How a conversation about a child’s Irish name went awry

(WJW) — Names are beautiful. Names are unique. And names can apparently spark a somewhat heated conversation when emotions run high.

A woman who lives in the U.K. took to Reddit recently to describe an interaction she had with an American mother who said the woman “ruined” her daughter’s life after correcting the pronunciation of the child’s name.

The woman, who chose to remain anonymous in the post , said the child had stopped to admire her jacket which featured colorful artwork. During the conversation, the American mother mentioned that the child’s name was ‘Grain.’

“I assumed for a while that she was another mother who wanted something ‘special’ to call her child. I remarked that it was a unique name and that I’d never met anyone called Grain before,” the woman wrote.

The child said she was named after her great-grandmother, and that ‘Grain’ is an Irish name.

“At this point, the alarm bells are ringing in my head because I’ve realized that the kid is called Gráinne (generally pronounced as Gro-nyuh, or thereabouts.),” she writes. “I tried to be very tactful, and I was like, ‘Irish has such an interesting alphabet. How is her name spelled? Irish names can be tricky,'” she said. “The kid is called Gráinne. Not Grain.”

In an attempt to keep the conversation positive and save anyone from embarrassment, the poster said she told the American mom “an old-school name and a more modern pronunciation. I think that’s a great way to pick names.”

The child’s mom asked what she meant, and the woman responded, “Well in Ireland, they typically pronounce it like ‘Gro-nyuh,” the post said.

She said the mother’s face “went red” and she proceeded to scold her for saying the pronunciation was wrong in front the child. The mother said the child would grow up knowing that her name is wrong and she would feel bad about it, the poster explained.

“I apologized for causing offense and restated that it’s a lovely name in both ways and a fantastic nod to her heritage.”

But the American mother continued.

“She told me that I ‘ruined her daughter’s self-esteem’ and that her ‘life [was] ruined’ by me saying that ‘her existence is wrong,’ I didn’t say that, by the way. I said that her name was pronounced atypically.”

The poster, who said the child was about 2-years-old and seemed completely unbothered before the mother got angry, noted that she should have kept her mouth shut and “waited for somebody else in this city to say something.”

A majority of comments seemed to take the poster’s side, saying the mother shouldn’t have got as upset as she did. However, some did place blame on the poster, saying it wasn’t necessary to correct the pronunciation.

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