Ruined by your accent

What names do you love but not with your dialect?

[name_f]Clara[/name_f] and [name_u]George[/name_u] are some of my favorites when using my (not so convincing) vaguely British accent, but the rhotic R my native Midwestern dialect puts on both of them hurts my soul.

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Jasper for sure! I love it, but I really don’t like the way it sounds in an American accent. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Greta. I love the way [name_f]Greta[/name_f] Thunberg says it, but it sounds so bad in my accent.

Tatiana also.

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I love [name_f]Dottie[/name_f] and [name_f]Rorie[/name_f] in a British accent but they just don’t sound as good in an American one.

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I swear it’s that R

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Oh, there’s definitely a lot, I just can’t think of them atm! A lot of [name_u]French[/name_u] names, that’s for sure.

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I’m hesitant with names with ā€œtā€ in the middle, because they are changed to ā€œdā€ in my family’s accent, which works fine with some names but not others. (@choupette I actually became very conscious of my accent as a kid and ā€œcorrectedā€ this, and now my mother says I pronounce the ā€œtā€ in [name_f]Greta[/name_f] too harsh. :grin:)

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Calla. I really love it but I can’t make it sound good in my (vaguely) texas accent :confused:

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Colm! I think that [name_m]Colm[/name_m] said w/an Irish accent is the most beautiful boy name I’ve ever heard. I love it so much. I married into a big Irish American family w/an Irish ln, but we all have boring old midwest American accents. [name_m]Colm[/name_m] just doesn’t sound nearly as nice w/out the proper accent. :frowning_face:

Aine is another name that I’d have near the top of my list if it were only to be said by people w/Irish accents. But I don’t love it as much as [name_m]Colm[/name_m].

[name_f]Cosima[/name_f] - every time I say this name I try to say it in a British accent (COh-see-muh). I could see it being pronounced a few different ways here (cozy-muh, co-sim-uh, etc.) but they all feel so lackluster.

[name_f]Ottilie[/name_f] - With an American accent the Ts turn to Ds and the whole thing gets mangled.

[name_m]Soren[/name_m] - I love how this sounds when I’m not speaking [name_f]English[/name_f]. In the US the Ćø is completely lost (sounds like soaring).

[name_f]Aurora[/name_f] - the Rs almost hurt my mouth to say, feels like I’m slurring my words. I’m not sure another accent would help much though.

[name_m]Viggo[/name_m] - another that’s currently on my list. Sounds so strong when I’m not speaking [name_f]English[/name_f] (VEE-goh), feels like a Viking yelling it out over thrashing seas. But here the emphasis and trills are lost.

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Fergus :pleading_face: I want so badly for it to be Fair-Gue but not with an mid-western/almost Canadian accent lol.

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Basil

That’s a real one! [name_m]Baz[/name_m]-ill is nice but [name_u]Bay[/name_u]-sul is not.

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I have a hybrid accent (Icelandic/German/Kiwi)

I just can NOT pronounce [name_f]Aurora[/name_f]. It sounds GROSS. I can’t pronounce ā€˜R’ sounds when they’re repeated so close together like that.

I’m fine with some R sounds repeated. I can pronounce Briar, for example.

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Practically any name SJ Strum says in her lovely British accent sounds way better to how I (a Midwesterner) would say itšŸ˜‚

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Lucy. Which is my own name. [name_f]My[/name_f] parents have different accents to me…

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  • Chava
  • Anneke / [name_f]Annika[/name_f]
  • Sinead
  • Antoine
  • Astrid (I still love it and it isn’t fully ruined, but I prefer the AW-strid pronunciation which isn’t necessarily my accent)
  • Etienne
  • Vivienne
  • Madgalena
  • Chana / [name_f]Hana[/name_f] / [name_f]Hannah[/name_f]
  • Ana
  • Nicolette
  • Louis
  • RĆ©mi
  • Aleida
  • Teresa
  • MartĆ­n
  • Felipe
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This is such an interesting topic! I feel like there are so many names my hybrid accent probably mangles but the one that comes to mind first is [name_u]August[/name_u], which is such a shame because I love it so. In my accent and the areas where my family lives, there is no difference in sound between ā€˜au’ and ā€˜or’, they both just sound like ā€˜or’. This is not sooo awful in [name_u]August[/name_u] as ā€˜orr-gust’ (although I don’t love it), but when saying the otherwise adorable nn [name_m]Auggie[/name_m] … the first syllable pronounced as ā€˜or’ definitely makes it sound too similar to other things, in my opinion.

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Omigosh I had never made that link between [name_m]Auggie[/name_m] and something else very close. I also have an accent that doesn’t distinguish between au/or!

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Ah no, I’m sorry! :grimacing: I feel like it’s one of those things you can’t unsee/un-hear either

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