Lettice/Letitia/Leticia

[Wlkwith]

Do you like Lettice (leh-teese)? DH has raised the concern that people may try to pronounce it like lettuce (which honestly doesn’t bother me much because people mispronounce a lot of simple names). Letitia and Leticia are also options for that reason.

The pronunciation of Lettice (if that name actually exists in French) would be Leh-teece not Leh-teese. Whether it exists or not it’s awful!

It’s pronounced like the end of Patricia, but with “Leh” at the start. Leh-tish-a. Or I suppose maybe Leh-teesh-a

Its not got tit in the middle when it’s spoken.

OP, what do you mean it doesn’t bother you that people might mispronounce Lettice? What about your child? Of course it would bother someone to constantly have their name pronounced lettuce!

My apologies. I also missed the d in pronounced.
luh-TISH-uh /lɪˈtɪʃ.i.ə/ How to pronounce Letitia in English

I know how to pronounce it? I’m not asking you to explain. I never was.

She would have to spend her life correcting people, probably several times a week. It’s not a nice enough name to warrant the constant pronunciation issue, in my opinion

Letitia makes me think of Sharon Mitchell

No, no, not Lettice (shudder)

I love Leticia, would personally prefer that spelling (having tit in the middle of your name won’t do your child any favours at school, I promise you). And whilst I like the sound of Lettice as you pronounce it, she will be nicknamed lettuce and have people pronounce it that way her who life both intentionally and unintentionally.

Letizia if you don’t want a “sh” sound?

Leticia is pretty. I’d avoid anything else…

Calling a child Lettice is just cruel. She will be ridiculed and teased for her entire life.

Posters on MN are often deliberately obtuse. It only takes a quick search to know that Lettice is a very old well-established name that has absolutely nothing to do with a certain vegetable. OP hasn’t created this name.

I do prefer Leticia, though.

I wouldn’t choose it but I am surprised at such a negative reaction to Lettice. It’s always seemed like a very posh name to me and they’re usually quite popular on here.

Fair enough I’m probably more into Tudor history than the average person but I’d have thought more people would be familiar with Lettice and how you pronounce it. It definitely doesn’t sound the same as lettuce in my accent at least. But given this response OP I’d probably go back to the drawing board.

No I think it’s a ridiculous name tbh

I was once a teacher at a school with a Letitia. No-one called her anything other than Letitia and certainly not with sniggers about 'tit'. Le-teesha as a pp said.

Lettice (Let-eece) is an old established name. DH has an aunt Lettice, known as Aunt Letty.

FWIW I find children are often more accepting of names than adults who snigger about this or that. Not always, but often. They accept names that adults find weird. DS1 (aged 16) has a Ptolemy and no-one blinks. DS2 has an Elmo and a Bear and no-one blinks.

Yep Lettice Knollys was my first thought - which isnt a bad association although perhaps one that's not terribly well known these days.

🥬

@AfternoonTeaAddict , it rhymes with Patricia not Aleesha.

Not the one I had in my class. It was Le-teesha.

Lettuce is nice; it’s exotic, like Rothmans or Gary.

In which one? I don’t remember that at all.

Are you sure?

There’s a Lettice in Agatha Christie’s “murder at the vicarage”. She got called Lettuce or Letty. In another of her books (a murder is announced), she’s got twins called Charlotta and Letisha, known as Lotty and Letty.

I do like the name Lettice. She’ll get called Lettuce, also Letty. Not sure if I’d be brave enough.

Exactly! I probably misjudged how many people would’ve heard of Lettice Knollys. And a quick check shows it’s hardly been used at all in recent years.

But it’s still not a made up name or calling your kid after a vegetable so the reaction to OP seems quite strong.

Unless you’re pronouncing the S as a Z, I’m not understanding how Leh-teece and Leh-teese would be pronounced differently. I think you’re both trying to convey the same pronunciation but written in different ways. It seems like it’s just semantics.

Not Lettice.

I think Lettice is one name that has to stay in the past, really. It belongs to a time when lettuce probably wasn't as common. Before supermarkets!