There are many things parents have to consider before naming their child. Does it work with their last name? Will they be teased for it? Will every second child in their class be called the same thing?
But do parents ever take a name’s pronunciation – or, more specifically, its potential mispronunciation – into account? Not always.
A speech therapist from San Diego, Chloe Conrad, has three names on her list of monikers she would never bestow upon any child of hers, and an Irish name is on it.
The three names on the firing line: Aurora, Rowan, and Rory.
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Now, Chloe was careful to say that she doesn’t hate the names; the issue with them, for her, is that they can be hard for English-speaking children to pronounce. And, in fairness, she’s not wrong.
She explained in her caption that while she actually loves the way they sound, as a speech and language professional, she knows that names that have ‘R’ and ‘O’ next to each other can be problematic for some kids, and she would struggle to teach a child to say them.
However, she acknowledges that she has a girl with the Irish name Rory in her life that she loves and "thankfully, she has been blessed with an emerging R and won’t need my support with that."
Chloe expanded on her reasoning with Today.com by explaining that some word pairings, like ‘R’ and ‘O’ are tricky for some kids to say, depending on the positioning of their tongues and lips.
She said, "Most young children substitute a ‘W’ for a ‘R,' which is completely developmentally appropriate." She added that the substitution usually begins to resolve at around the age of six.
According to Chloe, the problem with the names Rory, Rowan, and Aurora is that "the W sound is made with rounded lips, and O is also a rounded vowel. So when you put the two together, it becomes increasingly difficult for a young child to produce clearly."
While most commenters said they liked the names on the list, many supported Chloe’s statement, with a lot of them saying they guessed the names before she even said them. None of them mentioned that Rory is an Irish name, which goes to show how popular it has become – for both girls and boys.
One said, "I knew you were going to say my favorite name first so I stayed to watch hahahahah Rory."
Another remarked, "Aurora is such a tongue twister but I love that name."
And someone else said, "My son told me he sat next to a girl called Ribbon in class. I actually thought that was her name until years later realised it was Rowan."
The name Rory is an anglicised form of the Irish name Ruairí (or Ruaidhrí) and means "red king." The name Rowan can also be considered Irish; it has similar origins, deriving from the Irish word ‘ruadh’, meaning ‘red.’ The Irish version is Ruadhán.
Both are gorgeous, unisex names that are lovely for little ones, but admittedly, they’re not the easiest for everyone to pronounce (and I write that as the mother of a darling girl called Rowan!).
Do you agree with Chloe?
*This article was originally published on RollerCoaster.ie.
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