We need you to change – starting with updating your name dictionaries.

Spell-check spell-check. Correct autocorrect.

Our names are the most important words in our lives – part of our identity. But we have noticed that while all names are created equal, the technology that shapes our world does not treat them like that. Some are more equal than others.

Huge numbers of names popular in the UK are wrong, according to our devices’ English (UK) dictionaries. The names deemed wrong indicate that our devices don’t reflect a multi-cultural UK.

In fact, 41% of different names given to babies in England and Wales are ‘incorrect’, according to Microsoft’s English (UK) dictionary.

And guess what? They are disproportionately African and Asian in origin. Some are Eastern European. Some are Scottish, Welsh or Irish. This doesn’t reflect a diverse, inclusive society.

Esmae – all 398 of her born in England and Wales in 2021 – is wrong, apparently. Same for the 447 born in 2020, 501 born in 2019, 480 born in 2018 and 502 born in 2017. That’s 2,328 in the last five years. That’s compared to 36 instances of the name Nigel in that time.

Zarah, Priti, Matei, Rafe, Ayda, Ruaridh, Eesa and Otillie are all incorrect too.

Our children should not be othered by the technology that is integral to their lives. And it’s up to the arbiters of that technology to fix it.

It’s about time that our technology reflected the society in which it functions.

We have a spreadsheet of names you can upload. The Office of National Statistics releases one every year.

Yours,

I am not a typo