Mike
While many of us have indulged in some good-natured ribbing about the Australian accent, particularly the elongated “naaauuur” they use for the word “no,” one Australian has shed light on the less delightful side of their unique pronunciation.
Hannah Sands took to TikTok to express her frustration with her fellow Aussies’ struggle to pronounce her son’s name correctly. In a recent video the musician vented, saying,
“Some people don’t tell you when you become a parent how incredibly bizarre it is when you choose a name for your baby. It’s already enough of a challenge picking a name, but choosing one that no one can pronounce? It’s been quite an experience!”
“Australians are so annoying with names that are like, the tiniest bit foreign. Obviously, I haven’t had a problem with that – I’m a white woman in Australia called Hannah, like, it’s not an issue I have.”
“Everyone here calls him ‘Paul-o’, and it drives him crazy!”
“We had to write a little name tag for him for the side of his crib. We had a few names, and because my partner is Brazilian, we wanted a name that made sense in Portuguese. So, when we met him, he was such a little warrior, and we just felt like the name Raoul was the best fit.”
“So, we sat on it for like a day and we ended up changing the spelling, and R, A, O, U, L, is the French spelling because we were like, surely it’s more phonetic. When I tell you no one can pronounce our son’s name in Australia, like, what is wrong with people?”
“My own mother comes to see us in the hospital and asks his name and she goes ‘Raol’. There are moments when I’m just like, wow, it would be easier if we chose one of the other names.”
See the Tiktok here:
@hannahsandsmusic Surely other people have gone through the baby name regret but i NEVER hear anyone talk about it!! Naming humans is a wild time 🥵 #namingbabies #babynameregret #changingnames #misspronouncingnames
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