3 Baby Names Parents Should Never Use, According to a Speech Therapist

Yahoo

3 days ago

By the time you've ruled out exes' names, overused favorites, and anything that might invite playground teasing, the process of naming a baby can start to feel like a delicate balancing act.
Now, a speech therapist is bringing another consideration to the forefront: pronunciation.
Chloe Conrad, founder of Spunky Speech Therapy in San Diego, recently shared three names she knows she would leave off her baby name list.
'Rory, Rowan, Aurora,' she shared in a recent Instagram reel. 'They're so hard to say.'
The issue, Conrad, 30, explains in a phone interview with TODAY.com, involves what speech-language pathologists call facilitative context, the idea that certain vowel and consonant combinations can either support or hinder a child's ability to produce sounds, depending on how the tongue and lips are positioned.
Some pairings are particularly tricky. Take R and O, for example.
'Most young children substitute a W for a R, which is completely developmentally appropriate,' she says. 'That substitution usually starts to resolve around age six.'
But when R is followed by the vowel O — as in Rory, Rowan and Aurora — the articulation challenge increases.
'The W sound is made with rounded lips, and O is also a rounded vowel,' Conrad says. 'So when you put the two together, it becomes increasingly difficult for a young child to produce clearly.'
Conrad also cautions against the name Laurel, noting that it contains two of the most commonly mispronounced sounds in early speech development: L and R. Both are part of a typical pattern known as gliding, in which children replace L and R with a W sound.
'That's why leaf might come out as weaf, or run might be pronounced as wun,' Conrad says.
In addition, consonant clusters pose a particular challenge, according to Conrad. A name like Axl, with consonants grouped together without intervening vowels, demands precise and rapid coordination of the tongue, lips, and jaw — motor skills that children are still developing.
Conrad was inundated with comments, many from followers who said they had guessed some of the names.
"Said Rory in my head before you started talking," one person wrote.
Added another, "Thought Aurora before you said it!"
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
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