My name, Lois is not very common, but it’s not that unusual either; Lois was St Timothy’s grandmother, and considering how ubiquitous Timothy is it’s strange that his granny’s name didn’t catch on too. I’m not complaining, I like to be unusual – although I wasn’t so keen when I was young and had to continually spell it for people and pronounce it for them.
You would have thought that Lo-is, was easy… but it’s mistaken for other actual names, male and female:
- Louise
- Eloise
- Lucy
- Lewis
- Louis
- Lulu
- and even on one occasion, Laurence
As for spelling it, instead of taking the simplest four-letter spelling, I’ve had all sorts of offerings,as well as the above:
- Loeese
- Lorris
- Lios
- Loose/Lose
- Lowes/Lowis/Lows
- Lossie
So I have always tried my hardest with someone with an unusual name to say it as nearly correctly as I can – even if I have to ask them a couple of times, apologising for having such a poor ear. A difficulty comes when the name is written down, and may even be very familiar in the written form, but how do you say it? Where are the stresses, are there any hidden sounds, or sounds which disappear, or change from what you expect?
One of my son’s favourite names is Leonidas, most famously a Greek hero, born about 540BC and dying at around sixty in 480BC. I can’t recall ever having heard it spoken, but I’ve always pronounced it Layon-nid-as… My son insists it’s Leon-ide-ees…
I found this:
This man seems to say something like Leon-nithe-ass… and I’m sure he must be right!
Lois Elsden 