'No-one can pronounce my baby's name - I even changed the spelling'

14 December 2023 , 15:15

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The mum had to change the spelling of her son's name to try and make it easier to pronounce (Image: TikTok)

A mum was so fed up with people not being able to pronounce her son's name that she decided to amend the spelling to try and make it easier.

Choosing a name for your newborn can be a tricky task, as some parents opt for something traditional while others tend to choose something a little more unusual. But one mum explained how no one could understand her son's name, influenced by her Brazilian partner.

Aussie mum Hannah Sands and her partner Paulo named their baby Raul in May 2022, but it seems as if fellow Australians can't grasp it.

It was just a few minutes after he was born people started to mispronounce it. Even though the couple thought they had chosen an easy enough moniker, it seemed as if they were wrong. "Some people don't tell you when you become a parent, how weird it is when you name your baby. Not that it's not enough of a mess around picking a name for your baby, but picking a name that no one can pronounce... it's been a TIME," Hannah explained in a recent video.

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She took to TikTok to explain why she changed the spelling of her son's name and admitted she regretted doing so. "Australians are so annoying with names that are the tiniest bit foreign," she added. As her husband is Brazilian, the couple didn't want their son to deal with the same struggles Paulo did.

"My husband's name is Paulo, it's not that hard. But everyone here calls him Paul-O and it drives him crazy." As soon as Raul was born, Hannah recalled: "Oh, like R-a-u-l, like Paul with an R. Roll." The couple then made the spelling a little easier phonetically and changed it to Raoul, but even that didn't help.

"When I tell you no one can pronounce our son's name in Australia like what is wrong with you people?" Hannah says. "Raoul.. RA-OOL. My own mother came to see us in the hospital and asked his name and I said 'Raul'. She goes 'Rorl. Rorl? There are moments where I'm just like, wow it would be easier if we chose one of the other names. But his name is Raoul."

The viral video has racked up nearly a million views, and many people took to the comments to share their own personal stories too. One mum chimed: "I have a daughter named Persephone and a doctor called out 'purse phone'," while another said: "People can hardly pronounce Beau, it's BO."

A third added: "My daughter's name is Mila (Me-lah) but everyone says Miller," and another TikToker shared: "My name is India, I always get Indiana & indi & even Indigo. It’s not even that people can’t pronounce my name, they just don’t want to say it."

Niamh Kirk