NOEL Gallagher’s daughter has admitted using a fake name at coffee shops as people struggle to pronounce hers.
Anaïs is the daughter of Noel and his ex-wife Meg Mathews, and explained in a TikTok video that the Oasis star named her after French author Anaïs Nin.
She shared the correct way to pronounce her moniker in the video, but admitted she often uses a fake one when she’s out as it’s easier.
“I feel as if I have to do this at least once a year and just remind people how you say my name, because my parents kind of went rogue with the whole pronunciation to spelling situation!” she began.
While her name should officially be pronounced An-ay-is, Noel and Meg decided to pronounce it Anay-us.
Anaïs said that she does answer to the traditional pronunciation of her name, as a lot of her teachers at school called her by that, and she has “kind of got used to it”.
And it’s got to the stage where it’s so “annoying” when people say her name wrong that she just doesn’t “correct” them anymore.
“If I go to any coffee shop, I just say like Emma or Molly because I hate the whole thing where I say Anaïs and then they go sorry what and then I have to spell it out and it just gets like embarrassing,” she continued.
“And it shouldn’t be embarrassing!
“We should be like proud of our names and where they come from.”
However, she does understand that people tend to invent a way to pronounce a name before hearing it for the first time.
“Like my boyfriend when we went on our first ever date we’d never met but we’d like texted for like a week or something.
“And when he sat down, literally the first thing I said to him before I said ‘Hi’ is ‘So how do you think you say my name?
“‘I know you’ve been saying it in your head for at least 10 days. So how have you been saying it?'”
He “obviously got it wrong”, as Anaïs laughed: “Thank God he liked me because I think otherwise he probably would have thought that was a bit harsh!”
People were quick to comment on the video, with one admitting: “i named my daughter after you 18 years ago and clearly had never heard it pronounced before i named her, so we call her ANAY!
“Shocked and alarmed that I’m finding out now I did it wrong!”
“My daughter is Anais (Anay),” another added.
YOU may think having a unique name helps you to stand out, but is it all it's cracked up to be?
Fabulous’ Deputy Editor Josie Griffiths reveals the turmoil she faced with her own name while growing up.
When I was a child, all I wanted was one of those personalised keyrings with my name on it.
But no joy, the closest I could find was Rosie, Joseph (not great for a little girl) and Joanne.
Josie is short for Josephine, which is a French name, and I managed to reach my 20s without ever meeting anyone who shared it.
When I try to introduce myself to people, I get all sorts of random things – like Tracey and Stacey – which can be pretty annoying.
Although I have come into contact with a couple of Josies over the last year – there seems to be a few of us around my age – it’s still a much rarer name than most of my friends have.
On the whole I don’t mind it, at least it’s not rude or crazily spelt.
And it means I can get away with ‘doing a Cheryl’ and just referring to myself as Josie.
I’m getting married this year and some friends are shocked that I’m changing my surname, as it’s not seen as very cool or feminist to do so these days, but I explain to them that I’m not that attached to Griffiths as I’d always just say ‘hi it’s Josie’ when ringing a mate up.
I think it’s nice to be unique and I’ll definitely try and replicate this when naming my own kids.
It’s the rude names you’ve got to watch out for, so after nine years as a lifestyle journalist I’ll definitely be avoiding those.
“Your name was first time I heard it years ago and I loved it. She’s 2.”
“Literally put my headphones on in labour to hear the answer to this,” a third commented.
“Always thought it was anai-eeeese!”
While others revealed their own struggles with people pronouncing their names wrong.
“My names Anwen and it’s really not that complicated but people struggle so much,” one sighed.
“So I use Annie all the time when I won’t see people again or whatever!”
“I named my daughter Elise which is french but everyone kept thinking it was Elsie so I changed the spelling to Elysse and no one says it or spells it correctly!” another added.
“Real, my name is Áine and my friends used to correct substitute teachers for me,” a third commented.
“I just answered to anything and say Anna at Starbucks!”
