How can I teach Siri how to spell my child's name correctly in texts?
When I text my husband something like "I picked up Hailey from school and am on my way," Siri always misspells my daughter's name as Haley (with no "i"). I have an entry in my contact info identifying who my daughter is, but when I'm dictating a text or other message, that appears to be irrelevant.
I'd like to teach Siri that any time I refer to my child's name it should always be spelled a certain way. I feel foolish sending messages with my own child's name misspelled.
Siri isn't the brightest bulb in the box and she often misunderstands unusual words and names. Fortunately, you can teach her how to speak properly by adding phonetic pronunciations to your contacts.
How do you do this? Watch this video or follow these instructions:
- Open up your uniquely-named contact and tap the Edit button up top.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the contact page and find the area that says "Add New Field."
- From your options, choose "Phonetic First Name" (or "Phonetic Last Name," depending on which one is the problem).
- Enter in the phonetic version of the problematic name and tap Save. Now when you ask Siri to recognize or say a name, she'll get it right.
Source: Teach Siri to Correctly Recognize and Pronounce Names in Your Address Book
One possible solution, though it may backfire if you ever do want to spell Anne with the e…
Go to Settings > General > Keyboards > Shortcuts & add a new shortcut from the + key, top right.
Add -
Phrase Anne
Shortcut Ann
I haven't tested it for this particular instance, but it's worth a try.
My son's name is spelled Zach… and not Zack as Siri likes to do… here's how to fix it.
Open the contact for this person, press the Edit button, scroll to the bottom and press "+" next to Add Field, select Nickname. Here type in the spelling that you want Siri to use. Press the Done button and try Siri again.