A mum who gave her children "classic" names has shared her frustrations about people mispronouncing them. The unnamed parent said one of her daughters is regularly mistaken for a boy because of her name.
While many parents try to get creative with their children's names these days, one mum never thought the names she had given her daughters would cause any problems. But sharing her issue on parenting forum Mumsnet, the frustrated woman said people just can't seem to grasp the correct pronunciation of her daughters' names.
She had named her daughters Beatrix and Lois, saying they were "classic" names that would be easy to pronounce, with "minimal room for misinterpretation", the Mirror reports. But she soon came to realise not everyone found the names so easy to get right.
While the mum and her partner intended their children's names to be pronounced like 'bee-uh-trix' and 'lo-iss', others often call their daughters 'beet-rix' and 'Loyce'. She says she usually lets the Beatrix pronunciation go because it is "close enough" - but she cannot resist correcting her other daughter's name when people get it wrong.
She also shared how some people even assume that Lois is a boy because they mishear her name as 'Lewis'.
"Beatrix is sometimes also called 'Beatrice', which is an understandable mix-up that we did expect but is annoying when even family do it, and Lois is often misheard as 'Lewis' so that people assume she's a boy," the mum adds.
Her post prompted other parents to share the ways their children's names had been mispronounced. One replied: "I have an Emilia. Technically she should be em-ee-lee-ya but people often and usually say Amelia. But they're so closely sounding I really don't care."
Another said: "My daughter has mentioned that she occasionally gets 'Jean' from Leanne. Lee-anne...who would have guessed that one?"
A third added: "I have a Louis - as in French 'Lou ee'. A classic name but in UK he gets called Lou-IS. Drives me mad. Luckily we now live in a French-speaking country so everyone gets it! However, that brings new challenges with daughter's name!"
