Aussie Woman Disappointed After People Can’t Pronounce Baby’s Name, Raoul, Correctly
Although many of us have had a good laugh making fun of the Australian accent on social media, more specifically, of the way they pronounce the word “no” as a prolongated “naaauuur”, one Aussie has shown that the down under way of saying certain things isn’t all the joy it is cut out to be.
Taking to her TikTok page, Hannah Sands went on a rant about her fellow Aussie being incapable of pronouncing her son’s name.
In a video that she posted, which has received 26,500 views, the musician said: “Some people don’t tell you when you become a parent how f***ing weird it is when you name your baby. Not like it’s not enough of a f**k around picking a name for your baby, but picking a name that no one can pronounce, it’s been a time. F**k me!”
Hannah Sands went on this rant about her fellow Aussies being incapable of pronouncing her son’s name
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
She continued: “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.”
The frustrated mom went on to explain that her partner is a Brazilian man named Paulo and that she has often witnessed his name being butchered by other Australian people.
Hannah and her Brazilian partner, Paulo, named their son Raoul
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
She said: “Everyone here calls him ‘Paul-o’, and it drives him crazy!”
Hannah further stated that when she and her partner were naming their newborn son, they suffered from the same treatment Paulo has had to endure.
“Everyone here calls him ‘Paul-o’, and it drives him crazy!” Hannah said about her partner
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
This undoubtedly added to the stress the couple had been subjected to already, as they had spent many days after birth in intensive care after their son was born prematurely.
Hannah recalled: “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.”
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
The mom explained that upon penning their son’s name down in Portuguese as Raul, a nurse said out loud “Oh, R, A, U, L, like Paul with an R? Raul?”
Hannah reestablished what had happened after: “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.”
She further stated: “When I tell you no one can pronounce our son’s name in Australia, like, what is wrong with people?”
The couple spent many days after birth in intensive care after their son was born prematurely
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
“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.”
Many people echoed Hannah’s frustrations in her TikTok’s comment section as a person wrote: “I have a very white name and in school the teachers would still get it wrong.”
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
Another person commented: “It is hard to pronounce names… even if you try. I’m Aussie and I barely say English names lmao.”
A separate individual chimed in: “People always pronounce my first and last name wrong. Like I have an Italian name but people can never pronounce it and idk why like it’s not hard.”
Hannah explained that upon penning their son’s name down in Portuguese as Raul, a nurse said out loud “Oh, R, A, U, L, like Paul with an R? Raul?”
Image credits: hannahsandsmusic
The Aussie woman revealed that not even her mother was able to get the pronunciation right
@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 ♬ original sound – Hannah⏳MAMA+RNB ARTIST🎙️
According to a paper published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, names are a reflection of identity and often have personal meaning.
Subsequently, the chronic mispronunciation of names can undermine one’s identity and be experienced as a microaggression.
Many people shared similar grievances
No - please don't post these tiktoks anymore. They are boring giant faces complaining. Please note the amount of downvotes on all these low-quality tiktok posts.
I heard someone call TikTok a disease, they were right. Enough of these!!
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Imagine that...People whose native language does not regularly expose them to certain phonetic sounds find it difficult to pronounce those phonetic sounds even when told how. Wow! Trying being an Asian person. They regularly have to give themselves English names because we butcher the phonetics of their real names.
When BT outsourced their call centers to India the Indian staff were told to pick English names for themselves and watched episodes of Eastenders to get used to UK slang and accents
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She gives her son a name that she knows people in the country she lives in have trouble pronouncing and then spends her time complaining about it. What did she think was going to happen?
It's HER child, so it's obvious that everyone should automatically know how to pronounce it.
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I'm a bilingual French speaker, I'm familiar with the name Raoul (spelled the French way) and if I ran into it spelled "Raul", I'd pronounce it like "Paul" initially as well. There are different ways to pronounce the same name, particularly depending on accents. I have a relatively common English name spelled using its most common spelling and English speakers still sometimes trip up on it. It will happen. If someone is asking how to pronounce it, that's not offensive. I'd rather someone ask than mess it up and be embarrassed.
I find this story pretty relatable, maybe that's just me....👀
In my case it's a little different in that most people pronounce my name the way this woman named her baby, but that's not my name. Growing up around white and Hispanic people, "Raoul" was more common and familiar than "Rahul". It was a lot easier to change how I said my name than it was to have that conversation with every person I met.
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I wonder how much she's exposed to other languages and accents to have the right to bash people who might not be familiar with Portuguese which is the pronunciation she seems to be aiming for. For example, between Spanish and Portuguese the same name can have completely different pronunciations (i.e. Jose), and that doesn't mean someone is pronouncing it wrong. I wonder how she would pronounce Mexican names and how offended I can be with her for that using her own standard.
Well considering Australians don't pronounce no as "naurr", she's already lying. Serious she's upset that a country that has barely any Portuguese or Brazilian-Portuguese people or influence can't pronounce her sons name? Honestly i've met two Raoul's, both spelt the French way. Do you know what is common in Australia? White trash bogans misspelling their kids names they plucked from another culture because they have delusions they're super cultured and classy. Side note congratulations to the rest of the world, it was a shock to learn Australia is the only country that can't pronounce every name, from every country, with every spelling in existence. /sar
Please do yourself and all of us a favour and name the next one Bruce or Sheila. :p
"I picked a foreign name that's very rare in my country" And you're surprised people get it wrong? As someone with a gaelic name: Jesus get over yourself. Also Paul-o is a super endearing Aussie slang for your husband's name. We do that to almost every name here.
How the Hell are those poor, maligned Aussies supposed to know it's pronounced, "the baby formerly going to be named Prince?"
I'd love to know where the idea we aussies pronounce "no" as an elongated "naaauuur" comes from, cos we don't bloody do that.
No - please don't post these tiktoks anymore. They are boring giant faces complaining. Please note the amount of downvotes on all these low-quality tiktok posts.
I heard someone call TikTok a disease, they were right. Enough of these!!
Load More Replies... Imagine that...People whose native language does not regularly expose them to certain phonetic sounds find it difficult to pronounce those phonetic sounds even when told how. Wow! Trying being an Asian person. They regularly have to give themselves English names because we butcher the phonetics of their real names.
When BT outsourced their call centers to India the Indian staff were told to pick English names for themselves and watched episodes of Eastenders to get used to UK slang and accents
Load More Replies... She gives her son a name that she knows people in the country she lives in have trouble pronouncing and then spends her time complaining about it. What did she think was going to happen?
It's HER child, so it's obvious that everyone should automatically know how to pronounce it.
Load More Replies... I'm a bilingual French speaker, I'm familiar with the name Raoul (spelled the French way) and if I ran into it spelled "Raul", I'd pronounce it like "Paul" initially as well. There are different ways to pronounce the same name, particularly depending on accents. I have a relatively common English name spelled using its most common spelling and English speakers still sometimes trip up on it. It will happen. If someone is asking how to pronounce it, that's not offensive. I'd rather someone ask than mess it up and be embarrassed.
I find this story pretty relatable, maybe that's just me....👀
In my case it's a little different in that most people pronounce my name the way this woman named her baby, but that's not my name. Growing up around white and Hispanic people, "Raoul" was more common and familiar than "Rahul". It was a lot easier to change how I said my name than it was to have that conversation with every person I met.
Load More Replies... I wonder how much she's exposed to other languages and accents to have the right to bash people who might not be familiar with Portuguese which is the pronunciation she seems to be aiming for. For example, between Spanish and Portuguese the same name can have completely different pronunciations (i.e. Jose), and that doesn't mean someone is pronouncing it wrong. I wonder how she would pronounce Mexican names and how offended I can be with her for that using her own standard.
Well considering Australians don't pronounce no as "naurr", she's already lying. Serious she's upset that a country that has barely any Portuguese or Brazilian-Portuguese people or influence can't pronounce her sons name? Honestly i've met two Raoul's, both spelt the French way. Do you know what is common in Australia? White trash bogans misspelling their kids names they plucked from another culture because they have delusions they're super cultured and classy. Side note congratulations to the rest of the world, it was a shock to learn Australia is the only country that can't pronounce every name, from every country, with every spelling in existence. /sar
Please do yourself and all of us a favour and name the next one Bruce or Sheila. :p
"I picked a foreign name that's very rare in my country" And you're surprised people get it wrong? As someone with a gaelic name: Jesus get over yourself. Also Paul-o is a super endearing Aussie slang for your husband's name. We do that to almost every name here.
How the Hell are those poor, maligned Aussies supposed to know it's pronounced, "the baby formerly going to be named Prince?"
I'd love to know where the idea we aussies pronounce "no" as an elongated "naaauuur" comes from, cos we don't bloody do that.
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