I Know How to Pronounce My Name!

[Try to Fly]

Let me start off with saying that I have a rather unusual name for someone of my age and nationality. It is a biblical name, so it wasn't like my parents just threw something together. There was even a major celebrity with my name decades ago. Customers have told me that my name is really poplular in Asia and eastern Europe right now. I bet the majority of people anywhere have a relative with my name somewhere. I personally don't think my name is hard to pronouce, but I don't care when asked. It is only four letters long, yet I get called everything. There really is only one pronunciation for my name. Where is this rant going? Well lets see...

SC: How do you say your name?
ME:*says name*
SC: No, that can't be right!
ME: Erm, yes, it is.
SC: No, it's not!! It SHOULD be spelled like this *gives a horrible "new age"spelling of my name*
ME: No.
SC: *to SC's girlfriend/wife/whatever* She can't even say her name...
ME: Erm, my spelling and pronunciation is right.
SC:*huffs and gives nasty glare*

I know how to pronounce my name! I swear it is only people around my age that screw it up! Older people just say how great it is to see the name on someone so young!

What is wrong with people?

[smileyeagle1021]

I feel your pain... I get a slight variation... for me it's my last name though...

I've had this happen more times than I'd like

SC- and what was your last name again (note, I'll only answer that if I'm acting as the manager on duty)
me- it's (name that can be german or british depending on spelling... my family being of German decent uses the German spelling)
sc- and can you spell that please.
me- it's (spells it)
sc- that doesn't sound right...
me- that's because it's the german spelling.
sc- oh but it's a British name, so why would it have german spelling?
me- because it's a German name also.
sc- well I've never heard of it being German... I think you're mistaken.
me- you are free to think that, that is how my name is spelling though.
sc- *walks off mumbling about how I'm too dumb to even know my heritage*

eta- maybe in the future I should just use my mother's maiden name (the GM would still be able to figure out who it is) and it is one that is very distinctly Germanic and nothing else (even though interestingly enough my grandma was Scottish... oh what complicated webs we weave).

[TealJellyfish]

My first name is Roisean (I dont go by it) and its pronouced Ro-Shh-Anne

With that spelling it can be pronounced "Row-Sh-Awn" or "Row-Shh-En" or ya know quite a few otherways. Back when I used to go by my first name and had to wear a name tag the amount of people who would mangle it was amazing

My favourite people where the ones who would pronounce it one of the other 2 ways I mentioned and then when I would say "no I pronounce it this way" would get uppity and say I was pronoucing MY name wrong. Drove me insane!

[Bright_Star]

My name is a bit unusual cause it's not pronounced the way it looks. BUT I get people who pronounce it wrong & when I correct them then they act as if they bit into a lemon.

[PepperElf]

lol. i'm soooo use to that.
My first name is of Hebrew origin but it's still common... i do still spell it out when I'm giving my information to someone cos most of the time they use the "new" spelling (bleh!).

And my last name... I have a Polish last name so that stumps a LOT of people... the other day I had to muster and wait for my name to be called. The guy reading off the list just paused... and I said, "Here!"

I'm more astonished when people who don't know me pronounce it properly.

[tropicsgoddess]

My last name is long and Dutch. It's spelled with a K, but phonetically people think it's with a C. The amount of times I'd get people mispronouncing, misspelling it or both are just insane....or some that make a weak attempt or don't even bother attempting to pronounce it correctly at all. Hey, my last name is pronounced the same way it's spelled, how hard is that?!!!

[Chromatix]

A "linguist" who doesn't know either French or German? *Snort*

I'm not a linguist. But I *do* speak (a little) French, German, Finnish and even Italian. I can understand bits of languages similar to or derived from these languages (for example, Nordic languages and Estonian), and of course English. I can even pronounce Welsh placenames well enough to be glared at slightly less than the average English tourist.

So of course I can call BS.

[AriRashkae]

I grew up in a town that was (basically) half French and half Polish (we were the French, ), so I never have a problem pronouncing and spelling Polish names. In fact, one of my husband's co-workers also does our lawn, and before my husband could read off his last name so I could write the check, I had already finished it!

(The co-worker's nickname at work, from mangling his last name as bad as they could manage on purpose, is "rubbernutz" so you can imagine it's an fun one to try to spell from the sound )

[Samaliel]

I really can't fathom why anybody would assume that another person would mispronounce their own name... The very worst I could say, were I to encounter a person with a name I would pronounce differently, is "That's an interesting pronounciation of that name. I would have pronounced [that way]".

Also, regarding the Michael / Michel issue... Michael is not uncommon in France. We tend to pronounce it Mih-Kah-Elle, unless the person is obviously from an English speaking country. Then we would use the English pronounciation. Unless we intend to make fun of them. Like Michael Jackson.

[Phantomgrift]

My last name is a older English name of Lowther.
Proper pronunciation is Low-as-sounds-like-Cow and ther-as-sounds-like-lisping-her-or-sir.
Over the years I've gotten used to various mispronunciations.
Law-Ther
Luther
Low-as-in-LowDown-Ther
Etc.

The one that always got to me was at a Dr. appointment one day wherein the doc enters the waiting room and declares "Mr. Leather....... Is there a Mr. Leather here?"

How the bloody fuck did you get "leather" out of my last name!?

[Sparky]

George Carlin:

Your name can be spelled S*M*I*T*H and you can pronounce it Genofsky if you want to.

People are stupid. Even if your family is pronouncing their own name "wrong," it's right because it's their name and their choice of how to pronounce it.

[RebeccaOTool]

I get all kinds of trouble with my name. S-H-A-Y-N-A is pronounced phoenetically (SHAY-nuh), but I've gotten Shainia, Shawna, Shaniqua and many others. It's a hebrew name, so my Jewish friends get it right, but that's about it.

[Emrld]

for those of you with not so common today names
Does it bother you when someone sees your name tage and says something like "Please tell me how do you say your name" or "What an unusual name . . .please tell me how to say it" or "I don't like to use the wrong name . . .please tell me . . .how do you say your name"

I realize it might get old to hear those all the time . . .but does it truly bother you to be asked vs having someone insist on saying your name differently than you say it?

[McGoddess09]

My first name is spelled one way, but pronounced differently. It's spelled
A-N-D-R-E-A, but pronounced On-dree-uh.

Let's not even go there with my last name. I've been called:
Weigh
Wow
Waug
Waujj

Yeah...no. I eventually had to make a joke about how my last name is pronounced so people know. When I just tell them my last name, they don't remember. When I say "Just think of what a ninja would say when attacking." THEN they remember.

First name is Italian, middle name is French, last name is Irish (we believe it is anyway).

[Gerrinson]

Gah, stop complaining about your cool and unique names! I never have any of these problems with my boring name.

Except for people always trying to add a silent E to the end of my last name. Which makes the spelling incorrect for that form of precipitation...