A woman has expressed her frustration at people who can’t spell or pronounce her Irish name correctly, as she said she’s even been called ‘Olaf’ in an email before
Having a name that’s difficult to spell or pronounce can make life harder.
If you’re a parent, you’ll know how important choosing the right baby name is. Many people spend hours thinking of the perfect moniker that they think people who meet their child will be able to pronounce easily and spell properly without the kid needing to repeat themselves.
While you might avoid “made-up” names for this reason, there are plenty of monikers from other languages or cultures that result in similar issues, especially if you grow up in or move to an area that is unfamiliar with your name. This is what has happened to one Irish woman who has found that people always struggle to spell her name properly.
Orlaith Mary shared a video on TikTok in which she shared several screenshots of emails she had received while at work, all of which featured a different spelling of her traditional Irish name. She overlaid the pictures with a soundbite of another woman declaring: “The spelling of my name is in my email.”
In the video, Orlaith’s name – which is pronounced “Or-la” – was spelt Olaith, Orlaigh, and even Olaf, despite the correct spelling being present in the email address that people had to type to get in touch with her.
Orlaith, 27, stated in the video’s caption that it’s “almost like [my name] is another language”. She also revealed that there is an alternative spelling of the name that has the same pronunciation but is even harder for people outside of Ireland to wrap their heads around – Órfhlaith.
No matter how the name is spelled, UK Baby Names states it is a girl’s name of Irish Gaelic origin that means “golden princess”, and lists it as the 509th most popular baby name in the UK in 2024. Data on the name’s popularity in Ireland is limited, but Rollercoaster claims it peaked at 22nd in 1980 and was “steady” throughout the 80s and 90s, but the name began to drop at the start of the 21st century.
Commenters on Orlaith’s video were quick to sympathise with the woman’s plight, with many of them sharing their own names that people never manage to spell correctly.
One person named Réiltín said: “Olaf had to have been intentional. feel your pain as another person who never gets their name spelt correctly.” While a woman named Amy declared: “A colleague who’s worked with me for more than five years managed to misspell Amy Jayne as Jayme. Jayme. TWICE.”
Someone else shared: “My name is Deirdre and I was once called Didier!” And a fourth person, named Cynthia, wrote: “If it makes you feel better, people misspelt my name so often my nickname from friends is Cyntina now. Even close family misspell my name when tagging me.”
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