A woman is seeking advice after she revealed to her cousin and his wife that they’ve been mispronouncing their son’s name all along. Posting to Reddit’s ‘Am I The A**hole’ forum, the anonymous poster explained that while her family is Irish, her aunt and uncle moved to England before having children. Although her cousin wanted to give his son an Irish name to honor his family’s heritage, he clearly didn’t know how to pronounce it.
In the post, the woman declined to provide the real names of her family members, but she used fake names in order to make her point. She explains that her cousin, who she called Liam, shares a 4-year-old son with his wife. “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,’” she explained.
AITA for telling my cousin and his wife that they were pronouncing their son's name wrong? from AmItheAsshole
Though she grew up in Ireland, the woman and her 3-year-old son are currently living in England where she attends college, so she made plans to meet up with her cousin and his family. This was the first time meeting in-person since they’d had their children. However, her cousin was taken aback when she said his son’s name for the first time. “Since Oisin was born we had only texted, so I had never heard Liam pronounce Oisin's name,” she explained. “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.”
That’s when she realized her cousin and his wife have been saying the name completely wrong. “They asked what I meant by that and I said it's an Irish name, it's pronounced ‘oh sheen’ and ‘oi sin’ is probably just a result of the Irish language tricking people,” she wrote in her post.
The rest of their visit went lovely, so the OP didn’t think anything was amiss when they parted ways. But that evening, she says she got a call from her cousin’s parents, her aunt and uncle, who said she was the one pronouncing their grandson’s name incorrectly. Evidently, her cousin Liam and his wife were also very upset by the realization they may mispronouncing the name.
Her family is demanding an apology. “All 3 of them (aunt, uncle, Liam) want me to fix this by telling Liam and his wife I was mistaken and apologise for questioning their pronunciation of their own son's name,” she explained, adding that she won’t apologize because she doesn’t believe she’s in the wrong. She ended her post by asking for the Internet’s advice.
Needless to say, opinions in the comments were divided. Some people argued that it’s up to the parents how to pronounce their child’s name, even if it differs from the norm. “When parents pick a pronunciation for their child's name, it's courteous to just roll with it, even when it's different from typical,” one person explained. Others, however, said that it’s important parents understand the correct pronunciation before choosing a baby name to avoid awkward situations like this one. “If you’re going to use a name from another culture then i agree they need to use it correctly,” one person said.
What do you think of this baby name drama, BabyGaga readers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Sources: Reddit, The Mirror,