And I can tell you of a girl I went to high school with whose name was Andrea, pronounced AHN-dray-a, as in (I believe) Italian or Spanish, not ANN-[rhymes with “tan”]-dree-a, which is the common American pronunciation. Virtually every day, she had to choose to either correct people (“No, it’s AHN-dray-ah”) and risk being taken as a tedious pretentious wanker, or NOT correct people, and suffer her name to be repeatedly mispronounced.
You can name your kid whatever you like, of course; but if you name him or her something that is likely to be mispronounced, then you can’t blame society for mispronuncing it. “Tiano” is such a name.
I think all these names are unusual
Sienna
Zara
Maya
Summer
Evie
Poppy
Charli.
But they are all in the top 100 names in Melbourne last year. That means my baby who also was born in 2007 will be at school with girls with these names.
So, I have to start thinking they are not unusual.
I do not think it is likely to be mispronounced. Tiano is a rare Italian surname. There are many Italian people in Melbourne.
Let me ask -does ‘nano’ rhyme with ‘piano’ ?
I had a pretty common maiden name. When I got married and took my husband’s name, I was introduced to the problems of unusual names. It is simple to spell, but how it looks and how it sounds are two completely different things.
I automatically spell it every damn time. And I can’t fault people for mispronouncing it-that’s exactly what it looks like. But it’s still a pain in the ass every single day.
It looks like piano, it’s going to be pronounced piano, no matter what you do or think.
A suggestion: How about writing the name down on a slip of paper and showing it to people you run into over the course of a day or two, and asking them how they’d pronounce it?
This should give you a good idea of how it appears to your fellow countrymen, and it should allow you to make a more informed decision than you’ll be likely to arrive at by polling us here in the U.S.
And there are many non-Italian people in Melbourne. So you might get a correct pronunciation from the rare Italians, but I’d be a little less certain of the rest of the citizenry.
As sometimes pronounced, sure it does. Some people pronounce it as three clear syllables – “pee-ann-oh” – and some people pronounce it as two less clear syllables – “pyan-oh.” And as used in common speech, everyone has the tendency to elide it, as they do most words: “I playda tune on th’ pyan-oh.”
You said you didn’t care if people liked it or not, which I can respect. But you also said you wanted rational objections to the name. Two rational objections are: (1) the name is likely to be mispronounced and (2) the kid may well be teased for the name, either as correctly pronounced or as (intentionally or unintentionally) mispronounced. You don’t have to agree with those points, but you’re not going to argue anyone out of them.
I go by my middle name. My middle name is Scout.
Teachers call me this, friends call me this, boyfriends call me this. No one ever forgets it. People like to say it. I’ve never heard of anyone else (beside’s Bruce & Demi’s kid) with it.
And for every one person that does the “why do people call you that when you have such a pretty first name?” there are 10 that say “how original! I love it! It’s from To Kill a Mockingbird, right?”
What’s my point, you may ask?
Sometimes unique names ain’t so bad. If nothing else they’re a conversation piece.
On the other hand, people rarely mispronounce it so maybe that’s a whole different issue that I don’t have to deal with.
I looked at “Tiano”, thought it was a masculine version of “Tiana” and assumed it was pronounced tee-AHN-oh (because I pronounced “Tiana” tee-AHN-ah). I didn’t even think of piano.
FTR, I like Christiano better than Tiano, and plain Christian better than either but it does depend on surname it is to be paired with. Christiano Ronaldo sounds right, Christiano Smith doesn’t.
The original Italian population of Melbourne is becoming thinner as they’re dying off. Most second (and third) generation wog kids are called Steve and Dave and Danno, not Tiano. Calling your kid Tiano, unless you have a direct ancestor with the same name, is wanky, presumptious, and likely to give the kid grief through their entire school life.
YMMV, of course, but you ARE asking for opinions, yes?
I was making a point about -that many people in Melbourne know how many Italian words are pronounced, not about what they call their kids.
Why do I have to have a direct ancestor with the same name?
So your kid is going to spend his entire life on Lygon Street talking only to the elderly? Have you ever considered he might find himself outside Melbourne one of these days?
Sydney is traditionally a city of Italian migrants too, but I might not hear an Italian accent for months at a time these days. Most of the Italian migrants are elderly or dead. Their kids speak with Australian accents, and their grandkids tend not to speak Italian at all.
Please don’t give this child this name. The name is for his enjoyment, not for yours. You’re doing it on a whim, and on a high regarding the birth of a new baby. But he will be the one, not only being teased at school, but having a lifetime of repeating himself to clerks, and correcting people at parties. Not fun.
Also it sounds very pretentious. What if he wants to become a brickie? Brickies ain’t called Tiano. What if he wins the meat tray at the pub and his name gets called out?
I would like to thank everyone for their views. The baby will be born in October. We still do not know whether it is a boy or a girl. My wife still has veto power. She asks me to come up with possible names- but she is the one who will choose. I am going to start another thread on girl names.
