PICKING the perfect name for your little one isn’t always easy – you could go the classic and traditional route or mix things up with a more unique name.
Some parents even try and get the best of both works by taking a traditional name and switching up the spelling to make it stand out.
That’s exactly what happened to this woman, but she ended up hating it so much she changed it to something totally different at just 12-years-old.
She recently took to a popular Facebook group to rage about it, and it’s left people stunned.
“My legal name is Chivon. Pronounced like Shuh-Von,” she explained.
But the different spelling of the Irish name Siobhan, left people scratching their heads when trying to pronounce it for years.
“I have been called Chive, Chivin, Chicken, Shavonda and lots of other things,” she added.
In fact, she got so sick of no one ever being able to pronounce her name that she changed it to something she knew people would have no problem with,
“I changed my name to Hannah when I was 12 years old,” she admitted.
After sharing her name in the Facebook group people couldn’t understand why her parents changed the spelling.
“So your parents took a perfectly lovely Irish name and butchered the spelling…nice work,” one commented on the post.
“Why would your parents do that to Siobhan it’s such a lovely name! I hate anglicised versions of names,” a second agreed.
And someone else revealed they used to work with someone with the same name: “I used to work with someone named Chivon, he was also called chive all the time,” they said.
“Chivon is a pretty way of spelling Siobhan. But you’d really have to pick up on clues and be aware that Siobhan exists,” another mused.
But others thought the original spelling of the name isn’t so straight forward either.
“My name was Siobhan before I changed it to just Shiv. I was sick of correcting the spelling. One school newsletter I featured in even misspelled it as SHOEHORN?! I almost wish it was just spelled Shivon,” one said.
And another agreed: “It’s a nice name but I don’t like any version of it’s spelling. The original is obviously best, but not helpful phonetically for those who aren’t fluent in Irish names.
“Irish names outside of Ireland are always going to be problematic cause they’re pronounced completely different to what you’d think.”
But the name isn’t the only one that’s caused confusion on social media recently, one mum came under fire after her cousin revealed she named her twins after a character from Disney’s Tangled.
“My cousin has twin sons named Flynn and Ryder,” she wrote in the viral post.
At first, she confessed she thought it was simply a “funny coincidence” that her cousin had picked two names that are the same the lead from the 2011 Disney flick.
“She looked at me kind of ashamed and whispered ‘I just really like Tangled'”, the post continued.
In the film, Flynn Ryder is a good-hearted thief who goes on to capture the heart of Rapunzel.
After the post was shared on Facebook, many people had different opinions on the matter, with many stating that the mum went too far with the Disney-inspired names.
“She’s like a five-year-old playing dolls,” when commented.
And another had an even more harsh response: “She should have her tubes tied for this.”
Banned Names in the UK
The UK has no law restricting names, but names that contain obscenities, numerals, misleading titles, or are impossible to pronounce are likely to be rejected when registering a child.
- Hitler
- Monkey
- Cyanide
- Martian
- Akuma
- Chow Tow
- Rogue