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[Mrs Ms]

My mother gave me one spelling but wanted the pronunciation of a different spelling and neither were used in NZ, so I had to correct everyone until I moved to Germany. Then I only had to correct the last letter. My nickname is much more common for a different name, so people get that wrong too. Since I moved back to NZ, I have switched to the actual pronunciation of how my name is spelled and now people at least get it right if they read it. Still have to spell it most of the time. It has never bothered me.

One of my siblings has a SUPER uncommon name and as far as I know it has never bothered them.

The other has a common English name that is unheard of where we lived in Germany and while the name itself and always having to spell it didn’t bother them, they always got asked where the name came from and what it meant. That bothered them so much it drove them to switch to their common-in-Germany middle name. Which they used for years after moving abroad, but they switched back to their first name in NZ. 
 

My niblings  and kids have names that are pretty common, just not necessarily in the countries they live in 😂

[AussieKrissy]

4 hours ago, AprilQuilt said:

No! They are Greek names/words where an -oë ending is quite normal. The two dots above the 'e' indicate diaeresis - ie you're meant to to pronounce the two vowels separately like 'oh-ee' rather than say the sound they would make put together, in this case 'oh'. It used to be more standard in written English to include the diaeresis over the vowel, but less so these days so I can understand why people might mispronounce names like that if they'd never heard them spoken.

My daughter is Zoe, My friend had a Zoe a few months before me and put the dots in. Made me look up why she did as Zoe was top of my baby name list 

I didn't want the hassle of that but it does irk me that it looks like Zoe and Joe rhyme....

And when I address her as Zo its spelt Zo not Zoe lol 

I did like in Jane the VIrgin the Mum was Xiomara (??? sorry unsure of the spelling) but her nickname was Xo (as per subtitles) but pronounced Zo. I love that it looks like a kiss and a hug.

I took comfort in the fact that it is such a common name now people generally have no problem with it 

It super irked me that a Bates used my name 

[Travelfan]

The ladies I know are in their 70s/80s and I’m 45. Until about 20-25 years ago I had only heard those names as rhyming with Joe. When people started naming babies Zoe and Chloe with the ee sound it sounded very strange to me. I’ve gotten used to it but to me they still rhyme with Joe.  If you want Joe to be Joey you add an y, seems it should be the same for Zoe and Chloe.

I think there are lots of cases of people in the past not knowing how something they had only seen written was spelled. Bette Midler was named after Bette Davis. Her mother didn’t know Bette Davis’s name was pronounced Betty, she pronounced it as bet. 

[Keys]

On 1/28/2023 at 3:29 AM, medimus said:

 

That drives me nuts too (not for me, I don't have the problem, but my partner does). It's laziness on the part of whoever is running the site, other sites manage it no problem. 

Interestingly the apostrophe is not originally Irish, it's an aglicisation, the Os should have an accent on them called a fada like this Ó. Dara Ó Briain went from using an apostraphe back to the fada a few years ago, here's a funny clip all about it (in Irish and subtitled).

And this podcast is an interesting take on trying to get governments to accept diacritics in names (funny as well) https://headstuff.org/motherfocloir/129-quarantine-sessions-7-una-vs-the-kingdom-of-belgium/

 

This is very interesting - thanks for sharing!

[Cam]

11 hours ago, Travelfan said:

I think there are lots of cases of people in the past not knowing how something they had only seen written was spelled. Bette Midler was named after Bette Davis. Her mother didn’t know Bette Davis’s name was pronounced Betty, she pronounced it as bet. 

One of the most famous women in the world had her name mispronounced from when she was an infant. That is none other than Oprah. Her mother named her “Orpah” after a woman in the Bible (from the book of Ruth) but the family had never heard the name and started calling her “Oprah” and spelling it that way from the day she was born. Apparently, she is still Orpah on her birth certificate.

Back in the early 80s before anyone heard of Oprah, I bought my niece a few little kids books about Bible characters and one was the story of Naomi and Orpah. She loved those little books. So I knew of Orpah from the Bible, not many people have. (Those were the days when my sister and I were both big into the church.)

 

Edited January 30 by Cam

[Travelfan]

59 minutes ago, Cam said:

One of the most famous women in the world had her name mispronounced from when she was an infant. That is none other than Oprah. Her mother named her “Orpah” after a woman in the Bible (from the book of Ruth) but the family had never heard the name and started calling her “Oprah” and spelling it that way from the day she was born. Apparently, she is still Orpah on her birth certificate.

Back in the early 80s before anyone heard of Oprah, I bought my niece a few little kids books about Bible characters and one was the story of Naomi and Orpah. She loved those little books. So I knew of Orpah from the Bible, not many people have. (Those were the days when my sister and I were both big into the church.)

 

This brings up one of the more interesting things to me about naming kids after Bible characters…why do people choose the flawed “bad guys”? Not that Orpha was “bad” but she is the one who turned back while Ruth stayed and found favor with God. Why name your child after that one? I’m an atheist now but in my 20 years as a pastors wife I never understood naming your child Jonah, that guy never really redeemed himself, he was still angry and bitter towards God at the end.  

[Smee]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:35 PM, AussieKrissy said:

I did like in Jane the VIrgin the Mum was Xiomara (??? sorry unsure of the spelling) but her nickname was Xo (as per subtitles) but pronounced Zo. I love that it looks like a kiss and a hug. 

This reminds me, one name pronunciation that grates on me is “ecks-avier” for Xavier. I had never heard that until X-men, I knew a couple of Xavier’s and of course there were Catholic schools and leaders, so I had always assumed X-men did it to really draw out the whole “the name starts with an x!!” thing. But someone recently told me that pronunciation pre-dates the movies?

I don’t know, but in every other word starting with an x (xylophone, xenophobia, xenon) it’s pronounced with a z sound. In the past decade or so I’ve seen kids called Zavier and Exavier too, parents obviously wanting to signal their preferred pronunciation.

[MathQueen]

1 hour ago, Smee said:

This reminds me, one name pronunciation that grates on me is “ecks-avier” for Xavier. I had never heard that until X-men, I knew a couple of Xavier’s and of course there were Catholic schools and leaders, so I had always assumed X-men did it to really draw out the whole “the name starts with an x!!” thing. But someone recently told me that pronunciation pre-dates the movies?

I don’t know, but in every other word starting with an x (xylophone, xenophobia, xenon) it’s pronounced with a z sound. In the past decade or so I’ve seen kids called Zavier and Exavier too, parents obviously wanting to signal their preferred pronunciation.

Yes, Xavier with an X sound predates the X Men movies. If I remember correctly, there was a movie/TV star named Xavier Cugat when I was young. Same pronunciation. The reason why some X names have the soft Z sound is because they are followed by e, I, or y. It’s the same with most C and G words. 

[postscript]

7 hours ago, MathQueen said:

Yes, Xavier with an X sound predates the X Men movies. If I remember correctly, there was a movie/TV star named Xavier Cugat when I was young. Same pronunciation. The reason why some X names have the soft Z sound is because they are followed by e, I, or y. It’s the same with most C and G words. 

I was also going to mention Xavier Cugat! He was a popular bandleader in the 40s, and played himself in a lot of movies. He frequently conducted holding a Chihuahua in his free arm, and Charo was one of his wives. When he introduces himself, he pronounces it “Ex-avid.” 

[JDuggs]

There’s a St. Xavier U in Chicago that advertises through TV commercials a lot. I just listened to a couple on YouTube and they pronounced it “Zavier.” I think I would usually pronounce it “Egg zavier.” I’ve only met one person with the name Xavier, he’s probably in his 20s now. I only heard his name pronounced a couple of times so I don’t remember his preferred pronunciation. I think the problem stems from school names being shortened to St. X and then leaving the X sound in the full name.

[Melissa1977]

10 hours ago, Smee said:

This reminds me, one name pronunciation that grates on me is “ecks-avier” for Xavier. I had never heard that until X-men, I knew a couple of Xavier’s and of course there were Catholic schools and leaders, so I had always assumed X-men did it to really draw out the whole “the name starts with an x!!” thing. But someone recently told me that pronunciation pre-dates the movies?

I don’t know, but in every other word starting with an x (xylophone, xenophobia, xenon) it’s pronounced with a z sound. In the past decade or so I’ve seen kids called Zavier and Exavier too, parents obviously wanting to signal their preferred pronunciation.

Many Xaviers in Catalonia. It's pronounced Sha-vee-eh.

[OHFL2009]

I grew up in a city that has a Xavier University and a St. Xavier High School, and both were pronounced Zavier/Zayv-yer. If anyone ever said Ex-avier or Eggs-avier we knew they weren't local. 

[HereticHick]

5 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

Many Xaviers in Catalonia. It's pronounced Sha-vee-eh.

I've never heard Xaviers pronounced any way other that with a "Z" or with a "Ha" (in Spanish) or with a "Sha" in Catalan. I didn't know people pronounced it with an X.

There are multiple colleges and universities named Xavier in the US*, including Xavier in New Orleans, the only Catholic HBCU (Historically Black College or University). I have several colleagues who went to Xavier in New Orleans.

*Not surprising since the Jesuits are the largest Catholic order in the US

Edited February 2 by HereticHick

[nolongerIFBx]

On 1/20/2023 at 11:42 AM, Cam said:

One name that I can never understand how the spelling and pronunciation match up is Saoirse. Spoken as “Sur-shuh”.
A beautiful Irish name that means freedom, from what I gather.

Gaelic names are fun! We named one of our goat's kids all Gaelic names. We have Saoirse, Siobhan (Shuh von), Sinead (Shih nade), Ceilidh (Kale lee) and Cille Mheinidh (Kilmany).

[GutenbergGirl]

My great uncle's middle name was Alexander.  He pronounced it el-EGGS-an-der.  I learned to read very phonetically out of the Bible, so his pronunciation always confused me.  It probably didn't help that he was from the mountains of NC, so he had a very strong Appalachian accent.  He pronounced the river he was born near the nine-ee-HALE-ee.  It took me many years and Google maps to understand he really meant the Nantahala River!!  I was raised by him and my great aunt, so I, too, have a very strong Appalachian accent.  I live in the western US now, and people always comment on how much they love my accent.  (I don't hear it, myself!)

[monkeyrocks71]

On 2/2/2023 at 10:44 AM, Melissa1977 said:

Many Xaviers in Catalonia. It's pronounced Sha-vee-eh.

One of the exchange students we hosted was named "Xavier", nickname "Xavi"  I always pronounced it as somewhere between a "ch" and an "sh" at the beginning "Cshah-vee".  We're still in contact 25+ years later.  Also, a bunch of my Catalan friends had both a "Spanish" and "catalan" name.  Ex: My host brothers were both Julian and Julià, (Hoo-lee-ahn) and "Tjoo-lyah", as best as my English brain can figure it) and Sergio (Sare-hee-o) and Sergi (Sare-zjee).  I am guessing a bit of that depends on when you might have been born, as I'm in my mid-40s, so, my host family "siblings" were all born shortly after Franco died?

[Melissa1977]

23 hours ago, monkeyrocks71 said:

One of the exchange students we hosted was named "Xavier", nickname "Xavi"  I always pronounced it as somewhere between a "ch" and an "sh" at the beginning "Cshah-vee".  We're still in contact 25+ years later.  Also, a bunch of my Catalan friends had both a "Spanish" and "catalan" name.  Ex: My host brothers were both Julian and Julià, (Hoo-lee-ahn) and "Tjoo-lyah", as best as my English brain can figure it) and Sergio (Sare-hee-o) and Sergi (Sare-zjee).  I am guessing a bit of that depends on when you might have been born, as I'm in my mid-40s, so, my host family "siblings" were all born shortly after Franco died?

In my experience, people has a Catalan name or a Spanish name, not both. I'm 45. In the past people had a mandatory Spanish name in their ID card, but It stopped 40 years ago and everybody interested could change their name in the ID card (not the full name, just a translation of It, like Jordi-Jorge).

[indianabones]

On 1/29/2023 at 2:57 PM, ToriAmos said:

Wow. I have never heard those names pronounced that way (rhyming with toe). That messes with my mind a little. Was that the original pronunciation?

My mom was born in the 50's and is named Zoë. It wasn't until Sesame Street introduced a character with the same name that people regularly started knowing how to pronounce it correctly.

I don't think she even writes her name with the umlaut anymore, since it's become unnecessary in the United States these days...

[AussieKrissy]

On 2/11/2023 at 5:43 PM, indianabones said:

My mom was born in the 50's and is named Zoë. It wasn't until Sesame Street introduced a character with the same name that people regularly started knowing how to pronounce it correctly.

I don't think she even writes her name with the umlaut anymore, since it's become unnecessary in the United States these days...

It always saddens me that Zoe is not as popular as Abby cadabby. I managed to get one small and one medium soft toy of her for my Zoe. 

years before I had my daughter i did see a bed set on sale of Zoe. Zoe always being top of my list, I thought about grabbing it. Not wanting to jinx myself and aware of my hoarding and impulse buy tendencies I talked myself out of it. 
part of the reason I picked the name zoe was because it is common enough to have all the stickers and cups. I never had that as a child. 

[Expectopatronus]

On 2/2/2023 at 9:44 AM, Melissa1977 said:

Many Xaviers in Catalonia. It's pronounced Sha-vee-eh.

My uncle was an Xavier too but pronounced it Xava (long a) sound. Normal pronunciation for his northern Québec town. 

[Howl]

On 2/2/2023 at 4:49 PM, nolongerIFBx said:

Gaelic names are fun! We named one of our goat's kids all Gaelic names. We have Saoirse, Siobhan (Shuh von), Sinead (Shih nade), Ceilidh (Kale lee) and Cille Mheinidh (Kilmany).

I started watching the delightful British police procedural McDonald and Dodds.  I always watch these Brit Box shows with the captions on.  In one episode a group of Scottish women go on a hen party holiday in Bath.  One of the women was married to (to my American ears) Big Rudy, and their bairn  was Wee Rudy.  What caught my attention was the spelling in the caption: Ruairidh   I actually had to pause the show and look that up and yup, it's spelled Ruairidh and actually pronounced by the Scottish women Ru-deh. 

Edited yesterday at 12:06 AM by Howl

[HeartsAFundie]

Another Gaelic name I have seen before is Niamh.  Pronounced Neeve.  

[sixcatatty]

On 2/2/2023 at 5:49 PM, nolongerIFBx said:

Gaelic names are fun! We named one of our goat's kids all Gaelic names. We have Saoirse, Siobhan (Shuh von), Sinead (Shih nade), Ceilidh (Kale lee) and Cille Mheinidh (Kilmany).

Our cats are Sorsha and Seamus, Scots Gaelic for Claire and Jamie. Seamus is a gorgeous ginger (and knows it). Sorcha is a beautiful calico (and knows that also).

[JermajestyDuggar]

I know a Tadhg. It’s pronounced like Tie-g.