A few months ago, Laura wrote in to the blog asking if she should change the spelling of her baby daughter’s name, which is Lijsbeth, pronounced LEES-bet. People had trouble pronouncing it, and Laura was getting so tired of correcting everyone that she wondered if changing the spelling might help.

After giving the matter a lot of thought, Laura decided not to change the spelling after all. They live in an area where there are many children with unusual names, and she didn’t think Lijsbeth’s name would really stand out in their neighbourhood.

Laura also talked to family and friends about the issue, and most of them said they liked Lijsbeth’s name, and didn’t want the spelling changed. Since then, they are making more effort to pronounce Lijsbeth’s name correctly.

Laura would be happy to change the name or the spelling if Lijsbeth herself has problems with it in the future, but she is going to leave that decision up to her daughter.

I think Laura has made a very wise decision, and also did the right thing to communicate with others that it was bothering her. It’s a good reminder to us to always try a bit harder if a child we know has a difficult-to-pronounce name, because as you can see, it can really stress parents out when we keep getting it wrong.