Couple horrified after realising they've been pronouncing son's name wrong for years
A woman was left in a tricky situation when she had to gently inform her cousin that he and his wife had been mispronouncing their son's name for four years.
When it comes to baby names, there's always the risk of someone mispronouncing it - even the most straightforward names can be interpreted differently. However, it's quite unusual for the parents themselves to get their child's name wrong. But this is exactly what happened to a couple, according to a story shared by a woman on Reddit.
The anonymous woman, who shared her tale in 2020, took to social media to recount the peculiar predicament she found herself in after pointing out that her relatives had been saying their son's name incorrectly all his life.
In her Reddit post, the woman explained that her aunt and uncle used to live in Ireland while she was growing up, but they relocated to England when her cousin turned 18 so he could go to university there. Now an adult with a family of his own, the cousin has a four year old son, reports the Mirror.
To honour his Irish heritage, he and his wife chose an Irish name for their child. However, they'd been pronouncing it phonetically for the little boy's entire life - and getting it completely wrong.
The woman didn't disclose the child's actual name in the post but provided a similar example to illustrate her point.
The woman shared her baffling encounter on Reddit, revealing: "Liam grew up in England, married an English girl, and had a son, who's four. For the sake of this post let's say they named him 'Oisin', which is an Irish name that is meant to be pronounced like 'oh sheen'."
"I am in England right now at university. I also have a son, who is three. Liam and I are within about an hour of each other and we had always meant to meet up. Liam suggested that yesterday, on Christmas, when he and his wife take Oisin to the park, that my son and I come and meet them."
"I had met Liam before when we were kids and teens (just a few times), but since Oisin was born we had only texted, so I had never heard Liam pronounce Oisin's name. We went to the park, we met up with them, and I said 'this must be Oisin'. Liam asked why I said it like that. I asked what he meant. He said it's pronounced like 'oi sin'. Like hoisin sauce without the h. I tried to move past it, introduced my son, sent the boys off to play."
She continued: "Liam's wife asked about my son's name (also very Irish) and I told her. Liam joked that with all I know about Irish names, it was shocking that I'd mispronounced his son's name so badly. I said something like 'I'm not the one mispronouncing it'."
The woman was labelled an "a**hole" by the family and urged to say sorry and confess she was mistaken about the name. Yet, she believes it's not her responsibility to correct them on their son's name.
"I said it's really not. They said they were in Ireland until they were 18, so there's no way they could be saying it wrong. During this conversation, I also got a message from Liam saying I'd really upset his wife because she's now convinced that they've been calling their son the wrong name his entire life and that she loved his name before she met me."
Hundreds have chimed in on the debate, with a wave of support for the woman's stance. One commenter pointed out: "Irish is an entirely separate language with completely different rules to English. I don't understand why that is so hard for people to grasp. If people are going to use our language and culture they could at least have the decency to learn how to say it."
One person commented: "I'm American and the number of people here who use alternative spellings and pronunciation is dizzying. I also agree that she was right to react that way at first meeting as long as she is respectfully going forward."
Another user chimed in: "It's not 'corrected' if you've never heard your name pronounced that way. It's what he's been called his entire life, that's all that matters in a name."
"However, OP is not the a**hole for correcting them when they tried to suggest she was pronouncing it wrong, she was willing to let it go until they insulted her. And now the cousin's wife is upset because she doesn't think her child's name is his name anymore? Get over yourself, your child's name is independent of your past. You've been calling him by his name his entire life."
