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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
James Roger & Sara Odeen-Isbister

Mum and dad have 11 children and they've named them using same four letters of alphabet

A Belgian family have named their 11 children using just four letters of the alphabet, all with different combinations.

Gwenny Blanckaert and Marino Vaneeno named their first child Alex, who is now 13, and their second, Axel, now 12, and used the same letters for the following nine children.

They are Xela, 11, Lexa, 10, Xael, 9, Xeal, 8, Exla , 5, Leax , 4, Xale , 2, Elax, 1, and six-month-old Alxe.

Gwenny, who admitted some teachers struggled with the names, explained: "We named our oldest son after Marino's stepfather because we thought it was a beautiful name.

"The name of our second son became Axel and after that we started thinking. We realised that they were the same letters, so we decided to continue like this."

The pair are not stopping at 11 children, and currently plan to have a twelfth.

Gwenny says people give the family funny looks when they're out and about (Facebook)

Gwenny told HLN. : "Right from the start we had set the bar at twelve. And we will stick to that. The day that we sit around the table with twelve children, our family is complete."

She added: "By the way, there are nine other letter combinations left with the A, X, E and L, so we still have more than enough choice!"

Gwenny said the family have to keep a "tight schedule" and she counts on her husband for support when he is not working nights.

Gwenny and Marino plan to have a 12th child (Facebook)

She admitted the family do sometimes get strange looks while out and about with strangers asking "if they're all our children".

The Belgian family have come competition when it comes to size though..

Sue and Noel Radford in the UK are parents to Chris, 33, Sophie, 28, Chloe, 26, Jack, 25, Daniel, 23, Luke, 21, Millie, 20, Katie, 19, James, 18, Ellie, 17, Aimee, 16, Josh, 15, Max, 13, Tillie, 12, Oscar, 10, Casper, nine, Hallie, seven, Phoebe, six, Archie, four, Bonnie, three, and Heidie, two.

Sadly, Alfie, the couple's 17th child, was stillborn on July 6, 2014.

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