Choosing a baby name isn’t always easy. For some parents, finding a name they love is a walk in the park, but for others, it can take months to settle on a moniker for their new arrival. Even those who are sure of the name they’ve chosen can start to have doubts once they start telling people the news – especially if other family members or friends aren’t keen.
In most cases, any criticism people have over your chosen baby name should go away once the child is born, as most people don’t want to mock a baby directly to their face. But one mum on social media has found that some members of her family seem to be getting her daughter’s name wrong on purpose.
The mum said she gave her three-month-old daughter a common name, but has found that she constantly has to correct her family when they say it out loud or spell it in text messages, even after being corrected multiple times.
In a post on Reddit, she revealed she named her baby girl Norah, and although she understands the more common spelling drops the ‘H’ at the end, she doesn’t think the name is that hard to get right.
She wrote: “My family cannot get my baby’s name right. Is the name that difficult, or are they just crazy?
“My three-month-old daughter is named Norah. Certain family members cannot get it right. Even my own dad (among others) will only spell it Nora, even after correcting him. What’s even more frustrating is that my grandma keeps calling her Noah, and even commented that ‘Noah is a boy’s name’. Well, a) I know girls named Noah, and b) her name isn’t Noah!”
The mum is convinced her family members must be getting the name wrong on purpose as they’ve all been corrected so many times. She doesn’t understand how one letter could be so “confusing”, but is now worried that her choice of baby name was more “out-there” than she first thought.
She added, “I feel like the H has just confused everybody, but it seems so normal to my husband and to me. [American singer] Norah Jones uses the H. Feels no different to me than Sara vs Sarah or Hanna vs Hannah.
“I know Nora is quite popular and a more common spelling, but is Norah honestly that out-there?”
Commenters on the post were equally baffled by the mum’s family, as many of them said that even if they’d never seen the name “Norah” before, they would assume it was pronounced in exactly the same way as “Nora” without the “H”.
One person said: “While the spelling Nora comes to my mind first, I still would pronounce Norah the same way and would know the name.”
Another added: “This is a them issue. Norah is a perfect name and spelling. And three months is beyond long enough to learn a two-syllable pronunciation, even if it was new to them.”
A third wrote: “Norah is the spelling I’ve seen more. But both Nora and Norah are common spellings. It really shouldn’t be breaking their brain so much.”
Others asked the mum if her family was being “passive-aggressive” about the name for some reason, and while the mum said she hopes that’s not the case, she wouldn’t rule it out.
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She added in the comments: “I hope it’s not a passive-aggressive thing, but it’s not out of the question. I think the ‘Nora’ spelling is more like a lack of care or attention to detail. I understand correcting someone once or twice, but after three months, it’s more frustrating.”