Naming a baby

Brie

tooldle said:

I think Radio 3 were likely correct in their pronunciation. The name is Gaetano and he is of Italian descent. 
Other European languages pronounce 'Guy' similarly, French for example is sounded as Gie

I get what you're saying @tooldle but having grown up over there he was always Guy (as in eye).  He and the Royal Canadians were the regular feature from some ballroom in New York City on New Year's Eve.

strawb_shortcake

My Husband and I really struggled to agree on first names for our children. We liked the traditional names in full but not the shortened versions, with my Husband coming from a rather large family trying to find a name not yet taken also made our decision making more difficult. 

I always loved the name Heidi but that was a firm no from the Husband. I've suggested it to my children as a potential name for future grandchildren and met 3 more firm no's! 

After the TV show Footballers Wive's I seem to remember that people were naming their Daughters Chardonnay but I've never met one - maybe they'll start to enter the job market shortly....

seven-day-weekend

Brie said:

Thinking of mispronunciation - I got quite incensed when listening to Radio 3 a month or so back and they played a piece by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.  And they pronounced his name as Gey (to rhyme with key) rather than Guy to rhyme with eye as in Guys and Dolls.  I really expected R3 to be a bit better about this but it's quite common they get it wrong.  I know a woman whose name is/was Jean which is a normal name for a woman in north America but because she was touring in Europe so often everyone started assuming she was male and pronounced it as if it was French for John (so rhyming with Sian).  In the end she went along with the French but changed the spelling to Jeanne so there was no confusion.  Annoying that she needed to do this.

If Guy Lombardo is French, Spanish or South American then Gey (to rhyme with ghee) is the correct pronunciation.

Brie

seven-day-weekend said:

If Guy Lombardo is French, Spanish or South American then Gey (to rhyme with ghee) is the correct pronunciation.

As before it's a case of yes, but no but.  His name was Guy to rhyme with eye.  Yes he was from an Italian immigrant family.  But having been born in London Ontario instead of somewhere in Italy his name would have been anglicised as was normal at that time.  He called himself Guy (as in eye) not with the European pronunciation.  And as others have said - he could have pronounced his name however he wanted.  It was his name!  If he wanted it pronounced as Bob then that's what should have happened!!

Spendless

annabanana82 said:

My Husband and I really struggled to agree on first names for our children. We liked the traditional names in full but not the shortened versions, with my Husband coming from a rather large family trying to find a name not yet taken also made our decision making more difficult. 

I always loved the name Heidi but that was a firm no from the Husband. I've suggested it to my children as a potential name for future grandchildren and met 3 more firm no's! 

After the TV show Footballers Wive's I seem to remember that people were naming their Daughters Chardonnay but I've never met one - maybe they'll start to enter the job market shortly....

That's what I mean about names becoming one in their own right. Heidi (lovely name btw) is originally a diminutive for (the German version of) Adelaide.

https://www.behindthename.com/name/heidi

Can't find who said it now but the comment about a relative having spelt their own name wrong. As explained earlier my son ended up being known by the shortened version of his long name. When he went to school and learnt to spell the long version, one evening he was telling me and he said it incorrectly with a different vowel in it, also an occasional different spelling.

Even at 4 he was so insistent he was correct that it put so much doubt in my mind that I checked his birth certificate, just in case I'd messed up. I hadn't. He still didn't believe me until we got to school and there was his name spelt out the way I said on a long piece of card for him to copy the letters from. .

Spendless

Brie said:

seven-day-weekend said:

If Guy Lombardo is French, Spanish or South American then Gey (to rhyme with ghee) is the correct pronunciation.

As before it's a case of yes, but no but.  His name was Guy to rhyme with eye.  Yes he was from an Italian immigrant family.  But having been born in London Ontario instead of somewhere in Italy his name would have been anglicised as was normal at that time.  He called himself Guy (as in eye) not with the European pronunciation.  And as others have said - he could have pronounced his name however he wanted.  It was his name!  If he wanted it pronounced as Bob then that's what should have happened!!

Where are you from Brie because you're generalising  (all of) Europe  with a pronunciation. I realise you might not mean it this way. Every Guy I've ever met (England) it has rhymed with eye. It might go somewhere to understanding the confusion from the radio presenter.

tooldle

Brie said:

tooldle said:

I think Radio 3 were likely correct in their pronunciation. The name is Gaetano and he is of Italian descent. 
Other European languages pronounce 'Guy' similarly, French for example is sounded as Gie

I get what you're saying @tooldle but having grown up over there he was always Guy (as in eye).  He and the Royal Canadians were the regular feature from some ballroom in New York City on New Year's Eve.

I understand, but it appears to be an ' English nickname' rather than the actual name. Similar to Chinese adopting an English name on arriving in UK. Times have moved on and the normal now is to use the given names, which the radio presenter did pronounce correctly as Gea (Geatono Alberto Lombardo). A tricky one.

tooldle

Heidi is an interesting one. I do know a Heidi of German descent. I also know a Heidi (sounded Hey di) of Welsh / Norwegian descent. 

Brie

@Spendless
I'm Canadian living in the south of England.  Yes generalising in the sense that I'm not including the UK in Europe which is, of course, incorrect.  

@tooldle
My point being that lots of us have nicknames and we can pronounce them however we want.  This guy (!) went with what was considered suitable in his time where he was r@tooldle

fyi - I spent about 6 months when I was maybe 10 wanting to be called Heidi as it was such a much more normal and therefore acceptable name than mine.  

tooldle

I have an uncommon name (8 letters) and little used in England. Although the sound at the end of my name is ‘en’ it is routinely pronounced ‘an’ by the masses. On moving to Wales I encountered many with the masculine version of the name, which unfortunately does end with an. Now, not only is my name mispronounced it is almost always spelt wrong.  I use a shorter version as most do at least get that right with the exception of those who somehow think I am saying ‘Liz’ . Sometimes I introduce myself with my full name and say, please call me xxx. Over the years I’ve been called all sorts including popular  names beginning with the same letter and, most amusingly on one occasion the name of a European city.


https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210108-the-signals-we-send-when-we-get-names-wrong