly nutterly.

"Her name is Madison, but we pronounce it Kayleigh." That sort of yoke.

Says an awful lot about the parents.

Jme [rofl]

ha ha like Jme Oliver.... he's Jme too! What a larf...

Some names just have different pronunciations. We're going to call our daughter Lucia - has about 4 different perfectly valid pronunciations that I can think of off the top of my head - so we picked the one we liked best. Obviously we'd not be offended if someone plumped for the 'wrong' one at first - just politely correct them and that's that.

I do think it's silly when someone takes a name like 'Jim' and insists that it's said 'Yai-im' or something - unless they are from a different country where that IS the accepted pronunciation. But if that's what people want to do, then so be it - just be prepared for a lifetime of people getting it wrong!

''Lucia - has about 4 different perfectly valid pronunciations that I can think of off the top of my head''

Really I can only imagine two!

Reminds me of the x factor thread where someone described 'Dagenham' as being pronounced ' Dah ger naaam'

LOL at "Her name is Madison but we pronounce it Kayleigh"!!!!!!

And Jme!!!!! WTF? Did they not want to waste vowels on the poor child?

I once met a woman at swimming with a dd she kept calling Mad-a-leen. I was a bit as I have a Madeleine myself and pronounce it, Mad-a-lin. Have heard Mad-a-line and even Mad-elaine before. But never leen. I asked how she spelled and it was the same as my dd, Madeleine.

Weirdo.

TheDevilWearsPrimark LOO-cha, LOO-sha, Loo-SEE-ah, Loot-SEE-ah, Loo-CHI-ah. Oh, that's five. I believe Italy, Spain, South America, the UK, Eastern Europe and Switzerland all have their favoured ways of saying it. As we live in none of those countries, we just picked the one we like best!

Errr - not that South America or Eastern Europe are countries...

Loo-CHI-ah and Loo-SEE-ah were what I thought hhee

I used to work with someone who had about four extraneous letters in her otherwise bog standard name.

I googled her recently because a thread like this reminded me of her and an article came up about some charity fundraiser she'd done which included an interview with her dad where he said she'd made the spelling up herself as a teenager and insisted on it being used from then on.

I suspect Jme has done the same (in reverse).

Can't tell you what the name is as according to Google she is indeed unik.

It's just ignorant, innit? Why some people think they need to inflict their own ignorance upon their children for life is a bit beyond me... I suppose it's because they are completely unaware of quite how ignorant they are .

PMSL at Jme. Names are so tricky, because those with an unusual spelling or pronunciation are so easy to get wrong, and then people get the hump about it. S'not our fault you have a daft name people!

I know that some people are using names from a different language or culture, but when it's deliberately done to be 'different', then people need a good talking to

Anyone see the Cat-ri-ona thread the other day? Ha ha ha! I was fuming: it's pronounced Katrina, end of story. But the mother calling her DD Cat-ri-ona claiming 'in parts of Scotland it's pronounced Cat-ri-ona'. How ignorant! She was clearly annoyed to have been corrected. Other posters were telling me 'But that's her name' like incorrect pronunciation creates a name!

Imagine not knowing how to pronounce your child's name! Creative pronunciation my ass! OP you are totally correct and thank you for bringing this up.

Vivia, you're wrong. Sorry.

In Scotland it's correctly pronounced Catree-oh-na.

I know because it was going to be my name but my mum didn't like the katreena pn and knew that's what I'd be called by most people (we lived in England).

Americans have ruined Caitlin.

I may have mentioned this before.

Vivia - Yes, I do remember the Catriona thread. Every Scottish Catriona I know pronounces it Cat-ree-na.

MamaLazarou - I remember a bust-up some time ago about whether it is ever correct to pronounce Caitlin as Cate-lynn or whether Cath-leen is the only acceptable pronunciation. I have always thought that the Cate-lynn pronunciation was an error - like pronouncing Siobhan as See-o-ban - but can you rule definitively on this for me?

I hate fanciful spellings and pronunciations - they remind me of Tom Lehrer's joke about Hen3ry, where the 3 is silent.

I knew someone called Tonée. That accent was just for show, it was pronounced Tony. She got arsey if you missed off the accent, though.

I went to school with a Cat-ri-ona. She was very scottish.

Her aside, badly pronounced names are just wrong. They don't make you look edgy, alternative or interesting. They make your parents look thick and everyone else feel a little bit sorry for you.