It’s happening! Already. Oh my word.
People ask me what our new daughters name will be…
Me: “Haa-puh”
Them: (Looking at me as if we had just invented this seriously funky name.) “Who?”
Me: “HAA-PUH!”
Them: “How do you spell that?”
Me: “H.A.R.P.E.R”
Them: “Ohhhh, Harper!”
(For crying in a bucket…didn’t I just say that?)
Somehow, where I come from, the letter ‘r’ is pretty much non-existent. A word can begin with the ‘r’ sound. But if it ends in ‘er’ or ‘or’, we just forget that the ‘r’ was ever invented and make the ‘uh’ sound. If the ‘r’ is in the middle of the word–well, then we decide whether we feel like pronouncing it, or not. It’s hit and miss in the middle.
So, to me, Harp-er is Haa-puh!
Poor girl, just like everyone else, she is going to be so darn confused with her mother. The real problem is that when I do try and say the ‘er’ at the end of her name…it just sounds completely and utterly awful. Butchered, really. I just don’t even go there.
Aaahh, the joys.
