A mum has been left mortified after spelling her daughter's name wrong on her birth certificate - claiming she has "screwed up" her entire future. She explained how she welcomed twin girls into the world four months ago - and wanted to give them unique names to make them stand out.
The woman, who lives in America, fell in love with French names and decided to call one of her daughters Margaux - but she wrote down Margeuax on her birth certificate. She said: "It's supposed to be pronounced Mar-go. However, my sister, who has a degree in French, and I missed something when spelling her name. The E causes the G to become a soft G, therefore instead of Mar-go, it's Mar-jo. We were thinking about how EAU (water) in French is pronounced, and didn't think about the E changing the G."
She went on to explain how she can legally change her daughter's name to the correct spelling - but doing so wouldn't change her birth certificate, just add a page to it.
"I can either legally change her name to Margaux, which will just apparently add a page to her birth certificate but not change it on the actual document, her social security card, or her insurance stuff, which is already a nightmare because she's a twin, or I leave it," she added on Reddit.
"There are some people spelt the incorrect way, but if she ever travels to anywhere that has French as a spoken language, or meets anyone fluent in French it'll be embarrassing.
"We do primarily call her Maggie, Margeaux is just her formal/full name."
The mum says she is still in two minds about making the change - not wanting to admit she made a mistake on such an important document.
She said: "I was unexpectedly induced due to high blood pressure so we thought we had it right - but it turns out we didn't and now I'm super embarrassed.
"I mean, people who don't speak French won't know, but we do.
"We also have announced her name to everyone so, of course, I'll have to deal with public humiliation if I change it. Unless people just forget how it's spelled because we call her Maggie enough? And I edit old Facebook posts with the new spelling?"
While most users tried to reassure the woman, others urged her to make the change and put it right otherwise "she'll forever be thinking about it".
One user said: "A little hassle now to save your daughter a lot of hassle later (correcting pronunciation, spelling, etc). Do it.
"As someone who has an unusual spelling name, please just go with the traditional 'Margot."
Another user added: "I know a Margeaux pronounced Mar-go, and nobody has any difficulty with it - this is in the midwest USA.
"I don't think it will be embarrassing if she travels to a French speaking country - they'll just call her Mar-jo.
"I don't think you messed up her name at all!"
A third user said: "I read the name as Mar-go, but I'm not French. If it bothers you that much, you should go ahead and change it. I also prefer your spelling rather than Margot.
"I wouldn't bother editing the old Facebook posts. Call her Maggie, don't make a big deal about it, and if someone asks, explain what happened but don't be too hard on yourself. It happens!"
One more user added: "I would change it and then sneakily go back to all of my posts that announced her name (you could search within posts in many cases) on social media and edit.
"It's basically a typo. Embarrassing yes, but many people also have misspelled names through life and they go unnoticed. I don't speak French and never would have known."
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